If you're looking to buy a home in 2009, what are the steps your Realtor should be taking to get you that dream home?
•1. You will need to be preapproved by a qualified lender (Bank or Mortgage institute). Make sure you have an updated letter that you can give to your Realtor. Your credit can change every 30 days and your loan officer needs to make sure that you still qualify, if you have been searching for a while.
•2. Find a Good Full-time Realtor. No offense to the part-timers out there (I was once one), but this game is for the pros. There are too many opportunities for buyers that can be missed if their part-time brother, mother or friend has to work their other job or has other commitments.
My staff and I work to provide the most professional home buying/selling experience for our clients. We have team of Realtors, Loan officers, title closers, and Real Estate Attorneys that do this every day and are the best at what they do. All of our team is trained to have email/text/web access on their phones so they can answer questions/ solve problems and get deals done from anywhere at any time. If you a getting a guaranteed deal by using a part-timer, then you're blessed. Otherwise find a Realtor that is good at what they do, since it will save you money.
•3. Clearly define what features you want in a home. Then make a list (price, location, size), ranking your criteria from most important to least. Unless you an unlimited budget, you will have to compromise on some of these. Make a copy and give this to your Realtor.
•4. This is the most important step. Have your Realtor search for the SOLD HOMES that you want to buy. Yes, you heard me correct, SOLD HOMES! The Banks are playing a new game and they are pricing homes a lot lower than what they are worth, which is causing a multiple offers and driving the home prices up.
This is causing a lot of frustration with buyers. They end up losing out on several homes. I have looked back on homes that I have lost on and found that my client was out bid by 50-100k and we offered above list price! On other homes we had offered more money, but the bank went with a cash or conventional offer instead of FHA.
I personally track all homes that I make offers on to learn where the market is going. This allows my clients and me to have a reality check to make sure that we are looking at homes that they can actually win at in the multiple offer situations. Today's market is not like any we have seen in the past. There are still a lot of foreclosures, but they sell within 3 days of being on the market. The bad ones will sit on the market for more than 30 days and you can make lower offers on those.
•5. Have your Realtor pull the active listings and email them to you. Don't fall in love with any of them since a lot of Bank-owned properties say Active(for sale), but are really sold pending inspection and the bank will not let the agent change the status to pending(sold and waiting to close). Your agent will find this out before showing you the property. Your Realtor should have an auto-email setup for you as a backup. They should be pulling hot sheets everyday and calling you if they find something. If they are not doing this, fire them.
Have fun shopping and email me if you have questions.
If your Realtor is not following these basic steps, then maybe it is time to call Dale?
Dale Frisch
Twin Cities Minnesota
612-715-6474
Dale@callRealtorDale.com WWW.CallRealtorDale.com
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