Most people have the dream of homeownership and work many years to achieve that goal. In fact, for many, their homes are their nest eggs and part of their retirement plans. The housing market has been very active in recent years making it more competitive than ever to purchase a property because of the competition of other buyers looking for their dream home as well.
Being prepared is paramount to making your offer stand out to sellers to win the bid and get your new home. Being prepared to buy a home takes time and in many cases professional guidance to be successful.
Preparation
The preparation required to make your offer, still depends on how you plan to purchase the new property. If you are lucky enough that your able to pay cash for your home, then it makes things a lot easier. Just get proof of funds from your banking institution and fire your offer away!
For those people who need to get a mortgage to purchase their homes, will need to do a bit more legwork before making offers on homes for sale.
First off, its highly recommended that you contact a licensed mortgage broker, or bank, who can guide you through the home loan application process. It is robust and does require some knowledge to understand and properly execute.
Once you find the best mortgage broker to help you, its time to provide the necessary documents they will need to pre-approve you for a home loan.
Many people confuse a pre-qualification vs a pre-approval, but they are very different indeed.
To become preapproved, you will need to show proof of income, provide a credit report, and some other things that will help the financial institution decide how much home you can buy, along with the cost involved to you for the loan.
Once you are preapproved, your ready to make offers too.
How to Find the Perfect Property?
To find the perfect property in the area or community that you want to live in, its recommended that you consult a licensed Realtor, who can guide you through the best ways to secure your dream home.
If you would rather not hire a realtor, you can always look on popular homes for sale websites like Zillow, or Trulia, where you might be able to find the homes that fit your needs.
Make sure you research the neighborhoods, school districts, nearby shopping and dining choices, and anything else that might be important to you.
This way, when the home that looks good to you comes available, you can immediately look at the house and make an offer that sellers will take seriously, because you have done the proper preparation to buy your dream home today.
Should I Hire a realtor?
There are so many ways to buy a house these days, many people are asking the question do I really need to hire a realtor? This depends on what type of property you wish to purchase. But most importantly it depends on the type of housing market you are within.
A real estate agent should be knowledgeable about the local market, the selling prices for the homes within popular communities you like. Plus, they should be able to successfully negotiate the purchase of a property, with their buyer’s best interest at heart.
In sellers’ markets, where there is not much inventory whatsoever, a realtor can help you see the newest listings first, when they hit the open market, before everyone else.
If you can find the perfect home for sale and get it under contract because of your realtor’s hard work, then he, or she, was worth their weight in gold.
Conclusion
Being prepared to close on your property purchase, before you begin to look at houses for sale, may be the reason the seller chooses your offer above all the rest. It isn’t difficult to be prepared and is what you will need to have completed before you can close anyways.
The country is experiencing a strong housing market where homes are selling for the highest amounts in history. Making sure that all your ducks are in a row will ensure that you don’t get stuck in the endless cycle of making offers only to be rejected by the sellers. Don’t take it personally, just make your offers better than the competition, by being ready to pull the trigger at a moments notice. In hot housing markets that’s all you get in most cases.
