Buyer Preparation

We’re in a fast market where homes often list and sell in less than a week. Buyers that have done their homework and completed their prep steps are better able to compete and will face less stress. There is no substitution for solid buyer prep!

Define your top 3 priorities and your top 3 wants.

Buyers enter the market with a long list of wants, and as they search for homes, they often rearrange, reorder, or trash and completely redo that list multiple times. The better way to address needs and wants in this market is to simplify it by creating 2 short lists; your top 3 priorities and your top 3 wants. 

Start by narrowing your wish list down to 3 priorities, and number them in order of importance. These are the 3 things that you want most and the things that are least likely to become areas of compromise. They may center around the location, commute time, or access to specific amenities. They may involve the home size, lot size, or ability to create or convert space into an ADU. Your priorities will be unique to you, and they’ll help to focus your intentions and drive your decisions when decisions feel overwhelming. 

When your priorities are in line, create a second list of your top 3 wants. Organize those in order of importance as well. These are things that you can live without but you’d enjoy. They are areas of potential compromise, particularly if a property has all 3 of the top priorities, and they may help you decide between two or more similar properties. 

Interview and hire your agent. 

Ask. Research. Interview. Who you work with matters, so ask for personal recommendations, research recommended agents online, and call your top 2-3 prospects to schedule an interview. Need a place to start? Check out my blog with interview questions and information, The Agent Interview. 

An experienced professional will respect your plan to interview multiple agents and be happy to answer questions and provide information and references. Don’t allow anyone to push you into a commitment during your first meeting. Know that your chosen agent will request a professional commitment, and they’ll likely ask you to sign an agency agreement before you start touring homes. However, they should give you time and space to review documents and ask questions before formalizing your professional relationship. 

Interview agents early, and hire your agent at least 2-4 weeks before you are ready to start touring homes. They’ll have a new buyer process to walk you through, and you’ll have quite a bit to talk about and plan before you’ll be ready to make an offer on a house. Hiring your agent ahead of time will give you time to get to know each other and fully prepare. 

Get your financial ducks in a row and share relevant information.

Dig into your finances and get comfortable with your available funds, credit score, budget, and what your monthly budget equates in purchasing power. Apps like Mint offer great options for tracking your credit score, budget, and spending habits, and Bankrate has a great mortgage calculator that lets you plug in different purchase prices, interest rates, down payments, etc to give you a feel for the estimated monthly mortgage amount. There are plenty of other programs can help you gather information, learn, and explore.

Ask your agent to recommend lenders and reach out to a few lenders to explore financing and down payment options, estimate closing costs in your budget range, and learn about the documents and steps required for a loan pre-approval. Look closely at local lenders over national chains and banks since they have a better track record for open communication and on-time closings.

Get pre-approved with your chosen lender, and share your pertinent financial information. Your agent and lender should know how much money you have put aside for closing costs, fees, and a down payment. They also need to know your comfortable budget range and if you have wiggle room in your available funds or your overall budget. The type of account holding your available funds may impact your offer, so let your agent know if you’re holding your down payment in a regular bank account or a brokerage account. 

Review disclosures, offer documents, terms, and contingencies. 

Again, the market moves fast, so no buyer should take their first look at all of the offer documents, terms, contingencies, and their options when it’s time to write an offer. Review the common offer documents with your agent. They should be comfortable and adept at explaining the variable term and options, the trends that they currently see in the market, and the contingencies available to buyers. 

Know your options, and create your ideal offer. 

After your initial review of the common offer documents, you’ll want to revisit offer terms, contingencies, trends, and your options. Go through them one by one with your agent and discuss the pros and cons of each term. Weight them and determine where you feel that you can amicably compromise and where your hard lines are drawn in the sand. Then, work with your agent to create your idea offer (minus the house and the purchase price). You may be surprised by how much you can put together before you find a home. Trust me, finalizing and submitting an offer is stressful enough, so save yourself some stress and make the time to work through the prep steps.