Home buying is a big decision. You need to ask and find answers to a lot of questions - What lifestyle am I looking for? What area do I want to buy in? What demands do I need to meet for work commute and schools for the kids? What is my price range? Am I willing and able to do minor repairs and updates? What is the size and desired floorplan? Which features do you like and dislike? What about a pool? What are other requirements that I’m looking for in my ideal home and desired lifestyle? Classify them into 2 groups – “Needs” and “Wants”.
We recommend involving an agent in your process as soon as possible, even though you might still be rebuilding your credit history or have other temporary commitments. It’s worth to find and contact the agent you’d like to work with. They would be able to explain current market conditions, get answers to your financial questions, help you with narrowing your choices, and guide you on the next steps. With over 15 years of expertise, excellent customer satisfaction reviews and desire to help -we will be privileged to work with you.
Notice I said to decide on your budget - not determine how much the mortgage company will loan you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for way more than you’re comfortable spending. Take into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or in a smaller home, you may be overlooking new expenses like new furniture, home improvements, larger fees for utilities, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget. Your agent can advise you on possible fees and increase in expenses.
Shop, compare and find a good lender to get your pre-approval letter in hand. Sellers will not consider your offer if you don’t provide that letter. If needed, mortgage brokers can also advise you how to improve your credit history. If you don’t currently have a preferred contact, we can highly recommend Stacy G. London, who has helped many of our clients to finance their purchase. She is a 38-year seasoned professional and designated certified mortgage consultant (CMC), industry’s highest designation.
Depending on a loan type, it generally takes between 30-45 days to close on a loan from the day you’ve entered into a purchase contract. Depending on the current market and how well you know what you want, it may take another 1-4 weeks to find a home and enter into a contract. Keep those timelines in mind when deciding on your actual move date.
We recommend buyers to visit a few open houses in the beginning of the process to narrow down the search criteria for the area and to decide what features exactly you prefer in a home. If you have ample time before you are ready to proceed with financing, you can visit quite a few of those and get yourself familiar with areas and prices that market is offering. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details.
Viewings is the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). We will show you homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.
Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. We are experienced with all types of markets, went through quite a bit of bidding wars and will be able to help you negotiate the best terms. Once offer is signed, transaction will go into escrow and many parties will start working to get it to closing table. It is very important at this time to follow your lender’s advice and keep your credit score and employment the same until closing!
In most cases, your offer will be contingent upon having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or significant repairs needed. We will discuss the results of the inspection with you and help you decide on further actions, renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed or withdraw.
Your lender will have your home appraised so they have their independent value of it. They need it to ensure that the amount that is given as financing does not exceed the appraised value of the property.
As we mentioned above, it usually takes 30-45 days to close from the time you’ve entered into a contract. During this time both your agent and lender will work with you to ensure all required paperwork is in place. No one looks forward to the paperwork in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Use this time to prepare for move and find utility providers. We will work with you to ensure you are supported every step of the way. Afterall, magical process of home buying is our specialty!
Your dreams came true and now you are a proud homeowner. If you have decided to walk this path with us, we thank you!
Tatiana was wonderful. I was out of town during the whole process, and Tatiana went above and beyond the job distribution of a realtor. She handled everything that came up and I ask her to help many times since I was not there....
Tatiana is wonderful to work with. She was very thorough when researching our market area, spent time with us discussing not only the comps, but the reasoning behind them, worked with us to set a price and strategy that we were...
This was out third transaction with this realtor and we would not consider working with anyone else. Our realtor consistently exhibits superior knowledge and understanding of the HAR market and real estate in general. Her key a...
Excellent service! I am very satisfied with the attention and the level of commitment offered by Tatiana. I would definitely recommend her to my friends and family.
We are so glad that our realtor was Tatiana. She was so helpful in any question. She was always on line if we have a question. She very professionally helped us with the showings and so we were able to sell the house very quick...
This agent succeeded where others failed! We had a difficult sale, yet Ms. Kirilenko never let any setback (or irate seller) frustrate her. Tatiana is always positive and incredibly tenacious. We had previously been subjected t...
I can't say enough thanks to Tatiana for being such an excellent realtor. Not only she was able to find me the house in record time but she found me exactly what I was dreaming of and I have to admit that my demands were very h...
I have now used Tatiana to both sell and purchase a property and she was excellent at both ends of that spectrum. She is always available, and answers questions in a way that makes it easy to understand. Would highly recommend ...
I really enjoyed working with Tatiana on selling my home. She has great communication, gives great suggestions on repairs needed and on staging to get max market price, was great with negotiations, and helped set a price preced...
Tatiana was amazing. Appreciate everything she did to support me in the sale of my home. I will definitely contact Tatiana again for any future sales. Thank you so much Tatiana for all that you did. You are awesome!
Tatiana's a pleasure to work with. We trusted her throughout the process, and she always had our back.
Excellent customer service.
With over 15 years of experience, we truly enjoy helping clients achieve their ambitious dreams in the world of real estate. There are a lot of moving parts that lead to a successful closing on a sale or purchase of a home. With the help of hard work, professional expertise and a little bit of magic, we will confidently lead you through the murky waters of a real estate transaction from start to finish!
