Ready To Buy Your First Home?Are you a first time home buyer ready to move in? If so, knowing how to picking the right real estate agent, what the current house market conditions are, what your credit rating is, and understanding the implications of what is likely the largest investment of your life can seem daunting. Before you pick a real estate agent to work with, consider who has your best interests in mind. Would you rather deal with someone who also represents the seller or would you be interested in working with an agent that represents buyers (you) exclusively? This isn't an easy question to answer - depending on your research, the listing agent or the selling agent is the right person. Don't be confused by the terminology - a selling agent represents the buyer while a listing agent represents the seller. If you are looking to purchase a home in the current town you are living in, then consider visiting the neighborhoods you are interested in living in. Note which real estate company or agent represents a significant portion of those homes. Find the real estate professional in that particular neighborhood that has the highest sales volume. Interview that person and find out what they can do to help you. Here's the important part, ask them to provide you the names and contact information for the last five people that they helped purchase a home for. Also, ask them to recommend another broker instead of themselves. Contact the previous clients and ask them what their experience was with that particular broker? Were they satisfied? Did the agent find them a number of homes to look at or did they suggest the majority of homes to look at? Was the agent available to show a house at any time? If not, did they have a real estate assistant or partner that could cover for them? Was the agent knowledgeable about the current market conditions? If the feedback you get back is positive, then consider going with this agent. This agent has the advantage of having a large inventory or homes available. If you decide against working with this real estate agent, then contact the other agents and go through the same interview process. Getting the right real estate broker that serves your needs will go a long way to making your first home buying experience a positive one. Seller's market or a buyer's market. Your real estate agent should be able to tell you what type of market you are in. If you are in a seller's market, then having your financing in line and being able to act decisively is important as hesitating can cost you an opportunity to buy the house of your dreams. If a buyer's market exists then you can expect that the seller's are very willing to negotiate everything; price, closing costs, fixing problems that a home inspection finds, and when closing occurs. Make sure you know your market. Your credit rating is important when you go to purchase your first home - any home for that matter. Knowing what you can afford and at what interest rate is required when you go to purchase a home. You don't want to make an offer, especially if you are putting up earnest money, on a home if you don't know exactly how much money you can borrow for a mortgage. Before you consider purchasing your first home, do a little "credit cleanup". Pay down outstanding credit card debt, check your credit report for any problems. Do what you can to improve your ability to handle mortgage payments. |
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