My New Blog

Start With Step 1

    I would like to start by saying how gratifying my new program to provide "Bank Owned Foreclosure Lists" for all the people that want them has been.  Many of you have been receiving them  and some of you have actually been out with me looking at some houses to consider as a purchase.  If you want the list, go to:
http://www.bankownedweekly.com/stgeorge

    This brings me to the reason for this post.  To begin, let's have a quick quiz, okay?

Q. What is the very first thing you should do before starting your home search?

A.  Get Pre-Approved for Financing! Or have all the cash you need already in the bank.

    But why do that first?  Why don't we just go out and look at homes we are "pretty sure" we can afford?  Well, I could give you some boring stories about how I have taken clients to see homes that they've fallen in love with, and then when they go to their lender for a loan on that wonderful home, they don't qualify.  But you don't really want to hear how disappointed they were when they had to "settle" for a home they could actually afford do you?

    You see, I don't want you to waste your time, your agent's time, and the seller's time by engaging in futile activities that have no chance of coming to a positive conclusion.  So let's begin with Step Number 1.  Would you book a hotel in New York City that goes for $300 a night and only take $250 to pay for it?  Of course not!  It's the same with looking for a house.  You need to know what your price range is before you begin the search.  Makes sense, right?

    Does it cost you anything to meet with a lender and get the process started?  Not usually.  A few of them may charge a small fee to run your credit report to get your FICO score, but most won't.  Many lenders can even take your application information over the phone, making it even easier.  They want your business when the time comes for you to get serious and buy a home, so they will do lots of things for you.

    Okay, now you've gone to your lender, gotten an very good idea of what price of home you can afford, and you have a printed "letter of pre-approval" in you hands.  Now you go to Step 2, looking for the home that is just right for you with your competent and helpful Realtor®.  To see the whole process of buying a home in a printable diagram, I've included a link that will show you how it all ties together.  I created this when I first started teaching our home buyers class a couple of years ago.  You can see it by Clicking Here.

    Because so many people are venturing in to new territory when they decide to buy a home, I thought this topic would be helpful.  Sometimes we agents forget that not everybody knows the things that we know about real estate.  I hope you find this helpful, and I will keep finding things to help you in your home quest and write about it here.

All my best,

Alan