steps of the sale: Home Buying Step Five, Meet with your Agent - 02/21/10 03:29 PM
Home Buying Step Five, Meet with your Agent
If you've been following along you have seen the overview of Home Buying, 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer, so you have and idea where we are going.  You have completed Step One, met with a lender and been Pre-approved.  You have taken Step 2, and you have selected a highly competent agent.  You have decided on where, Step Three and followed a process in Step Four, Priorities, setting up your "must haves", "would like to have" and "would take if you could get it" priority list. 
Now you need to take all … (7 comments)

steps of the sale: Home Buying Step 4, What are your Specific Home Priorities? - 02/14/10 03:37 PM
Home Buying Step 4, What are your Specific Home Priorities?
Going through the process of deciding where to live, how much to spend and what amenities you want your next home to have is a series of compromises.  Compromises between people, spouses, children, work demands...compromises with your budget and compromises with your ideal list and what is actually available.  Another way to look at this is negotiating, not on the price but on all of the factors that bring us to the point of selecting a home and then negotiating a price. 
A method I've used with buyers is to … (3 comments)

steps of the sale: Home Buying Step 3, Location, Location, Location - 02/14/10 03:24 PM
Home Buying Step 3, Location, Location, Location
Another Real Estate cliché, this one is true on many levels.  Where you want to live is critical to you, your resale value, your long term satisfaction and the relative affordability. 
Granite counters and 5 piece master baths may be high on your desirability list, but the problem may be your budget.  I've recently been in beautiful new construction homes offering both of these for around $250,000 in the greater Seattle area.  I've also been in homes over $600,000 that didn't have them.  The difference is location.  Where you want to live? 
Generally the … (3 comments)

steps of the sale: Home Buying Step 2, Who Needs an Agent? - 02/13/10 01:06 PM
Home Buying Step 2, Who Needs an Agent?
This is Step 2 of Home Buying, 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer.
We live in a time where using an agent may seem less important than ever. The ability to search homes on line, ask questions on various online sites and do lots of independent research all make it seem as if an agent may not be necessary.  I will be honest, I felt this way too once. 
Before entering Real Estate as a profession I had been in other sales careers.  The agents we met early on in our home buying experience didn't … (3 comments)

steps of the sale: Home Buying Step 1, Pre-Qualifying or Pre-Approval - 02/13/10 12:53 PM
Home Shopping Step 1, Pre-Qualifying or Pre-Approval
This is Step 1 of, Home Buying 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer
Buying a home is easily the biggest purchase most will ever make, this is a tried and true cliché.  In reality, buying a home is a series of decisions with multiple purchases leading up to the biggest one.  (*) Solid, well informed choices along the way are critical to a successful, satisfying buying experience. 
An early decision is your loan.  In reality this decision may be a bigger one than the home purchase.  If you ever look at the disclosures provided in … (0 comments)

steps of the sale: Home Buying, 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer - 02/13/10 05:54 AM
Home Buying, 12 Steps and the Serenity Prayer
Did you ever find yourself in the middle of a mess and wonder, how did I get here?  Have you ever been given directions to go somewhere, you try to follow but still end up lost?  Have you ever had this experience with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line? 
Can you spell S-T-R-E-S-S? 
Stress is a killer both literally and figuratively.  Trying to make a home buying decision is stressful enough, but trying to do so when you don't understand the process, terminology or your qualifications is at least doubly stressful.  … (5 comments)