**SPONSORED CONTENT BY VALERIE HUNTER-KELLY**
We recently closed on the sale of our first home and found the experience to be somewhat unnerving. We liked our agent but weren’t sure the agent was prepared for some of the challenges we encountered. Now we are searching for our next home and want to be better prepared for the process. Is there some guideline we can consult to help us be better prepared?
Congratulations on the successful sale of your former home and on the ‘hunt’ for your next home? Here’s the Ten Commandments of Home Buying that might help you be prepared for the process that lies before you.
# 7 Communication is the Key
As I mentioned previously, buying a home is a process, not a transaction. The key to a successful transaction is communication. Your agent should ask how you like to kept abreast of the ongoing process of buying your home. Let them know how you want to receive your ‘progress reports’. Some folks only want to hear if there is news of importance, others want a daily update on every detail. Some want to talk on the phone, some want an email others are happy with a text once week. Discuss this with your agent so that the communication expectations are clear and you can rest in the knowledge that your agent is keeping you up to date on the progress toward closing.
#8 Know the REALTOR protocols
Your agent is a fiduciary and has certain legal roles and responsibilities toward his or her client, just as an attorney or financial advisor does toward his clients. A REALTOR cannot contact the other agent’s client without the agent’s knowledge and permission. Communication and negotiations on your behalf flow thru your agent to the opposing agent and ultimately to the other principal in the transaction. Your REALTORS job is to protect you and your interests, preserving your negotiating position in a transaction. It will always work to your advantage to respect your agent’s role and work with your agent to achieve a ‘win-win’ outcome that is mutually satisfying.
#9 Buy the house first, then the accessories
There are few things as exciting as buying and moving in to your new home. There are few things as fun as buying the perfect items to ‘accessorize’ your new home, be a lamp or a brand new car. DONT! Don’t spend any money until after the closing. Most every REALTOR I know can tell you ‘horror’ stories of buyers who have lost their dream home because the spent the money to buy everything from furniture to new cars before they closed and therefore obliterated their creditworthiness and could not get a loan to purchase the home they had fallen in love with.
Only spend money with the approval of your loan advisor. They can guide you on what you need to spend on…perhaps to pay off or pay down some debts, or not spend to conserve cash to meet the lenders underwriting guidelines. Once you have closed and funded and the home is yours, then you can spend and enjoy as you wish.
#10. Have Fun!
While finding and buying your next home can be stressful, it should be a fun experience. Find a REALTOR you like and trust and let them guide you through the process. That’s what they do for a living. They work hard to make it easy for you. Wear comfortable shoes. Be honest in your feedback. Share laughter. Find and buy the home you are ‘at home’ in, because you are going to be living in it for many years to come and creating wonderful memories while living there. And if your REALTOR did a great job for you, tell them ‘thank you’ and pay them the greatest compliment of all…refer them to your friends and colleagues who are thinking about buying a home.
Keep up with Valerie Hunter Kelly and the Air Assault Team on www.facebook.com/airassaultteam or our blog at www.clarksvillerealestatesearch.com .
Valerie Hunter-Kelly is team leader of the Air Assault Team, a part of Keller-Williams Realty.
To buy a home, click here: www.airassaults.com
To sell a home, click here: www.virginhomesellers.com