PREMIERE PLUS REALTY, CHRISTOPHER LADD HARKER LLC, REALTOR Office free 866-738-5517 Pay 239-455-1977 Free fax 941-375-3658                       CHRIS CELL 239-682-0182   BUYERS-ALMANAC                SELLERS-ALMANAC              MORTGAGE-ALMANAC

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WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW WHEN YOU BUY A HOME

FIND AGENT
Find a suitable real estate company and agent. When Chris moved to Naples he shopped for a Real Estate Company that he would want to buy a home from. That would be the company he could affiliate to.

He chose Premiere Plus because the people there were laid back, warm and friendly, and truly concerned to make you feel comfortable. Chris has been in the business since 1976 and could quickly spot people who were really professional and had plenty of KNOWLEDGE.

He saw that at Premiere Plus, the customer comes first, and they only pick agents who are really good ones. He liked their size. They were not too big or too small, but just right. Florida has firms with thousands of agents. Even here in SW Florida there are firms with many hundreds of agents. And there are firms with a dozen agents. Chris felt comfortable with a firm of a hundred or so agents. Enough to cover the area in a thorough and diverse way, but not so large that the agents and their customers felt and got lost.

Picking an agent to work for you as a customer is even more important. This is the gal or guy who you will be closely working with for a while. Choose one who has lots of KNOWLEDGE and who is willing to let you benefit from it by being AVAILABLE to you. Pick one who will provide you with FULL SERVICE and STICK by you for the whole process until your real estate needs are fully met. And by all means, pick someone you like. In other words do not use the agent who is mediocre, who you can never reach, who might give you some service and who disappears like a magician before you are done.

GET PRE-APPROVED
Real estate agents prefer to work with-qualified buyers. This will help you to know with some accuracy what your price range is AND the type of home and neighborhood you should search for. It will also help to start immediately making the financial planning needed to purchase. Pick a Mortgage Agent and begin making your loan happen, right up front.

When you locate homes you may want, you will have more negotiating power and an edge over other homebuyers who are not pre-qualified. The seller who is looking at your offer will feel more assured that in fact you are able to get the mortgage you need. You will feel more assured too, because you have been doing what the mortgage agent told you to do, to get ready for loan approval.

KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
Do not try to buy a home without knowing what you need and want in a home. The good agent will work carefully with you to make sure you are aware of what the choices are, and which neighborhoods and homes will want to check out.

Is your family growing? What are the schools like? Is the neighborhood suitable for them? How does your furniture work there? How long is your drive to work? How long will you live there? There is so much to consider, and a really good agent will help you to cover all the angles.

FIND MORTGAGE AGENT
Find a suitable mortgage company and loan agent. Just like you pick a real estate agent to sift through thousands of homes and to help you choose, you need to pick a mortgage agent who will sift through thousands of loan possibilities and will narrow them down to ones that meet your needs, and then will help you to choose from alternatives.

Select a mortgage company that has access to many, many loan sources and types. Use the same criteria you use for a real estate agent to pick a mortgage agent. Choose one who has lots of KNOWLEDGE and who is willing to let you benefit from it by being AVAILABLE to you. Pick one who will provide you with FULL SERVICE and STICK by you for the whole process until your mortgage needs are fully met. And by all means, pick someone you like.

Chris knows by much experience that the area where most home purchases have problems is in the mortgage process. This is truly a complicated process and you need to pick a good mortgage agent. Chris and Deane have made home purchases that did not seem possible to get mortgaged, with the help of good mortgage agents. Chris is biased but he truly believes that the best thing to do is get one person who is both your Real Estate Agent and your Mortgage Agent.

MAKE A SUITABLE OFFER
This is not only Price, but is also Down Payment, the Time Frame for closing title, and your Ability to Pay. The offer to purchase is the formal, legal contract form that is completed by the Real Estate Agent (using information provided by the Mortgage Agent). This document will be about 10 pages long and will be presented to the property Seller.

The Seller is basically saying here is how much money I want for the sales price. Here is how much earnest money down payment I want to protect my interest since I am taking my house off the market and turning away other buyers (likely forever). Here is when I want to close title on this home (for many reasons like I need to pay for another home by this date.) And last, I sure do hope this buyer can financially swing this offer they make to me.

When you make the contract offer, you are giving some firm answer to all of these. How you answer these is really, really important. You and your Real Estate Agent must give some thought here. This offer contract is what will be negotiated between your Agent and the Seller Agent. A good Real Estate agent prepares you to understand what to expect in the Contract phase of the purchase so you will not be doing this suddenly when you find the home you want. But these issues should be dealt with as early as possible, before the time to make an offer.

TIMING IS CRUCIAL
Home buying is sort of complicated, like juggling some apples, baseballs, and potatoes. This is one of the things that make it a time of anxiety for people. There is so much to coordinate, and so many people involved. If you already own a home, you may need to sell your current home to qualify for another one. You may find a buyer for your present home when you still have not found another home. You may find another home but the home owner can not move out until their brand new home is completed, and in the mean time you have a buyer for your present home who needs to move in right now.

There are movers, surveyors, inspectors, maybe repairmen, title attorneys, utilities, and many more to coordinate. When Chris and Deane moved from Daytona Florida to Naples Florida, they had to sell two homes in Daytona, buy a home in Naples, make a piggy back mortgage for the Naples home, get Deane operated on, arrange for movers from two locations in Daytona to one in Naples, arrange for three cars and a motor home to go from Daytona to Naples, arrange for five inspections, the survey, title insurance, signing home owners association papers, and a furniture layout plan for the Naples home, plus arrange for electricity, gas, water, trash, telephone, newspaper, cable and high speed computer, to be turned off at the two Daytona properties and turned on at the Naples home.

And if this sounds complicated, it was much, much more complicated than it sounds. A top notch Real Estate agent and Mortgage agent will do much to keep the timing for things, as on-track as possible. While the agent can not do everything, the good agent will assist you to keep everything moving along in a timely manner and try to make the whole endeavor a much less pressure-filled experience.

THANKS. Christopher Harker

YOU CAN'T MISS WITH DEANE and CHRIS

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