Ready to buy a home, but not sure how to get started? We are about to walk you through the home buying process and hopefully clear up any uncertainty.  

Here's a quick look at the First Time Home Buyer steps:

1. Decide you are ready to stop renting.

2. Get Pre-Approved with a Lender or Bank.

3. Home Shopping.

4. Make an Offer & Negotiate.

5. Schedule Home Inspection & Appraisal. 

6. Pre-Closing: Confirm Repairs, Final Walkthrough, etc

7. Closing

Stop wasting money on rent.

If you are renting, then you are already paying a mortgage - just not your own. There’s no better time than now to start investing in your tomorrow. Mortgage payments are usually less than rent. Believe us, you can afford a mortgage payment if you are already responsible for making a rent payment. 

Ever wondered what constitutes a bedroom? The biggest misconception is that in order to be a bedroom, it has to have a closet.

A bedroom should have a closet, but this depends on if it’s common for the area. Before closets, people stored their clothes in armoires and dressers. According to ANSI (American National Standards Institute a bedroom is any room that you can fit a conventional bed into.  

In general, bedrooms should be at least 90 square feet in size and have at least one bedroom in the house 120 square feet in size. A bedroom ceiling needs to be at least 7 ft tall. It’s okay if some portions of the ceiling are below this level, but at least 5ft. tall on sloping ceilings & 50% of the ceiling needs to be a minimum of 7 ft in height. As most ceilings tend to be at least 8 ft tall, ceiling height is usually not an issue.

But when are they not?

NAR (National Association of Realtors) is like the Realtor Bible. Their website is chock full of market updates, quarterly surveys, statistics, infographs, are we boring you yet? If you have any interest in the ever-changing trends of real estate, it's a great tool!

" The Housing Opportunities and Market Experience (HOME) report was created to monitor consumer 
sentiment about the housing market. This report covers core topics that will be tracked on a monthly
 basis, such as views on if now is a good time to buy or sell a home, the perception of home price 
changes, perceived ability to qualify for a mortgage, and the outlook on the U.S. economy. " - NAR 2019

The most interesting part of NAR's most recent HOME Survey was the data collected nationwide on home prices over the past year. 

People all across the country were asked to analyze their community's house pricing. Sixty-seven percent of people believe that prices have gone up within their communities in the last 12 months, which is an increase from NAR's second quarter report of 2019 at 63 percent. Twenty-seven percent believe prices have stayed the same and six percent believe prices have gone down.

For sale by owner (FSBO) is not a wise idea and I'm going to tell you why! According to the National Association of Realtors (NAR), houses listed with a Realtor average 11% more and 7 out of 8 end up listing anyway. You could also find yourself wrapped up in countless legal issues by simply not being familiar with the process. When making an investment, you should always hire a professional.

 As a Realtor, we spend countless hours every year learning the laws in our local market. We have experience in marketing your home to the people most likely to buy. Realtors have the tools to get you the most out of your investment and, more often than not, have buyers looking for a house just like yours.

"When making an investment, you should always hire a professional."

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Curious about local real estate? So are we! Every month we review trends in our real estate market and consider the number of homes on the market in each price tier, the amount of time particular homes have been listed for sale, specific neighborhood trends, the median price and square footage of each home sold and so much more. We’d love to invite you to do the same!

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