Be Ready To Act
#1- Get Pre-approved or Pre-qualified
Let me tell you a true story that happened to me, Brian Habel. This was back when I was going to real estate school and my father was handing over his business, after being a real estate agent for 8 years. I was buying a house here in St. George and going to real estate school. I had talked to some mortgage people and just assumed that I could afford a certain price range. After looking for months, I realized, when it came down to it that I could not afford a house as expensive as what I had been looking at. Imagine my feeling. All that time, all those houses, all that energy- wasted. Not to mention my pride was wounded, “How could I be so egotistical, in thinking what I had thought, without checking in to what my financial situation was allowing me to do?”
So, when I encourage my people that they be pre-approved or pre-qualified, it is based off personal and professional experience. WE really do waste a lot of OUR precious time AND the precious time of others by not getting that pre-approval or pre-qualification process in place.
To see what the difference is between- Pre-approval vs. Pre-qualification.
PLUS, most sellers will insist on a pre-qualification or pre-approval letter from your mortgage/bank, showing you are a legitimate buyer. Sellers have realized that if they don’t do this, they will have taken their house off the market for up to two weeks (with no compensation) when the buyer backs out due to finding out they don’t have what it takes when it comes to financing. A simple phone call can get you Pre-Qualified. Follow this link to our Preferred Lenders to see what resources we have for you in place right now to get this SIMPLE step DONE.
#2- Be prepared with Earnest Money and Other Costs
Go to this link to understand the Difference Between Down Payment & Earnest Money.
Earnest Money
The standard earnest money payment is 1% of the purchase price. So, if it is a $250,000 house the earnest money down would be $2,500. If it is a $450,000 house the earnest money down would be $4,500. On something like that it would not be too uncommon to round down to $4000. So, 1% is an approximate number. Now, new construction can be a different story. It all depends on the market conditions and that particular builder, if more earnest money will be required and if that builder decides to make it non-refundable or not, up front.
Other Costs
A down payment is how much cash the buyer has to come up with in agreement with his Lender. Don’t forget the closing costs the buyer has to pay through Escrow and Mortgage services. This is a totally rough estimate, but expect $3,000 dollars plus for closing costs on your average $225,000 home. No realtor commissions are taken out from the buyer’s side, only when you sell a house. To see this relationship go here- Realtor Commissions.
#3- Property Search- Save Time, Be Educated
One of the best things you can do as a buyer is to get on to a good property search solution and get a feel for how fast houses “move”. This may require that the property search solution give you advanced tools, such as Automated Email Updates, the ability to save properties to a Favorites Property Notebook, and the ability to Save Searches.
The property search solution on this site has these options plus one more very important option that no other property search solution has- the ability to give you email update access to listings that are listed in chronological order. Our search solution ranks them by color, to keep you informed as to how long each property has been on the market. Then if you should go to your “Search Portfolio” and run your Saved Search you will be able to know how long a particular home has been on the market. Also, if you have a property in your Favorites Property Notebook and it has been a while since you have been able to recognize how long it has been on the market, then you will have a way to find out. For a shopping tutorial that will give you pictures of how these advanced tools work, go to: Property Search Tutorial OR Begin Searching Now.
