Advise For Buyers In Metro Seattle Area
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Learn about legal forms and basic knowledge
Have your real estate agent explain basic legal forms and the steps on home buying, such as title, escrow, escalation clause, inspection contingency… What you will need to get familiar with signing the offer.
For example, what are the pros and cons about pre-inspection and regular inspection?
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Figuring out how much home you could afford
Get pre-approved by a local recommended lender.
Not pre-qualified. Pre-qualified usually means the lender doesn’t fully run your records with an underwriter’s criteria. You don’t want to find out, after your offer gets accepted, that you don’t really qualify for a loan in the first place.
This means you will have to provide all the documents on your end, for the lender to do their job.
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Narrow down on the geographic area
Which neighborhood is right for you?
Figure out what your wants and needs are, and the corresponding neighborhoods. This process could take a while, if you’re new to the area.
Have your broker do a MLS home search for you. Visit listings, and get yourself familiar with each potential neighborhood.
We rely on greatschools.org to rate schools.
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Writing offers
In a competitive market, there are things we could do to make our offer more attractive.
Higher down payment, waiving certain contingencies, and learning about what potential terms that are attractive to the sellers.
They may be: fast close, rent back… Stalk the sellers online, and write a personal letter that might emotionally touch the sellers, could result in a winning offer, in a tie breaking scenario.
Homes in this region often go for above asking price. (sometimes for $150,000 over asking price or more)
Getting sold comps from your realtors, would help you determine how much homes will go for, in the neighborhoods you’re interested in.
A good buyer’s agent would touch bases with the listing agent, to make sure the buyers don’t miss out on any opportunity.
Sometimes sellers may accept early offers. You want to be given a chance to beat the early offer, if possible. This couldn’t be done without initiation of communication on buyer’s agent’s end.
Overall a listing agent would be more likely to pick an offer, which was presented by a more capable buyer’s agent.
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Prepare yourself for when the offers don’t get accepted.
Unfortunately, in our crazy market, it may take many offers to get your offer accepted. Don’t give up! Eventually you’ll get your home!
For more information:
Aaron Zeng 206 579 2807
aaronzeng@cbbain.com
