With the Real Estate market offering thousands of homes for sale where do you start when seriously beginning the search for your next home? First you may want to consider writing a wish list. This would be the area of choice, the style home you like, bedrooms, baths, and any amenities you would like the home to offer. You may want to get ideas by previewing homes on online sites. This will help with deciding what style homes can be found in the areas you are most interested in. You may also want to compare prices of the neighborhood you have interest. Determining a price range will quickly help you weed through the possibilities. Your next step should be contacting a mortgage lender or completing a mortgage pre qualification online. A prequalification letter is standard when presenting an offer to a seller. Most sellers today will not even consider an offer without proof that you are a ready, Willing and Able buyer.
Next you need to determine if you are going to hire a traditional buyer agent to show you properties or if it is not wiser to use a Rebate Broker online that will create cash from the commissions at closing to assist you with closing costs or rate buydown. Both these type services can assist you with daily new listings reports of homes that may come on the market fitting your criteria. Yes one of these will drive you around and open the door and the other will not. One is a full service, fully compensated, agent where the other is a Buyer agent that allows you the compensation for doing the work. Much like a For Sale by Owner you are compensated by monetary savings by driving yourself around and showing the property to yourself. It won’t be hard to find a house with all the choices in this market but it may be a hard choice when trying to determine whether a large percentage of the buyer commission ends up in your pocket or someone elses.
