Step 3. Searching for Your home
Once we have had our consultation and you have
been pre-approved, it is time to start looking
your dream home. Hopefully, you will already
know many houses that you are eager to see because
they have been emailed to your inbox using our
free automated tool.
Please remember that we can show
you any house that is listed. Even if a house
is listed with another company, we can show it
to you and represent YOU in the transaction.
No longer do you need to call the listing agent
for each house that you want to see.
Finding The Right Home
We will help you determine
what to offer, once we find
just the right house, by doing a market analysis
for you. We will show you what other
homes have sold for and offer our advice in
this situation.
Remember, we work for you. We
want to make sure that you do not overpay for
the house. This is the one of the most important
parts of having an agent work for you.
When we write up the offer, we will talk you through all your options. We will present the pre-approval letter with the offer. You will need to sign an agency form at this point that lays out who works for you, and who works for the seller.
Knowing What You Are Buying
When the offer is accepted, we will discuss the
importance of inspections. Some options are to
analyze:
- the
well and septic systems (if applicable)
- the structure
and components of the house
We want to make sure that you are comfortable
in knowing what you are buying. You will receive
a written report that lays out any major concerns
if there are any. But we will be there to answer
any questions that you may have.
One of the benefits of having an inspection is that you are looking for major inhabitability issues (an issue that affects whether you can safely inhabit the house). Ideally there will be no major inhabitability issues, but that does not always happen.
If something is found by the inspector, you can then ask the
seller to fix that issue. In other words, you can negotiate
again on the terms of the contract. By asking the seller to
fix something, you are requesting new terms.
At this point,
the seller can do one of four things.
- They can decide to fix the issues that you are requesting.
- They can decide to fix only a portion of the issues that you are requesting.
- They can offer you a reduced purchase price, or a credit at the closing.
- They can decide not to fix the issues.
If they decide to fix all the issues that you are requesting, you are still bound by the contract.
If they decide not to fix anything, or only some things, it
is up to you whether to continue forward or to walk away from
the contract.
Please know that by opening a new negotiations
period, you are also opening the door for the
seller to walk away from the deal. In other words, there are
pros and cons to opening new negotiations after inspections.
You may have things repaired for you by the seller, but you
are also risking losing the contract. These are
all things that we are here to help guide you through. It is
vitally important to have an agent who understands your needs
and who can help explain the process to you.
Contingent Offer
Another tool you can use to purchase a home is a contingent offer. If you have a home that you currently live in, and you would like to purchase another home contingent on the sale of your home, you are welcome to do this.
By writing a contingent offer, you are saying to the seller
that you would like to buy their home with the clause that you
sell your home in a set number of days. If you do not sell your
home, then you are not required to purchase your new home.
If
the seller agrees to you contingent offer, however,
they will likely continue to market their property to seek a
non contingent offer to try to sell their home quicker. Depending
on how you write your contingent offer, if the seller receives
another offer that is non contingent, they will give you the
chance to remove the contingency or to walk away from the contract.
If you really want the house, you can try to
purchase it and remove the contingency by purchasing
without selling your current home. The negative side of doing
this is that you may have two mortgage payments until you sell
your house. There are, however, loan products that are designed
for this type of situation. Please ask your lender to explain
these programs.
Contingent offers can be a great way for you to move without the risk of owning two homes at the same time. Call us to learn more about writing offers and the inspection period.
To skip ahead or go back to a previous step, please use the links below:
Step 1. The Initial
Consultation | Step
2. Preapproval | Step
3. Searching for the Home
Step 4. Purchasing the
Home | Step 5.
Closing on the Home | Step
6. After the Closing
|
