How to get the home with the furniture included
by Lisa Adams

So you like the dining room table in the house you want to buy, but your agent tells you it’s not included with the sale. What do you do? In short, you ask for it. Well, you negotiate it as part of your offer to purchase the home from the seller. To effectively get the home you want with the furniture included, you should identify in advance any furniture that you are interested in buying and let the seller (or your agent) know...
Read MoreHow much money will go into your pocket after your home is sold?
by Lisa Adams

It’s not what you make, it’s what you keep that matters. This holds especially true when it comes to the sale of your home. The sales price you see at the top of the closing paperwork is rarely, if ever, the amount of money that ends up in your pocket as the seller. There are often a variety of costs and fees associated with getting a home sold, so it’s important that you understand exactly what you’re going to walk away with before you...
Read MoreHow much should you offer on the home you fell in love with?
by Lisa Adams

You’ve spent the last few months looking for a home and now, the only thing that stands between you and having the right to negotiate full ownership of the home of you fell in love with is preparing an offer that will be acceptable to the seller. The purchase and sales agreement iis the first formal communication that leads to the final deal and eventually a closing when it’s time for you to take ownership of the property. The total agreement...
Read MoreHow to Find Bank Foreclosures and Distressed Sales
by Lisa Adams

Everyone wants a hot deal. For those who have the ability/desire to work with a home that is, in most cases, less than perfect, foreclosures and distressed sales represent some of the hottest deals out there If you want to locate distressed properties, the first thing you have to understand is that no one will usually advertise their home as a “distressed property” unless they are absolutely desperate to unload their home. Homeowners,...
Read MoreWhat happens when you overprice your home?
by Nate Johnston

When the real estate market favors sellers, it’s almost like there’s a feeding frenzy among buyers trying to secure listings that seem to get snapped up within hours of being put on the market. Such demand drives the prices of homes up rapidly, which only feeds into the perception that the good times will last forever. Unfortunately, trees don’t grow to the sky and there will always be a top of the market. What this means is that even...
Read MoreWhy Get Pre-approved? Structuring Your Offer to Get the Best Deal
by Nate Johnston

Buying a home is a dream come true, but the process of getting an offer prepared and accepted can be a nightmare if you don’t know what you’re doing. There are over 80 variables that need to be managed properly when buying a home and mishandling just one of them could cost you tens of thousands of dollars in unnecessary expenses. Making a home purchase is expensive enough that you don’t need to part ways with any more of your hard-earned...
Read MoreWhy You Should Have A Home Inspection Before You List
by Nate Johnston

One of the largest home sale killers is the home inspection. Nearly one-third of all terminated real estate contracts fell apart because of the inspection results. Inspections also ranked as the number three cause of delayed settlements, accounting for 13 percent. For some reason - and I’ll never get it - a home inspection that comes back with anything less than a perfect report strikes fear into the hearts of buyer agents and home...
Read MoreYour home is under contract, what’s next?
by Nate Johnston

Great news, you’ve put a home under contract and you’re excited to move in one day soon. There’s a lot that has to happen before you can take occupancy: home inspection, appraisal, financing paperwork, contingencies and other dates to be met. Here’s what you can expect to happen over the coming weeks. Due Diligence Now that the home is yours to negotiate exclusively with the seller, you have a due diligence period that allows you to...
Read MoreWhat will be your payment on your new home?
by Nate Johnston

Buying a new home can be overwhelming. Between understanding the financial aspects of your loan and all the paperwork required to buy your home, things can get a little crazy. One of the biggest parts of getting a new home is figuring out the terms and conditions of your mortgage. Two of the biggest areas that impact your loan are credit and your down payment. In this post, we’ll cover both and also explain how to determine the down payment on your new home. Understanding...
Read MoreHow to handle a multiple offer situation
by Nate Johnston

Over the last five years, properly priced homes have been fetching multiple offers on a consistent basis. It is, without a doubt, a seller’s market. But as exciting as having a bidding war on your property is, it can also provide for some confusion and even anxiety in figuring out what to do with all those offers. Your natural instinct might be to choose the one that lets walk away with the most amount of money, but there are many...
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