********** Utah Home Buying Program **********
This program is designed to educate you on all the aspects of buying a home in
Utah. It will take you thru the complete process and a lot more.
I hope it help you find your next home.
********** Utah Home Buying Process **********
Basically there are six steps to buying a home and I thought I would explain those in the first part of the Utah Home Buyer Program.
Step One – Get Pre-Approved with a mortgage lender.
This step is the most important since it will tell you exactly how much home you can afford to buy. It will also give you much more negotiating power since you will be the same as a cash buyer. Remember to be very honest and upfront with you mortgage lender. Tell them everything about yourself when it comes to credit, pay, and expenses so they can get you the best loan possible. Also if you can’t buy a home now, they will be able to tell you when you can and what you need to work on to make it happen. Remember you don’t want to be pre-qualified you want to be pre-approved. Click here to go to our preferred lender web site.
Step Two - Find a Realtor®
Most people think step two is to find a
home. Nothing could be further from the truth. Let me tell you why! If
finding a home is your second step you have to do it all on your own. You have
no one who can put your requirements in the MLS computer program and get you
every home that matches you requirements. Yes, you can go online and look at
homes, but the Realtor® can put in everything you want in a home on their search
page. You can only put limited items, usually bed, bath, sq. ft., garage, and
acres; that’s it. A Realtor® can put everything you want in a home, i.e. fenced
yard, master bath, deck, patio, basement, no basement, style home, A/C, etc.
They can even request homes in a certain school area. I think you get the
point. Remember working with a
buyer’s agent is the best representation you can have when you buy a home.
Many people think they want to work with the seller’s agent so they can get a
deal. That is definitely not the way to go since the Seller Agent’s job is to
get them the highest price possible and to tell them everything about the buyer
that they find out.
You need to be working with a
Buyer’s Agent. I’ll tell you more about that later in this program.
Step Three – Find a Home
Tell your Realtor® everything you want in a home. If you are new to the area then have the Realtor® drive you around and show you the area, schools, shopping malls, your work location, etc. This will help you pin point the area you want to live in. Many home buyers tell the Realtor® what they want in a home and then buy exactly the opposite of it. That’s because you have to be educated on homes just like you are when you buy a car. Your Realtor should give you an overview of what home styles are available in the area, and salability of each style. Your Realtor® shouldn’t just put you in the car and start looking at homes without first making you aware of what the market is like, i.e. buyer or seller market and having facts to back it up.
Step Four – Make an offer.
There are a couple of things that have to happen before you make an offer on a home.
Have your Realtor® check to see:
Is the home in a Buyer or Seller Market area?
What is the absorption rate for that price range? (Explained later in this
program)
What is the total market overview for the home’s area? (Explained later in this
program.)
How long has it been on the market?
Have they reduced the price?
How much did they buy it for? *
*NOTE: Utah is a non-disclosure state, so if the home was not sold thru the MLS you will not be able to find this out.
Your offer should be based on facts about the market and not what someone thinks you should offer because of what they heard or saw on the news.
Step Five – Due Diligence
The first part of this step depends completely on you. You have to decide if you are going to get the home professionally inspected. The home owner will be required to provide you with a written Seller’s Property Disclosure that is five or six sheets of yes or no answers to questions about the condition of the home. The seller will tell you what problems they have had with the home since they lived in it and that will help you some. But what if the roof is about to fall apart and the seller’s are not aware of it at all? What if the electrical wiring in the home is wrong and the seller doesn’t know it. By having a professional inspector go thru the whole home you will know if there are any major or minor problems to be concerned about. The offer you wrote on the home give you the opportunity to walk away from the home if problems are found and you don’t want to continue with the purchase. If you do not have the home inspected and problems arise later you can not give the home back to the seller.
Your Realtor® will also give you a form that is called “Buyer Due Diligence Checklist”. This form will show you different area that you might be concerned about so that you can add your concerns in the form of an addendum to you offer.
Another area you may be concerned about is a property survey. You can have a survey done on the property to make sure the boundaries are correct if you feel this is important. Keep in mind that surveys are expensive and usually have to be paid for by the buyer.
Step Six – Settlement, Closing, and Possession
Settlement – Both buyer and seller go to a title/escrow company and sign all documents required by the mortgage lender to release money for the purchase of the property.
Closing – After all documents have been signed by all parties, returned to the lender, and approved, and all required funds sent to the title company, then the title company will record the deed showing the buyer as the owner of the property. This is also called Recording. This is when the home actually belongs to the buyer, not when they sign the papers and pay their money.
Possession – This can be before closing, at closing, or after closing. It all depends on what is negotiated in the purchase offer.
I said I would cover some of the items in the Home Buying Process later and here they are:
Buyer’s Agent – In 1983, a Federal Trade Commission study revealed that over 72% of all home buyers nationwide mistakenly believed they were being represented by the agent who was showing them homes. As a result, laws requiring agents to disclose exactly who they represent have been passed all over the country. When consumers became aware that most agents worked for the seller, they began demanding their own representation. In response, The Buyer's Agent was born and began offering exclusive buyer representation to home buyers.
Does the legal responsibility that accompanies this type of contractual relationship really matter to me?
Absolutely, if you had to go to court, would you use the same attorney the opposing side was using? Responsibility and accountability to a client are two legal requirements of agency representation. By law, real estate licensees who act as seller's agents must negotiate in the best interest of their clients (the sellers), not withholding information from them, and must present their property only in a favorable manner.
Exclusive buyer's agents negotiate in the best interests of the buyer, do not disclose confidential information about the buyer, and reveal all facts affecting the value of properties to the buyer.
So who do you want representing you the Seller’s agent or your own Buyer’s Agent? I’m sure you’ll get this question answered correctly.
Buyer or Seller Market/Total Market Overview – This is a formula that takes the total number of homes available in your price range and adds the total of homes currently under contract to get a total of home available. Then the total number of homes available is divided into the number of homes currently under contract to see what percentage of home are under contract. If the percentage is greater than 25% then it is considered to be a seller’s market. If, however, the percentage is less than 25% it is considered to be a buyers market. This will come in handy when it’s time to make an offer on a home.
Absorption Rate – This is a formula that takes the total of homes sold and under contract for the last 90 days and divides it into the total number of homes available for sale now. The answer will be how many months worth of homes are available on the market today and another sign of a buyer’s or seller’s market. This also is great information to have when making an offer on a home.
These are the Internet web sites I mentioned in this program. They will help you with your home buying and also give you information about Utah. I hope you find them helpful.
Welcome to Utah: www.welcometoutah.net
Buyer Helps Web Site: www.buyutahrealestate.com
Buyer Agency: www.buyutahrealestate.com/buyers_agent
Home Buyer Specialist: www.utahhomebuyerspecialist.com
Get The Loan Pre-Approved Started: www.starttheloanprocess.com
There are a lot more sites, but we have to keep something for those buyers who want to use us as their Buyer’s Agent.
********** Other Professionals **********
How are you going to select the Mortgage Lender, Home Inspector, Pest Inspector, Radon Gas Inspector, Escrow and Title Company that will represent you in your home buying process?
Doesn’t it make sense to get a professional Realtor® contracted as your Buyer’s Agent to assist you with the selection? After all, they use these people all the time and can help you select a company to interview for the job a lot easier then you opening the yellow pages and hoping you get the right one.
This is just another service that we provide to our clients when we are representing them as their buyer’s agent.
********** Property Hot Sheets**********
Here is another valuable program that we offer out clients. It’s called Property Hot Sheets.
Sometimes a property comes on the market that has everything you want in a home and unless you check the MLS every day you might not know about it and it will sell before you even get a chance to see it.
Well, to make sure that doesn’t happen, we have a program that will watch the MLS every day. In the event a property that matches your requirements is newly listed, it will be E-mailed right to you immediately. This gives you the advantage of looking at the property before other buyers looking on their own or who don’t have this service even know the home exists.
********** Home Buyer Consultant Software **********
Here’s the latest in Team One Technology for home buyers.
You can get a copy of our Home Buyer Consultant Software for FREE.
What is it you ask?
Our Home Buyer Consultant Software includes: pre-qualification function, loan calculator, amortization schedules, home value increase, 10 steps to closing, home buying tips, moving checklist, and more.
You can get your free copy of this great software by calling 1-800-258-1861, extension 759, 24 hour recorded message that will give you instructions on how to get your FREE copy of this have to have buyer software.
I hope this Utah Home Buying Program has been helpful to you and I hope you will contact me and let me represent you as your Buyer’s Agent for your next purchase.
Here is my contact information:
Gerald Richards
Team One – Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage
1-800-340-1385 – Toll Free
1-801-774-1494 – Team One Office
1-801-774-1588 – My Direct Office Number
1-801-540-3825 – My Mobile Phone Number
I look forward to hearing from you and helping you with your new home purchase.