What Are the First Steps in the Home Buying Process?

Before you start house hunting, here are the two steps you need to take to start your home search off right.

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Selling a Northeast Metro-Atlanta home?  Home Price Evaluation

When it comes to the first steps in the home buying process, there are two things you need to do before you get in the car and start house hunting:

1. Hire a mortgage professional.
2. Hire a Realtor.

Why hire a mortgage professional first? You need to know how much it’s going to cost you to buy the house you’re interested in, and you need to know how much money you’re going to need to close on that house. 

A lot of people don’t understand the different lending programs that are available for purchasing homes. One of the biggest misconceptions floating around out there is that you have to have 20% down. That simply isn’t true. There are plenty of 100% financing options and 0% down programs available for you. Also, there are FHA programs that only require 3% down. 

If you don’t know any mortgage professionals you can trust, we have plenty of recommendations of people who have proven track records of success in this industry. 

After hiring a mortgage professional, the next step is hiring a Realtor. We can offer professional guidance that will shorten your search and find you the home you need quickly. In order to provide that professional guidance, we need to understand your family, what your needs are, what your goals are, and what your motivation is. Don’t just call a random agent’s number and meet them for the first time at a listing—hire a Realtor and let them give you an initial consultation to guide you through the process.  

After those two things are done, you can finally start house hunting! 

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The mortgage professional and the Realtor are the GPS of your home search.

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Think of this process as setting your GPS. When you’re on your way to a destination, you set the address and it tells you the steps you need to take to get there. The mortgage professional and the Realtor are the GPS to get you to the address of the home you want. 

If you have any questions or are thinking about buying a home, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help!

Why Should You List Your Home Early in 2017?

When do you need to list your home in order to take advantage of the 2017 spring real estate market? The sooner, the better!

Buying a Northeast Metro-Atlanta home? Get a full home search 

Selling a Northeast Metro-Atlanta home?  Home Price Evaluation

Why should you list your home early in 2017? 

Think of it this way: Black Friday has been starting earlier and earlier. Some stores are open on Thanksgiving, and some run Black Friday specials for an entire week. 

The same principle applies to our spring market. That old established deadline of May 1st has been creeping up and up until now; if you want to take advantage of the spring market, you have to get ready to list in January. 

The traditional mindset for the spring market was that you would list your home in the spring because that’s when the most buyers are looking. Now people are listing their homes earlier and earlier because there is still a lot of buyer demand during the first few months of the year as well. If you wait until May 1st, you will miss out on this great foot traffic. 

Let’s quickly revisit that Black Friday shopping concept. The stores that open up earlier do get more of the sales than stores that open later. Again, the same principle applies to the housing market. Many sellers choose to put their homes on the market early because buyer traffic is still strong and they can sell their homes faster and for more money. 

Buyer demand for your house has not significantly decreased throughout the holidays. Fewer homes are coming on the market right now, which means that you have a small window to take advantage of that strong demand before a ton of inventory floods the market. Less competition and high demand means that you can sell your home faster and for a higher price. 

As we mentioned last time, interest rates are going to climb. The earlier you get your home on the market, the earlier you can make your next purchase, and the lower your interest rate will be. The threat of rising interest rates will cause a lot of buyers to make a decision sooner than they usually would. 

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The sooner you list your home, the better your sale will be.

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Ultimately, our advice is to get your home on the market now. There is a lot of demand out there, which is quite an advantage for you. The new mantra for the spring market is, “The sooner you list your home, the better.” 

If you have any questions about selling your home or preparing it for the market, just give us a call. We would be happy to help you!

What’s Happening With Our Market?

We’re here in our brand new space bringing you our 2017 real estate market predictions.

Buying a Northeast Metro-Atlanta home? Get a full home search 

Selling a Northeast Metro-Atlanta home?  Home Price Evaluation

We’re here in our new location ready to share our 2017 market predictions. The three main topics we get asked about are rates, affordability, and availability, so we’ll cover those in detail today.

First, even though we have been predicting higher interest rates in the last few years, rates have stayed pretty low. However, it looks like that trend might be over. There won’t be a huge jump in rates, but there will be an increase over the course of 2017. Rates should stay below 5%, but make sure to watch them as they affect your affordability.

Appreciation is also a hot topic, as people want to know if the value of their homes is going to go up in 2017. In our area over the last few years, we have seen very aggressive appreciation. However, that has begun to slow a bit. Price increases are still great at 4% to 7% year over year, but keep in mind that appreciation won’t be as aggressive as it’s been in the past. Investing in real estate is still one of the best decisions you can make.

Finally, the subject of availability is brought up a lot these days, as we see a trend of low inventory nationwide. Availability is referred to in terms of months worth of inventory in the real estate market. Basically, if no more homes came on the market, availability is the
number of months it would take to sell all the homes currently on the market. Low inventory can generate frustrated buyers as there is less to choose from on the market. However, low inventory is also why we have seen more new construction, which should help offset the lack of resale homes on the market.

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2017 will be a great year to take advantage of our market.

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Whether you’re looking to buy for the first time, downsize, upgrade, or make a real estate investment, 2017 will be a great year to do all of those things.

If you have any questions, please feel free to give us a call or send us an email. We would be happy to help!