12 Questions About Senior Housing
8 Questions from Senior Buyers
How to Beat the Stress of Buying a Home
Things You Should Know About Moving
5 Steps to Your New Home
1. Choosing the Right Agent
Buying a home is a complex transaction. For many of us, it is the biggest investment of our lives. It can be a little scary without the guidance of a real estate professional. The Good Life Real Estate Team pride ourselves on being able to explain the process while keeping an eye on the details, reducing your stress and making the experience more fun! As your Buyer's Agent, we also ensure you are represented in all negotiations, just as the listing agent represents the seller.
How can a real estate agent help me?
Eight important questions to ask your agent
2. Planning for Home Ownership
One of the keys to making the home buying process easier and more understandable is planning. Many buyers just don't realize how much detail, paperwork, and commitment it takes to purchase a home. It is estimated that 40 or more people will be involved in your trek to home ownership. Many of them will make demands on your time, money, and patience. We will provide you with counseling to identify your needs and goals in developing a Purchase Strategy.
3. Getting Financing
Once you've done a little homework and prepared to take the next step, you will need to think about financing. Unless you are planning on paying cash, the loan process is crucial to your transaction. Our team can help you understand your options and find the right loan to meet your needs. Getting pre-approved will ensure you look for homes in the right price range, and improve your negotiating position when you find a home you want.
Deciding how much house you can afford
4. Finding a Home
Looking for a home may be more fun than airing your financial picture to the lender, but there is more to it than meets the eye. We research all of the homes available for sale that meet your needs, including those listed in the MLS and unlisted builders' new homes, FSBOs, and brokers' private listings. We will also help you find area information, community details, scholastic ratings, crime reports, and anything else you need to make an informed decision.
Opting for new home construction
5. Closing the Deal
Once we find a home you are interested in, we will provide you with additional property information. We will provide a Comparative Market Analysis to help you determine a fair price to offer. We will verify property disclosure information and check on any zoning issues pending for the neighborhood. We will look over neighborhood deed restrictions. We will make multiple visits to the property/neighborhood to look for hidden information like traffic flow, noxious odors, and loud noises. We will provide you with sources for additional information like environmental issues and registered sex offenders.
We will request a C.L.U.E. Personal Property Report from the homeowner to make sure there are no potential claim issues in insuring the home. We can also get a copy of your Homeowners Insurance Score so that you are better prepared to negotiate with your insurance provider.
The Good Life Real Estate Team will represent your interests throughout the negotiations. We will assist you in writing up all offers and counteroffers, and help you determine what contingencies to include. We will help you setup professional building and termite inspections, and any additional inspections necessary, and review the findings and remedies with you. We will provide you (and the seller) with Home Warranty options.
You will have 24x7 access to your transaction via our Online Transaction Management service providing you with the latest documents, messages, and status reports. We will closely monitor the closing process to make sure all inspections, appraisals, and other commitments are being met. We will work with your lender to ensure everything is proceeding smoothly and in a timely manner to meet the closing date. We will work with you to resolve any problems that popup prior to closing.
We will continue to work with you after closing to provide ongoing information about the market. And We'll be there when you're ready to move again.
Here are some additional resources for you:
Guide to Buying Your First Home
