10 STEPS FOR BUYING YOUR FIRST HARFORD COUNTY MARYLAND HOME!
- Contact the HARBEL HOUSING PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM! To register for one of their upcoming FREE Home Buyer Workshops, contact their office at 410-444-9152 and ask to speak with REGINA or SANDY and please be sure to tell them where you found their programs information and how you were referred to them.
- ATTEND A HOME BUYER WORKSHOP! Attend a FREE Home Buyer Workshop at one of their locations closest to you. Your workshop will focus on the following topics: credit, budgets, affordability, loan options, selection of a real estate agent, house hunting process, home inspections, settlement assistance programs, and more.
- SET UP A FREE COUNSELING SESSION! After your FREE Home Buyer Workshop, schedule your appointment for an individual counseling session with one of the housing counselors at the HARBEL HOUSING PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM. They will sit down with you one on one and answer any questions you may have and also make sure you are comfortable and ready to start the home finding process.
- GET PRE-APPROVED! Contact a lender and get a PRE-APPROVAL to purchase. If you don't have a lender, feel free to use my preferred lender that the majority of my Maryland First Time Home Buyers use, Jeff Judge with First Home Mortgage (just click on the link to go to his site and get his contact information)! First Home Mortgage is one of the approved local participating lenders with the HARBEL HOUSING PARTNERSHIP PROGRAM. For your convenience, Jeff also has a secure online loan application that you can fill out and send to him so he can get you PRE-APPROVED very quickly. And of course this is 100% FREE!
- CONTACT ME! Once you are pre-approved, CONTACT ME and we can set up an appointment to discuss where you are interested in living and what kind of a home you are interested in purchasing. And don't forget that prior to our appointment you can always start your search online with my FREE MLS SEARCH! My website shows you ALL of the active listings, as well as their addresses, no matter what broker they are listed with so you can be assured that you are not missing any homes that are available for purchase! All of the properties are downloaded from the same MLS database the agents use and are updated instantly when the agents update the listings information. Additionally, you can also set up a FREE INSTANT EMAIL NOTIFIER that will notify you as soon as properties come onto the market that meet your criteria. You will see them the same time that the agents do. All you have to do is enter in your criteria and the database will do the rest!
- START PREVIEWING HOMES! This is where the fun starts and we actually start making appointments and going out and looking at the homes that you are interested in seeing. I will take care of scheduling, coordinating times, and confirming all of the necessary appointments for ALL of the homes that you would like to go out and see. We can either drive together in my car or you can follow me in yours (whatever is easier for you)!
- WRITING AN OFFER TO PURCHASE! Once you find that special home then we need to put together an offer to present to the sellers and the sellers agent. Don't worry, I will help you write an offer to purchase it and also help you negotiate the BEST POSSIBLE DEAL FOR YOU! Many of my buyers wonder how they will know what to offer? Don't worry, I will complete a market analysis of the property that you are interested in and show you ALL of the activity that has happened in that area within the past several months to help you come up with a fair offering price!
- NEGOTIATING! This is the MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THE PROCESS and why you need to make sure that you choose the right agent to work with. In the current housing market, buyers definitely have the advantage and having an agent who is an EXCELLENT NEGOTIATOR can literally get you THOUSANDS of DOLLARS from the sellers (in 2007 I got 3 of my first time home buyers $10,000 each from the sellers through negotiating)! And the best part is that 99.99% of the time, the sellers are the ones who will pay for your agents commission! That's right, the sellers actually pay so you can hire someone to negotiate on your behalf. DO NOT BE FOOLED, if you call the agent who's name is on the sign, they work for the SELLER not you! It is their job to get their client (THE SELLER) the best deal that they can. They can help you write a contract, but are not putting your interests first since you are not their client(s)!
- THE HOME INSPECTION! This is another critical part of the process and is your opportunity to not only discover any potential problems that you may not have otherwise known about, but is also you opportunity to learn how to care for your new home! I have some great inspectors that I refer my clients to and they give ALL of my clients their own binder that contains excellent year round maintenance tips to prevent future problems that could cost lots of money. As one of them always says, you can either spend coins on prevention or you can spend bills on repairs!
- FINAL WALK THROUGH AND SETTLEMENT DAY! If you requested any type of repairs from your home inspection report, I recommend that you do a walk through of the property several days before settlement to make sure that they were completed to your satisfaction. This way, if they were not done correctly, there is still time to correct them before settlement. However, I still recommend doing a final walk through the day of settlement just to make sure the hot water heater didn't break or the house didn't burn down over night. Once you sign the papers, the house and everything in it is yours. There are many things that I have seen happen at the settlement table, but if you have the right agent and listen to their advice you can surely avoid most of them and have a SMOOTH and even ENJOYABLE settlement that may only take 20 minutes of your time (yes it really is possible and happens every day)!
BUYING SOON?
Are you searching for a new place to call home in MD, PA, VA, DC, or WVA? Then CLICK HERE FOR A FREE MLS SEARCH AND SEE ALL OF THE ACTIVE HOME LISTINGS! They are directly downloaded from the same MLS system the real estate agents use! This database will show you ALL of the property addresses and you will also be able to search for open houses! Additionally, if you are RELOCATING TO MARYLAND CLICK HERE for more resources.
GET NOTIFIED ABOUT NEW HOME LISTINGS INSTANTLY!
CLICK HERE TO SET UP YOUR OWN CUSTOMIZED FREE LISTINGS EMAIL NOTIFICATION! Here is your chance to be notified via email of all the new listings in your selected areas that meet your criteria, ABSOLUTELY FREE! Not only will you be notified by email of all the new listings that meet your criteria from my website, but I will also enter your property search criteria into the local MLS system so you will get to SEE ALL OF THE NEW LISTINGS THAT ALL OF THE AGENTS SEE as soon as they hit the market!
FOR MUCH MORE INFORMATION ABOUT REAL ESTATE IN MARYLAND VISIT WWW.ISELLMDHOMES.COM TODAY!
Michael D. Klijanowicz, Multi-Million Dollar REALTOR®
Long & Foster Perry Hall
(410) 529-1900 X 3158 Office
(410) 236-3331 Cell
http://www.isellmdhomes.com/
Serving Buyers & Sellers in the
Greater Baltimore & Harford County Metropolitan Areas
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