12 Weeks to Buying or Selling a Home: Week 2
A Real Estate Series
Thank you for joining me for Week 2 of my Home Series! I hope you found last week’s message useful and are ready to walk through some more steps with me today. This week we are going to be discussing the pre-approval process for buyers and what the listing appointment looks like for sellers. Take a seat, grab a notepad, and get ready to learn! First up are my buyers and how to get that sweet letter that says “Congratulations! You are pre-approved!”
Buyers:
If I had a dime for every time I had a person come to me and want to look at a home without a pre-approval I would be a millionaire and probably wouldn’t be writing this blog for you all right now. Many people find “talking to a lender” or getting “pre-approved” to be some sort of daunting, outlandish task. I totally understand the fear of getting shot down by a lender, but if you are going to get a “no” then why are you looking at homes anyways? The only way to move forward with purchasing a home is to have this golden letter or to pay cash for the home. That’s it. There is no other magical way to complete the process. So yes, before showing you a home and wasting both of our precious time, it’s important for you to be pre-approved first. Let me show you how to do that:
Use a lender you can trust. A lot of people like to use their personal bank to get their mortgage which is totally fine! It is definitely an easier process when the lender already has most of the information they need. You will just want to make sure that the terms of the loan they are offering you (type of loan, interest rate, closing costs, etc.) fit your needs. For example, if you have exactly $0 to put as a down payment, you won’t be able to use a lender who does not offer the $0 down programs. On the flip side of that, if you have great credit and money saved up to put down, you can go pretty much anywhere! If you don’t have someone in mind you would like to use, I have several lenders that I recommend to clients who I trust and will work hard to get you where you need to be. Just ask me and I will put you in touch with them.
Fill out their initial application. Most lenders these days have an easy online application where you can fill in all of the details they need to give a preliminary qualification. They ask questions about your income, job history, and of course they need your social security number to run your credit and make sure it’s high enough to move forward. Once the application is turned in, the lender will reach out to you for additional information!
Submit documents. Guys- this step is so important! The faster you get these documents submitted- things like paystubs, W-2s, etc.- the faster you will get that “YES!” answer you’ve been wanting! The lender can not give you a solid pre-approval without verifying all of these things so make sure you are prepared to submit these as soon as possible!
Get your answer. Once steps 1-3 are completed, now you just wait for the lender to give you a “yes” or “no”. You don’t need to be completely discouraged by a “no”. A good lender will give you steps to take to get you to the finish line, and if you complete those steps, you will be good to go in no time. If the lender says “yes” you will be emailed a document with the terms of the loan and the pre-approval amount. Send that to me and I will set you up on a search to begin finding you your dream home!
These 4 simple steps are all it takes to get moving on buying a home. Remember that you can’t write an offer without this so don’t put it off! Rip off the band-aid and get the dang approval.
Sellers
Now we move on to the first steps for sellers which is to set up listing appointments with agents! Of course I hope you call and schedule with me, but it is a good idea to interview several agents to determine who you mesh well with and who you feel will help you meet your goals. For illustrative purposes I am going to share with you what a listing appointment with me looks like:
Tour the home with you. The first thing I like to do at listing appointments is have the seller show me their home! I can run numbers, pull comparable sold properties, and so on, but I don’t really know a true home value until I see the home I am trying to sell. This is where you show me all of the updates you have done and tell me what you love about your home! These are all things that I can use to come up with a listing price and also add to the features we can highlight in the listing description.
How will I market your home? The next step is to sit down and discuss marketing. This part of the listing interview is so important! I cannot tell you how many agents will list a home and do nothing past putting it into the system. You need an agent that is going to work very HARD to get your listing in front of as many potential buyers as possible, and you need to hear from them what their marketing strategy is to do just that for you. So this is where I will share with you all of the ways that we put your home out there for everyone to see.
Let’s talk numbers. The last step is to talk about the elephant in the room - how much will you make and how much will it cost you? This is where we are going to share our commission charges, closing fees to you, and also what the listing price should be to get your home sold as quickly as possible. Pay very close attention to the pricing the agents you interview tell you! You can list a house all day for $300,000 but if it’s only worth $250,000, it’s not going to sell for that price. Make sure the numbers make sense and align with your goals!
Those are the 3 main steps of the listing appointment! It’s simple and it’s painless. Listen to what the agents say and make note of who really stood out to you. Once you have chosen who you want to work with, reach out to them and schedule the next step which is taking pictures (and if you choose me- video) and getting the house on the market!
Well guys I hope you learned a little more from me today! I am looking forward to Week 3 where we will discuss the home search for buyers and the listing day for sellers!
About the Content Creator:
Courtney Burke is a real estate agent and co-owner of Welcome Home Realty Group, LLC located in Franklin, Indiana. She spent 9 years as a Biology teacher at Franklin Community High School but left teaching in 2021 to pursue a career in real estate alongside her husband, Chris Burke, who has been in the business since 2014. She uses her background in teaching to educate her clients on the steps to home buying, selling, and investing and help them reach their goals.
For more information, contact Courtney at 317-416-3073. You can also visit her website at www.whindiana.com.
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