Buyer Information
Helpful Tips for Buying a Home
If you believe you’ll need to finance part or all of your next home, you need to find a lender to work with. Have your lender fill out a "Lender Status Report" or LSR. The Arizona Realtor Purchase Agreement requires a LSR to be submitted along with the offer. The LSR informs the seller that the buyer is pre-qualified for the loan amount needed to purchase the home. It also makes for a much stronger offer by letting the seller know you have already put effort into the "buying process". If you can afford a cash offer, this should yield you the most leverage for bargaining.
Interview a Realtor. A Realtor is a licensed real estate agent who has furthered their education in the real estate field above and beyond the minimum real estate class hours required by state law. A Realtor also has sworn to conform to a strict code of ethics. Have some questions written down to ask. What are some important questions you’d like your Realtor to answer? Are you satisfied with the way your questions are being answered? Using a Realtor who is a member of the Multiple Listing Service will also give you, as the buyer, a much greater selection of homes than any other single source. The end result is a larger selection of homes by sellers that are motivated to sell!
Prioritize your Needs. What is the most important thing you are looking for in your next home? Generally, the number of bedrooms is the easiest to figure out. The price range of the home often limits most buyers. Since the price of a home has to be under a certain amount, that will be a given. Deciding if the garage space is more important verses the living square footage, or a lake view more important than the age of the home or having a pool are all examples of things you might want to consider. The more wants and needs that you have will help in the "narrowing down" of the selection of homes. If you have too many needs, it may cut back your selection of homes to hardly any or none.
Let your Realtor Work for You! Let your Realtor help take the stress out of the buying process. Your Realtor will be the one looking for the right home to fit your needs. Your Realtor will be the one presenting your offer to the seller’s agent and be in the middle of the negotiating, working to get you the best deal. Use your Realtor’s expertise to help comfort you in the buying process. Your Realtor will be the one to guide you through the steps from the opening to the closing of escrow. In all, making an offer using a Realtor is a relatively easy process.
I always encourage my buyers to ask any questions that they may have, no matter how menial they may think their questions are. I feel my contact with a buyer is so important, I give out my e-mail address, cell phone and office numbers to all my buyers.
I look forward to doing business with you.