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Homebuyer Tips

What to Look For

What to Look For

Beside your list of desired property features familiar to any house hunt (city, how many bedrooms and bathrooms, square footage, parking, etc.), you should always look into what the neighborhood and surrounding areas can provide. Some important things to consider are:

Work

  • How will you get to work?

School

  • Where will your kids go to school?

  • Is transit or bus service available?

  • Will your kids be able to walk to school?

Kids

  • Where will your kids play and hangout?

  • Are there nearby playgrounds and parks?

  • Is it a kid-friendly neighborhood?

Neighbors

  • Do the local homeowners seem like the kind of people you'd like as neighbors?

Shopping

  • Are there grocery stores and/or markets easily accessible?

  • Where will you do your weekly shopping?

  • Are there food or shopping options nearby?

Accessibility

  • Are there public transportation options?

  • Are you near what you need to be?

  • How far will you be from the theater, golf, or other activities for you and your family?

Moving

Moving

2 MONTHS OUT:

  • Sort your closets, drawers, cabinets, and any other areas of concern

    • Pare down: use up, sell, recycle, or donate anything you don’t want to move. Make it a family project

  • Contemplate holding a garage sale prior to your move; this will help you reduce the amount of stuff you need to move and earn some extra cash on the side. Start planning one now, or think of charities that could take your stuff

  • Analyze which items may be recycled, tossed, or donated

  • Reserve transportation: Moving truck, portable container, friends. Get quotes from at least three movers and read reviews

  • Do you need storage? Start researching storage options now

  • Plan loading and unloading times and help

  • Take photos of your home to identify where things go and how you styled your shelves, nightstands, and counter spaces. Make a moving folder or booklet--include an inventory of your household items with a video or photos. Great for memories too!

 

6 WEEKS OUT:

  • Notify current services you will be moving. Schools, doctors, banks, pharmacies, etc…

  • Arrange for additional help with child care, pet care, and general manpower

  • Create a spreadsheet and plan for your move

  • Consider getting quotes for painting any rooms you would like to upon move in

  • Research your new community and schools so you know as much as possible before you move

 

1 MONTH OUT:

  • Notify any old or new associations of your move and fill in paperwork. There may be some charges to move in or out to be paid at closing

  • Notify old and new schools and arrange for the transfer of school records

    • Begin registration process at new schools

  • Notify doctors and dentists of move, and seek referrals. Collect all medical, dental, and school records to ensure you do not forget to obtain them at a later date: some require written permission for this. Keep these in a safe place

  • Purchase boxes, tape, and other moving items

  • Unless you’re buying new packing materials, keep an eye out for used items that could be used for packing (old towels, sheets, etc.)

  • Dispose of paint, oil, and weed killers

    • Drain fuel out of mowers

    • Discard propane tanks from grills

  • Contact current services to cancel after your moving date:

    • Gas

    • Electric

    • Cable

    • Garbage

    • Newspapers

  • Contact aforementioned services in your new area to start service on your move in day

  • Contact your insurance agent to transfer medical, property, fire, and auto insurance policies, and while you have them on the phone be sure to ask about coverage while you’re in transit

  • Create a designated folder for moving-related expenses where you can file all receipts. This will come in handy as many moving expenses are tax deductible. Obtain an IRS Change of Address form (form 8822) by calling 800-829-1040 or visiting the IRS website. You will be able to download and print form 8822 and most other IRS tax forms: e.g. form 3903 to help deduct moving expenses.

  • Order new blinds and curtains

  • Create an inventory of your stuff so that you can compare against the moving company’s list to ensure you don’t lose anything in the move. It’s also a good aid in determining how much moving insurance you need

  • Make an unpacking plan for the new home: who does what and diagram where the furniture goes. The movers will not rearrange your furniture for you unless you are prepared, so think this through

  • Start preparing your kids for the move. Talk about it and engage them in the process--maybe they can help color-code boxes so the movers know where everything goes

 

1 WEEK OUT:

  • Pack

  • Label your boxes. Be sure you’re labeling each box for where it goes in your new home--if you don’t do this now, you might very well forget what’s in which box. Also, where applicable mark the boxes “FRAGILE”, “DO NOT LOAD”, or “LOAD LAST”

  • Disconnect and disassemble your computer and peripherals

    • Backup your computer files on a disk or flash memory drive. You should plan to take these files with you in the car or whatever mode of transportation you will be using to get to your new home. Exposure to extreme temperatures can damage your software and files

  • Contact locksmith to change locks of your new home on move-in day

  • Pack a moving day survival kit

  • Pack a moving day box of things you’ll be moving yourself so you have access to them right away. Cell phone, light bulbs, tool kit, scissors, flashlight, trash bags, paper towels, toilet paper, aspirin, bed linens, etc.

  • Make sure you have extra packing material on hand for things that arise last minute!

  • Notify the USPS of your new address

  • Forward your mail to your new address

  • Contact new landscaping company

  • Contact new cleaning company

  • Collect valuable items such as jewelry or heirlooms and keep them separate from the rest of your packed belongings so you don’t risk losing them

  • Return any borrowed items, such as library books, and collect any clothing that you may have taken to be dry-cleaned

  • Confirm closing/move in dates with your real estate agent; confirm dates with your storage people

  • Confirm the amount of the cashier’s check for your closing

  • Get together all keys, alarm codes, and garage door openers and place them in a folder so that you are prepared to hand them over to the new owner or your real estate agent

  • Think about quick and easy meals you can prepare for your family to use up the remaining food in your refrigerator so that it does not go to waste and so that you can pack up some kitchen items

  • Empty, clean, and defrost your refrigerator and freezer. Use baking soda to get rid of any foul odors

  • Notify the police in your town if your home will be uninhabited for a long period of time

  • Before you move, mow your lawn one last time--especially if your home will be unoccupied immediately after your departure

  • Make sure you know what to do with final trash

 

ON CLOSING/MOVING DAY:

  • Do the walkthrough with your real estate agent. Make sure everything’s where it should be. Ask for all appliance manuals and such

  • Bring cashier’s check to closing with driver’s licenses

  • Do a final walk-through of your home to make sure you have everything

  • Inform your movers of any special instructions or general information

  • In your new home, tape names to doors to assist movers; map out the floor layout so movers know what’s going where; finally, prepare your new home for moving to prevent any damage

  • Have some cash on hand: a $20-25 cash tip per mover is typical

  • Arrange for payment for movers

  • Pay your movers

  • Have carpets cleaned

  • Verify your utilities have been set up correctly

  • Change garage code

  • Check fire alarms, radon detectors, and make sure you have fire extinguishers in your new home

 

AFTER YOUR MOVE:

  • Unpack and get organized

  • Go to the County to file your homestead property taxes

  • Give a change of address to the following:

    • Employer

    • Banks

    • Schools

    • Doctors

    • DMV (updated license)

    • Creditors

    • Insurance companies

    • Friends

    • Families

    • Cell phone company

    • Credit card company

    • Magazine and newspaper subscriptions

    • Voter registration

Closing Cost

Credit Score

  • What is a credit score?

    • Your credit score is a three-digit number that creditors use to evaluate the risk of lending you money. ​Your score helps lenders determine what you are or are not qualified for and how much you'll end up having to pay.

    • Landlords, utilities, and cell phone companies also have access to check your credit score before they do business with you.

  • There are two most common consumer credit score models:

    • FICO (used by majority of lenders)​

    • VantageScore (created by three major credit bureaus, newer than FICO)

    • Both give you a score on a scale of 300-850.

  • What contributes to my credit score?

    • A rough breakdown of what counts for how much of your score goes as follows:

      • ~35% is based on y​our payment history

      • ~30% is based on amounts you owe

      • ~15% is based on the length of your credit history (time since opening first line of credit)

      • ~10% is based on your new credit

      • ~10% is based on your credit mix (diversity of type of credit)

  • What is a good credit score?

    • ​Generally speaking, if you have a credit score of 750 or above you will be able to qualify for the best rates​.

  • How do I get a strong credit score?

    • On time payments are critical to maintaining a good credit score. So long as you pay the minimum due, your payment history will remain clean. Usually lenders won't report a late payment to credit bureaus until it's 30 or more days overdue. If you happen to make any late payments they won't hurt your score forever, just be as consistent with timely payments as possible.

    • Limit your credit usage: your credit utilization ratio is the amount you owe on your credit cards compared to the total limit on each card, plus the total limit for all of your cards. The lower the utilization ratio the better, and you can improve your utilization ratio by spending less on your card(s) and by asking your card issuer to raise your limit.

    • By having a long credit history: they consider the age of your oldest account and the average age of all your accounts. A closed account in good standing will remain in your credit history for 10 years.

  • How do I improve my credit score?

    • The first thing you should do is get a better understanding of what your credit score is, what it means, and how it works. You should review your credit reports in order to identify any mistakes or false information: you are legally permitted to dispute any items you feel are incorrect in efforts to have them removed from your credit report.

      • You can do this by submitting a dispute letter including any and all legal documentation or proof that the information is incorrect.​

    • Pay off old debt (credit cards, collection bills, medical balances, etc.) as it helps avoid any additional collection or legal action that could hurt your credit.

    • Keep a nice mix of credit, but don't go crazy opening and closing cards.

​

Closing accounts will not help your credit score and may hurt it. It's true that having too many open accounts can hurt your score, but once you've opened the account you can't repair the damage by shutting the account: you may actually make things worse. The credit score looks at the difference between your available credit and what you're using. Shut down accounts, and your total available credit shrinks, making your balance loom larger, which typically hurts your score. The score also tracks the length of your credit history. Shutting older accounts can also make your credit history look younger than it actually is, which can hurt your score. Lenders look at other factors, such as your income, assets, employment history, and credit limits. Paying down your credit card debt can improve your score. Even $10 extra over the minimum due per open account will improve your credit score. Checking your FICO score once or twice for a mortgage will not hurt your credit rating. Applying for new credit generally hurts your score. To minimize the damage from credit inquiries, shop for a mortgage in a fairly short period of time. The FICO score treats multiple inquiries in a 14-day period as just one inquiry and ignores all inquiries made within 30 days prior to the day the score is computed. Credit counseling will hurt your score almost as much as bankruptcy. The current FICO formula ignores any reference to credit counseling that may be in your file. That's been true for the last three years after researchers at Fair, Isaac, the company that created the FICO scoring system, noticed that people getting credit counseling didn't default on their debts any more often than anyone else. Your current lenders may report you as late because you're not paying what you originally owed or because your credit counselor isn't sending your payments in on time. Late payments do hurt your credit score. Lenders consider other factors besides credit scores: income, savings, and whether or not you're a homeowner. If you plan to get a mortgage soon, and you're not already behind on your debts, it's probably smart to steer clear of credit counseling. All three of the bureaus offer FICO credit scores using the formula developed by Fair, Isaac, but they each give the scores a different name. At Equifax, the FICO is known as the Beacon credit score. At TransUnion, it's called Empirica. At Experian, it goes by the unwieldy title of "Experian/Fair, Isaac Risk Model". You'll probably have three different scores from three different bureaus, largely because the bureaus don't all share the same data. Because of those differences, it makes sense to pull and examine your credit reports from all three bureaus before you apply for a big loan like a mortgage. Lenders take the middle score from the three bureaus when making their decisions, so fixing errors in all three reports before you shop for a loan is smart. The ways you improve your credit score are the same in any case: correct errors. Pay your bills on time. Pay down your debt. Apply for credit sparingly.

agency

Agency

Understand agency relationships! Ask what type of agency relationship your agent has with you: this is critical in understanding what legal responsibilities they have to both you and the other parties involved in the transaction. Here are some different types of agency relationships you might encounter:

  • Seller's representative (A.K.A. listing agent or seller's agent)

    • Hired by and represents the seller​

    • All fiduciary duties are owed to the seller

    • Agency relationship is often created by a listing contract

  • Buyer's representative (A.K.A. buyer's agent)

    • Hired by prospective buyers to represent them in a real estate transaction​

    • Works in the buyer's best interest and owes fiduciary duties to the buyer

    • Buyer's representative can be paid directly through a negotiated fee, paid by the seller, or through a commission split with the seller's agent

  • Subagent

    • Owes the same fiduciary duties to the agent's customer as the agent does​

    • Usually happens when a cooperating sales associate from another brokerage (who is not the buyer's agent), shows property to a buyer

    • Works with the buyer as a customer but owes fiduciary duties to the listing broker and the seller

    • Cannot assist the buyer in any way that would be detrimental to the seller, but a buyer can expect to be treated honestly by the subagent

    • Important that subagents fully explain their duties to buyers

  • Disclosed dual agent

    • Dual agency is a relationship in which the brokerage firm represents both the buyer and seller​

    • These relationships do not carry all of the traditional fiduciary duties to clients, only owe limited fiduciary duties

    • Because of potential conflict of interest, it is critical that all parties provide informed consent

    • In many states, the consent must be provided in written form

    • Disclosed dual agency is legal in most states

  • Designated Agent (A.K.A. appointed agent)

    • This allows the managing broker to designate who within the brokerage will act as an agent of the seller and who will act as an agent of the buyer​

    • This helps avoid the problem of dual agency

    • The designated agents provide full representation with all expected fiduciary duties to their clients

    • The broker still supervises both groups of licensees

  • Non-agency relationship (A.K.A. transaction broker or facilitator)

    • Only permitted in some states, and the relationships vary greatly from state to state

    • Generally the duties owed to the consumer in a non-agency relationship are less than the traditional duties of an agency relationship

fair housing

Fair Housing

Fair Housing Declaration

I agree to:

  • Provide equal professional service without regard to the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, or sexual orientation of any prospective client, customer, or of the residents of any community.

  • Keep informed about fair housing law and practices, improving my clients' and customers' opportunities and my business.

  • Develop advertising that indicates that everyone is welcome and non one is excluded; expanding my clients' and customers' opportunities to see, buy, or lease property.

  • Inform my clients and customers about their rights and responsibilities under the fair housing laws by providing brochures and other information.

  • Document my efforts to provide professional service, which will assist me in becoming a more responsive and successful realtor.

  • Refuse to tolerate non-compliance.

  • Learn about those who are different from me, and celebrate those differences.

  • Take a positive approach to fair housing practices and aspire to follow the spirit as well as the letter of the law.

  • Develop and implement fair housing practices for my firm to carry out the spirit of this declaration.

© 2017 by Sheila Mitchell, Realtor  |  Designed by storrar-designs.com

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