Check out our video on the Gemini Springs State Park in DeBary, FL

Things to think about before buying a house!  

Congratulations – you’ve decided to buy a home! Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or seasoned veteran, buying a house can be overwhelming. But congratulations are in order because homeownership is one of the best investments you can make for your future! Now that you know where your money is going each month, it's easier to plan for the future.

Make a list of your must-haves and deal breakers.

The first thing you need to do is make a list of your must-haves and deal breakers.

Must-haves are the non-negotiable, deal breakers are things that are negotiable.

For example: Must Have - 3 bedrooms, Deal Breaker - no pool or Jacuzzi

Look at more than one house before making an offer.

Before you make an offer on a house, it is important that you look at as many houses as possible in your price range. You may want to consider looking at houses that are similar to the one you're interested in buying, but also look closely at houses that are different from the one you are trying to buy. This will give you a better idea of what may be available and help ensure that the house you choose meets all of your expectations.

Ask yourself, “How much house can I afford?”

This is a question you should ask yourself before you start looking for a home. You should be able to afford a house payment that is less than 30% of your income, or about $1,500 per month on an average salary (around $56,000). If you're paying more than this amount per month in rent now and want to own your own home soon, then it's possible that moving to Orlando area might be the right choice for you at this time. Generally speaking, the area of central Florida will allow for lower cost-of-living expenses than elsewhere in this state.

Check out an online mortgage calculator for your mortgage payment estimate.

A mortgage calculator is a tool that lets you estimate what your monthly mortgage payment will be. It uses your loan amount, interest rate, and other factors to determine the payment based on a certain term (the length of time over which your payments are spread). The longer the term is set for, the smaller each monthly payment will be. However, if you have beefier payments at first but then enjoy smaller ones later on down the line, it might make sense for you to choose a shorter term option.

You can use these calculators from lenders themselves or third-party sites like Bankrate.com or HSH Associates Inc., which offer more comprehensive options than just mortgage payment estimates.

Save for a down payment.

The down payment is the amount of money you pay toward a home when you buy it. It's one of the most important parts of buying a house. If the down payment isn't enough, the lender won't lend as much money—and if they do, your mortgage will be higher than expected because there's not enough money in reserve to make up for any unforeseen problems with your house (like leaks).

Be sure that you have enough money saved up for a 20% down payment before buying anything! A 20% down payment is usually what he lender asks for, but as long as it's at least 5%, then they should be happy and willing to work with you, but you will have to purchase mortgage insurance.

If this is going to be your first time buying a home and don't have any savings yet or you're still budgeting for saving towards the down payment, there are still other ways that may help save some money from going towards closing costs such as preapproval.

Get preapproved for a mortgage loan.

Preapproval is the process of having a lender agree to lend you a specific amount of money, based on your income and other factors.

To get preapproved, you need to submit an application with your financial information (salary, assets, debt) and the lender will review it and determine what they are willing to lend you based on their internal criteria.

Once approved for financing, the lender will draft a preapproval letter that shows how much they have agreed to lend you. You can use this letter when looking at homes or applying for an FHA loan (more on that later).

Some lenders will let you download their preapproval letter online so that way if one does not come with your loan offer from another company then at least there's something for reference purposes until then!

Ask to see the seller disclosure statement.

You should also ask to see a seller disclosure statement, which is essentially an inspection report for the property. It will include information about any problems or issues with the house that were discovered during the inspection process. If there are any problems listed in this report, you'll want to discuss how they could be addressed before buying the house.

If you notice anything wrong with your new home after moving in and it's not on that list, bring it up immediately so that someone can take care of it as soon as possible (and before their move-out date).

Get a home inspection by a certified professional.

You may be tempted to save money and skip this step, but it's important. A home inspection will let you know if there are any problems with the property that need to be addressed before closing on it.

If you're not sure who to call, ask friends or family members for recommendations. You can also search online for “home inspector” in your area (or ask us!). A certified inspector that we trust is here: superinspectionpros.com 

Most inspectors charge from $200-$500, although some charge more depending on their experience level and what they include in their reports (e.g., air quality). It's important to find an inspector whose fees fit within your budget, but also one who is trustworthy and has good reviews online (you can check on Google).

Remember, there is no perfect home and nobody will love it more than you do when it’s yours!

When it comes to making an offer on a home, some of the best advice I can give is to not get hung up on the small stuff. In reality, there will never be a perfect house. Everyone has their own idea of what perfection is, but when you find something that's close enough to your ideal home and in your price range, go ahead and make an offer! Don't be afraid to walk away from a deal either if it's not right for you!

If you're struggling with making an offer because something isn't exactly how you'd like it—whether it's too big/small or needs another bathroom—remember: no one loves this house more than YOU do!

Finally, we are excited to work with you, and offer you our service. We have a commitment to trust, and loyalty, and listening to your needs, so please reach out.

Just as a buyer needs to do their due diligence, a seller

needs to do theirs so that bad judgment calls don’t derail

their deal.

BY CARA AMEER

Cara Ameer, a top-producing broker associate from Northeast Florida, writes

about working with buyers and sellers, sticky situations and real estate

marketing in her regular Inman column that publishes every other

Wednesday.

Whether you’re a rookie agent, a rising team leader or an established veteran

broker, we can all benefit from sharpening our skills. Follow our “Back to

Basics” series to learn fundamental strategies, tactics, philosophies and more

from real estate pros across the industry.

After several days (or weeks) of negotiating, an agreement between the buyer

and seller is finally reached! The buyer is excited that they’ve found their new

home, the seller is glad they will be able to move on to whatever is next and

the agents are glad that their goals for that listing have come to fruition.

Contrary to what might be depicted on television or what many real estate

agents think, when a contract is executed is not the time to begin celebrating.

It marks the beginning of a long and uncertain process to a potential closing.

There are almost always inspections to go through as well as an appraisal, if

the buyer is getting financing. Much can go wrong with so many hands in the

pot, and the fear of the unknown is real. Murphy’s Law is alive and well in real

estate, and if the other shoe can drop, it will find a way.

The best way to increase a seller’s chances of crossing the closing finish line

is to have a prelisting inspection done before ever coming on the market. Here

are seven reasons why:

1. What you don’t know can hurt you

Knowledge is power, and surprise is never a good thing. It is easy for sellers

to have a superficial and inflated view of their home. What could be

wrong, they think? They’ve lived there for x years and if there was something

seriously wrong, they would know it. Or, they just bought the home four years

ago and had it inspected then — why would they need to do this now?

You see, it is those very thoughts that can come back to bite sellers. When

was the last time your sellers went on their roof, looked in their chimney,

crawled around in their attic or basement or under the foundation? Do they

know how old their water heater and HVAC are? If they live in an older home,

what about the plumbing and electrical systems?

This is exactly why you should have a pre-listing inspection. So you can get a

grip on the physical health of your home.

2. You might not have to fix everything

Having a pre-listing inspection does not mean your sellers have to fix every

item that comes up — but they do need to disclose everything. This is where

you — the agent — come in to strategize with your seller on a plan of attack

and what makes the most sense given the market, your competition, time

frame for moving, etc.

Some things might need to be fixed in order to give comfort to a buyer or to

qualify for the kind of financing they might be doing. For example, if there are

buyers obtaining FHA or VA financing on homes in your area, any wood rot or

termite damage will need to be fixed before the buyer can obtain the loan.

There might be items that are major vs. minor that you and your seller will

need to take into account when pricing the home as they can definitely have

an affect on what a buyer is willing to pay. Homes with older roofs, HVAC’s

and water heaters on top of other repairs, coupled with a home that needs

cosmetic updates can be viewed as “a money pit” in the eyes of a buyer.

If you are faced with a multitude of expensive items nearing the end of their

life, you might need to consider replacing at least one and be willing to offer a

home warranty to provide some coverage to the buyer for the first year of their

ownership. The 15-year-old HVAC might be working great now, but that does

not mean it won’t fail in the near future.

3. Disclosure is not an unpleasant surprise

Many sellers fear that by having an inspection, they will then have to disclose

everything to a buyer which may cause them to pay less for the house. The

truth is, a buyer is going to find out anyway, but it will be after they’ve already

agreed upon a price and terms that they might not want to pay after the

outcome of that inspection.

Avoid buyer’s remorse by shifting the knowledge of the home’s condition to

the front end of the transaction rather than after the negotiation. Although a

buyer will still have the property inspected by their own inspector, the

information found will not be a surprise.

All houses have “things” that are found on an inspection. Even new homes

that are under construction or nearly complete have items that need correction

by the builder after they are inspected — this despite having a project

manager who oversees the subcontractors working on the house.

4. It can keep the deal together

Back to the “surprise is never a good thing” concept, when you leave

discovery of the home’s condition entirely to the buyer is when problems arise.

The seller has already agreed upon a price and terms and depending on your

home and the time of year it is on the market, the actual time to go under

contract may have taken longer than what you thought.

You will have grown weary from numerous showings, second showings and

“almost offers” that have never materialized. Now, you finally have a buyer

and the transaction may be in jeopardy because of the outcome of the

inspection.

The buyer wants to renegotiate the purchase price and/or ask for all repairs to

be made or a huge concession to account for what was found. The sellers

don’t feel like giving anymore, especially when they might be selling for less

than what they thought (which is how most sellers often end up feeling). They

could be paying closing costs on behalf of the buyer in addition to agreeing to

leave certain appliances, such as the refrigerator and/or washer and dryer.

Everyone goes into full-on crisis mode trying to obtain estimates for the

repairs and it is a hurry-up-and-wait game trying to get contractors over to

look at the findings and then even more waiting to get their written quotes.

Keep in mind that buyers and their agents don’t always have a realistic handle

on the true cost of repairs found from an inspection and might inflate or over-

exaggerate the potential costs on purpose as a way to beat down the agreed

upon price or force the seller to make repairs. Buyers might seek opinions

from overpriced vendors trying to upsell, and sellers will find themselves

running interference with this information trying to get their own quotes.

All of this chaos ensues while the clock keeps ticking on the inspection time

frame as set forth in the purchase contract. Most contract time frames never

take into account the real world of waiting on repair specialists.

Although most transactions are handled this way, it doesn’t mean that they

should be. By being proactive, you can help your sellers avoid the stress of

the unknown and level the playing field between them and the buyer by

recommending a pre-listing inspection. Wouldn’t it be better to have done your

homework, know what you will or won’t fix (or in some cases have already

tackled it) and obtained estimates on all else?

What is unknown is simply an excuse most times for not taking the time to find

something out ahead of time rather than after the fact. Sticking your head in

the sand like an ostrich and being in denial of any inspection issues is not

going to help get the home sold.

5. Incompetent inspectors can ruin a sale

This one is starting to become a serious problem in our industry. Just as the

swell of real estate agents has increased as the market has improved over the

last few years, so have the number of home inspectors.

What is required to become a home inspector varies from state to state and

just because some states require licensure does not automatically grant that

inspector sound judgment and the ability to legitimately diagnose/interpret a

home’s condition. A license is never a substitute for competence — ask any

seasoned real estate agent who has listed properties the amount of times they

have had to run interference with an inspector’s report that was full of

misdiagnoses.

The prospect of rookie inspectors who have only been functioning as an

inspector barely a year or two — and who are running their own shop with

virtually no support system and a more experienced inspector to mentor them

— is cause for concern. They are crawling through someone’s largest

investment and they don’t know what they don’t know and only know enough

to be dangerous.

Newer inspectors often discount their fees as a way to build their business,

and so what looks like a bargain compared to what more experienced and

savvy inspectors charge is often at the expense of the transaction. Buyers

might shop by price alone or an agent gives them a “coupon” that

the inspector sent out in an email blast to agents hoping that it would generate

some referrals. The agent might be newer and might have not vetted the

inspector and doesn’t realize all inspectors, like agents, are not the same.

I have run interference with incompetent inspectors more times than I care to

remember. It has been as simple as claiming a microwave in a newer home

was not operable to the more serious: an allegation that a metal roof was

improperly installed on a home that was located across from the ocean and

was literally one good storm away (inspector’s wording) from being blown off.

The roof was installed when the home was built, and it was a newer home.

After that buyer walked away, a few months later a category 2 hurricane hit(it

was projected to be much larger on impact to the area) and the home

sustained no damage whatsoever, and the roof was still standing. A roofer

came to examine the roof after the first inspection and determined it needed

some minor repairs but was properly installed.

An inspector with little knowledge of metal roofs made a bad judgment call.

This not only scared the buyer but also the seller who was in “shock and awe”

by the discovery and went into a tailspin calling the original builder, the county

building department, etc.

My favorite inspector misdiagnosis was an inspector who had barely been

licensed about a year claiming a nine-year-old house with a three-tab shingle

roof, located 20 miles from the ocean and a 40-minute drive away, needed the

roof replaced, because in Florida, those roofs have a shorter life. After that

happened, two other home inspectors checked the roof along with a roofer

and concluded no such thing.

There were some shingle repairs that needed to be made largely as a result

of solar panels that had been installed on the roof about two years ago. That

buyer walked after wanting to find a way to claim “hail damage” as a way to

get a new roof installed, trying to push the seller to contact their insurance

company. We did get another buyer and the second buyer did their own

inspection, after which their inspector determined the roof did not need to be

replaced.

Although buyers have the right to choose whatever inspector they want,

having your own inspection done by a vetted, experienced, adequately

insured and credible inspector can be a huge asset when you run into

situations like this. That inspector will be available to consult with you during

the home sale process and can assist with running interference should an

incompetent inspector cross the home’s path.

6. You’ll have a smoother transaction and a faster closing

All parties want a purchase and sale process that is free of hitches and can

close within a reasonable period of time. By getting a pre-listing inspection,

the risk of the unknown is eliminated and the parties will enter a negotiation

feeling confident and empowered.

If a seller is unable or does not wish to take on repairs, the property can be

priced accordingly. At the same time, if a seller has replaced a big ticket item,

like a roof or HVAC, it might help the home sell faster as the buyer might be

willing to make an offer and pay a higher price because of it.

A significant portion of time that is normally eaten up by the inspection period

and all of the back and forth trying to resolve repairs is reduced since everyone

is aware of the issues and has a handle on what will or will not be done.

7. The home will be more insurable

Some repairs might have to be made for the next buyer to get insurance or

they will likely need to have them done within the first 30 days of owning the

home in order to get a lower insurance rate. If a seller has an an older home

with knob and tube or aluminum wiring, for example, a buyer might run into a

snag getting insurance or the quote might be much higher than anticipated.

The seller might have lived with older electrical or plumbing and not had any

issues, however, this can become an issue for the next buyer. It is easy for

sellers to become numb to issues that don’t concern them. Unfortunately, real

estate transactions don’t work like that, and these are serious concerns any

buyer would have before sealing the deal.

Buyers are often hesitant to take on significant projects, like a whole house

rewire or re-plumbing, unless they can get it at the right price or a seller is

willing to pay a significant portion of their closing costs to offset the amount

such a project will cost.

Why risk a seller’s home sale while an unknown inspector could potentially

wreak havoc on the home’s condition and ultimately thwart the entire

transaction?  Knowledge is power. Just as a buyer needs to do their due

diligence, a seller needs to do theirs so that bad judgment calls don’t derail

their deal.

Thinking about buying or selling a home? Here are 6 reasons why you should hire a real estate agent.

If you're selling your home, you'll want to avoid these common mistakes.