Tasks to Complete Before Buying a Home

in Advice from your Agent

Task 1: Complete Your Client Intake Form

The information on the form enables me to open a file for you and create a custom strategy for search. Additionally, it provides you with an account to my server so we can share homes. I’ll be adding homes to that account and it will be suggesting listings to you the second they go on the market.

Buyer client intake form

Task 2: Hire Me, Your Agent

Did you know only sellers are represented in the market. There’s no fiduciary duty to buyers. Every listing agent is legally required to uphold the seller’s best interests and not yours. Unless you hire your agent, this establishes a Fiduciary duty to uphold your best interests including confidentiality, accountability, reasonable care/due diligence, loyalty, obedience, advise / advocate, and disclosure.

Hiring a buyer’s agent to help with your home search

Task 3: Bank Loan Qualification and or Proof of Funds

You must supply me with one of the following as appropriate prior to previewing homes:

Home Loan You must complete a loan qualification. This includes submitting your financial documents. Some lenders say they will not check financial documents prior to you getting a purchase offer accepted. You don’t want to work with those banks because many sellers won’t accept an offer without a fully qualified loan pre-qualification.

Proof of Funds I recommend a letter with your banker’s info. The seller is able to call the banker and confirm funds prior to accepting your offer. Otherwise, a bank statement works perfectly, just make sure it doesn’t show your entire balance. Ideally it only reveals enough to cover your purchase.

It’s important to note your funds must be liquid. That is no stocks, mutual funds, or 401k funds. Those require time to liquidate and may have additional restrictions, putting you at risk during your transaction.

Task 4: Searching for Your Home

My system updates both you and I of new listings matching your search criteria. I further filter these manually and chat with you about them as they come on the market. Then I each week I preview homes for the client’s who have hired me. This includes video previews of vacant homes. We refine that list together until you find the perfect home.

Buyer Resources

Buyer Form Tutorials

Buying Bank Owned Properties