The Buying Process | The Reference #3

Hey everyone, Seth Williams here with Ledge & Young  Real Estate... And welcome to episode three of the Reference. So this blog is all about what I call the buying process. Five quick steps....And it's gonna teach you about the five most important things you gotta do when you're getting ready to buy a house!

So, first off, you gotta get pre-approved! You gotta talk to a mortgage broker. Personally, I like to refer a lot of my clients to Anthony Lapolla from Envoy Mortgage. He's a good friend of mine, he knows a ton about the business & he's been in the mortgage industry for years. He's one of the industry leaders, through all out the Northeast.. and what's so good about Anthony and his team is they're what we call a direct lender. All that means is they're gonna self fund all their loans. So, they get to have a little bit more of, flexibility around what they do to help out clients get closer to closing. Ultimately, it's really important to talk to a lender first. A lot of people say, "Oh, I'll get pre-approved three to six months from now." You know, that's great, but there's no harm really in pulling that credit early, because if there's anything on your credit that maybe you didn't know about, or the score is just a little bit lower than maybe you want it to be....Anthony and his team or a mortgage broker is gonna work really hard to try and raise that score up. Personally, when I was buying my own home, Anthony actually got my credit score up 50 points. No joke...He saved me a ton on my mortgage every month & That's what's so great about dealing with a local lender. They're gonna get you pre-approved early. Step one, gotta talk to a mortgage broker. I like Anthony, reach out to him.

So, number two, you gotta be ready to move, right? So, a lot of our clients that are first time home buyers, they might be hopping out of an apartment.  So, they might have to break their lease. If you're out there shopping for homes and you know your lease is up in January and we're shopping in July, know that you're gonna be on the hook for some extra cash to terminate that lease. So, maybe we wanna just get pre-approved, sit and wait, start looking at some properties and strike while we are closer to the end of the lease. Also, if you're trying to move from house to house, and you have to sell first, obviously you gotta get ready for that. So, check out our Video & Blog next week we'll talk more about getting ready to sell in the Selling Process. But, you know, there's a lot of things you gotta do to move, declutter, you gotta pack...so much to do. t's a huge process, no one likes moving. So, make sure you're really prepped for that.

Next step, you gotta find a trusted professional, like one of our agents, so you can reach out to me here at Ledge & Young Real Estate at 617-539-2211, or 781-342-0052. This year, me and my few team members will sell over 50 homes,, it's not like we're part-timers out here. Next year, we will double that transaction count & we do this every day for our buyers and sellers. We know the market. We know how to get you the best value. We're gonna teach you a little bit more about homes and upkeep than the average agent. We really want to help you find something that is going to be trouble free, and we will have knowledge to teach you about what is going to to cost you a lot of money down the road.  We want our clients to be repeat clients. So, most clients who buy / sell a home (actually like 80% of the time) don't use that same real estate agent who helped them buy / sell. We really like to pride ourselves on repeat clients. I'd love for you to reach out to me personally here at Ledge &  Young 617-539-2211 or 781-342-0052 or you can just hit us up at right here on Sellinboston.com, or [email protected] We'd love to sit down, we can get you with Anthony or a lender and start talking. So, that's just three steps so far.

Next step, when you're ready and you find that house, you gotta make a strong offer....We will also do a video & blog on what that means, so stay tuned for that in the coming weeks. Too often we see clients who want to underbid or put in really rocky timelines that are unfavorable to the seller.  So, for someone who sells so many homes, I can really see a strong offer, and another real estate professional when I read that offer sheet. So, if the timelines are too drawn out or if there's too low money down, it's really easy to tell if that real estate agent knows what they're doing and how serious that buyer is. I personally take that into factor when talking with my sellers whether or not to accept or not accept an offer. So, you gotta make a strong offer. That doesn't mean you have to wave inspection right (For go inspection from a professional on your offer thus making it stronger )  That doesn't mean you have to put a ton of money down. It just means you gotta look at all of the factors and make sure that the offer makes sense when you make it...Not just for you, but for the sellers and their timelines too. So, when you finally find that house you wanna pull the trigger on, you can't be gun shy. - Make a strong offer!

Lastly, you gotta think ahead, right? So, if you're buying a two bedroom condo, and there's just two of you right now, that's great. Maybe you have a guest room, but you know as you plan to grow old together, have kids, et cetera, you're probably gonna run out of space down the line. You will still build a little bit of equity, and if you don't mind moving like we already talked about, that's great. But, try to think more like 5-10 years down the road because, moving sucks!  I personally don't like doing it, and you don't wanna get trapped in something that's a little bit too small, right? Just think about that. Try and think ahead. You know, it's great if you wanna buy an awesome condo in Seaport, if it's 700 square feet,  maybe five years from now you're gonna be living in a shoe box, right?

So there you have it, there are just five key steps that I think are the most important part of the buying process.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me here at Ledge & Young Real Estate at Sellinboston.com and thanks for tuning into episode three of the Reference.

-SW

-Thanks for tuning in to the Reference. If You guys wanna keep learning more about real estate from Seth, make sure you subscribe to the Reference YouTube channel and follow us on social media, Instagram, and Facebook. If you have any questions about real estate, you can contact Seth at 7813420052 and we'll see you guys next time.