So, you've been pre-approved by your lender. You've chosen your REALTOR, and we've discussed what you are looking for in a home and come up with a list of properties. Now we should begin to tour homes in order to find the one that is right for you.
By touring homes you will begin to get a good sense of the local market -- or in other words what type of home is being offered for what money. You will also get a sense of what size of home seems about right for you. You'll likely begin to fine tune those needs and wants.
As we tour homes we will have a Sellers Disclosure on hand which offers lots of detailed information on the home provided by the Sellers, such as: do the major systems in the home (heating/plumbing, etc.) work, has the basement ever had evidence of water, does the roof leak, age of furnace, etc. We will be looking for positives in the home as well as negative factors.
When you finally narrow the field to a few homes that you might actually be interested in, then its time to find out even more about them. I will always check on the heating costs for the home - and if you want, other utilities. The heating bill tells you a lot about the home (windows and insulation and furnace for example). Most of the other utilities will be more dependant upon your own personal use. I also will help you to ESTIMATE what the property taxes will be once you own the home. You'll notice that we are rarely provided with current tax information. That is because the current owners taxes are rarely indicative of what YOUR taxes will be after you take ownership. I will look for the most current information we have from the local municipality: the local millage rate and the Assessed Value of the property, and we can get a good estimate of what you can expect.
While we are in the home its a good idea for us to think through what items we might want to write into an offer, such as: what personal property you want to ask for, what information you might make your offer contingent upon -- such as covenants, leases, road association info, etc.
Once you are satisfied that this is the home you want to make an offer on, then we are ready to go back to the office and do just that. We'll cover writing offers next week!
Lets go see some homes! ~ Liz
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