Buying a new home is both exciting and daunting. It’s probably the greatest investment you make in your life, so making the right choice is important. Working with an experienced a qualified real estate agent can help you find the right approach to your house hunt while offering some surprising ways to get an edge on finding your next new home.
Local schools, shopping centers, grocery stores, and community services can all impact the value of a home, regardless of whether you’re planning to use them. Choosing the right neighborhood can make a significant difference to your home value. The right neighborhood not only provides a good environment that you’ll enjoy living in, but also the conditions to help your home grow and retain its value. Take your time during an open house to scope out the neighborhood and your potential neighbors.
While you might be hoping to move into your new home in the short-term, it’s important to think long term when choosing your home. Are you planning to start or expand your family? Looking for a home suitable to convert for aging-in-place? Working with an experienced real estate agent can help you evaluate your potential new home from every angle, and project whether it’s the right choice for you now and in the future.
If you’ve found a home you love and want the seller to accept your offer, have your agent find out what the buyer needs to close the deal. Your agent can talk with your seller’s agents to get some ideas about what it will take to close the deal in your favor, whether it’s a longer closing window or the distribution of the closing costs.
When you choosing your real estate agent one of the pieces of information you should ask for is their sale-to-list-price ratio for the last few deals they’ve done. This can help you assess how much your agent’s clients have paid in comparison to the asking price of the properties.
Being pre-approved for a home loan allows you to go into the house hunting phase with greater confidence about what you can afford and what you’re looking for. It can be useful to look for homes that are just slightly under your pre-approval limit. This allows you extra wiggle room to cover some of the expenses that arise with homeownership, especially the costs you may need to pay to do minor fixes once you move in.
If you’re looking for a great value home purchase it might be worthwhile making unsolicited offers to get a better price. While this can be difficult in a seller’s market, if you have the time it may be worthwhile bookmarking listings for homes that you think are overpriced and then checking them again in a month. Your agent might also be able to help you find sellers who are keen to close a deal quickly before they’ve even listed their homes so you can get the first opportunity to make an offer.
The housing market can be tricky to navigate especially for a new homebuyer, but working with an experienced and trustworthy real estate agent can make all the difference to give you a better chance of finding your new home.
