Purchasing A Home: 4 Tips to Make The Process Easier

Purchasing A Home: 4 Tips to Make The Process Easier

Buying a home can be an emotional, time-consuming, and complex process. There are a few things that you can do to help make the process go as smooth as possible:

1. Check your credit.

Before you apply for a home loan, regardless of your credit, it’s a smart idea to obtain a copy of your credit report from the three major credit bureaus and review the information. If there are errors or things that need to be addressed, it’s easier to address them before you have found a house, than after you have found a house and are trying to close your loan.

If you know that there are a few blemishes on your credit, let your lender know what they are, why they are there, and why you are a still good credit risk. Lenders look at your credit to determine how likely you will pay back the loan. If you had extenuating circumstances – like a loss of a job or medical bills – let them know so that they understand that it is not likely to happen again in the future.

2. Get approved before you buy.

An approval means that a lender has reviewed your credit history, verified your assets and employment, and has approved your loan before you have found a home to purchase. As long as the home appraises for at least the purchase price, the loan should close.

Getting approved also gives you an advantage over other buyers. Your firm approval makes it easier for you to negotiate on the price of a home, than a person who is not approved or is pre-qualified.

While getting pre-qualified may sound official, it is really just getting an idea of what you can afford. Its having a person plug in a few numbers that you give them – your monthly income and your monthly debt – and getting an approximate payment calculated. From the payment, the calculator can approximate the house price range that you can afford. No information is verified. Because your assets, income or credit is not verified, a pre-qualification has little value when purchasing a home.

3. Find a great buyer’s agent.

Traditionally real estate agents represent the sellers in a transaction. When you are not working with a buyer’s agent, they are less likely to negotiate the best price or contingencies for you.

A buyer’s agent’s job and fiduciary responsibility (meaning legal duty) is to you, the buyer. Before working with an agent, establish if they are a buyer’s agent or a seller’s agent. After spending a lot of time with a Realtor, it’s natural to feel like you’re a team. But if they are not negotiating for you, then they are not on your team.

4. Learn about the neighborhood.

Often times the house you find may be in a neighborhood that you’re not familiar with, which is ok. It just means that you’ll have to do a little more research. If you find a house that you like, ask for a list of the neighborhood properties that sold in the last year. How does your home rank? Is it at the top of the price range? If so, it might be hard to resell. Is it average or on the low end? If so, great – as the other home prices go up in value, they will pull your home’s value up as well.

Check out the schools – are they sought after? A good school district means your neighborhood will always be valued by families which is a great reassurance to purchase, not to mention the value-add if you have school-age children.

Next, contact the police station and obtain crime statistics? Are they acceptable to you? Sometimes, if they won’t give them to you, it could be a cause for alarm.

Talk to the neighbors. The more people you talk to, the better sense you will get of who makes up the neighborhood and how they will effect your time spent in it.

Check out the location of the shopping, police and fire stations, schools, and air traffic overhead. These are all things that might affect your property value or quality of your life.

Menlo Park Real Estate Prices Up, Inventory Down.

January 10, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments

Menlo Park & Atherton Photos_0042Menlo Park real estate figures were also up for the year 2012 compared to 2011 with a healthy 12% rise in prices taking the average price of a Menlo Park home to $1,459,000.  The big issue is the inventory levels, which are at very low numbers and difficult to keep the overall real estate sales numbers at a healthy pace.  The spring selling season should be a quiet one as there just isn’t enough homes to sell, but there are a lot of buyers so expect prices to keep rising.

 

Menlo Park

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 374 394 5%
Average Price ($000) $1,308 $1,459 12%
Average DOM 46 28 -39%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

Atherton Luxury Real Estate Prices on The Rise

January 4, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments
Atherton Luxury Real Estate Prices on The Rise

Home sales and prices of Atherton real estate took a healthy jump for the year 2012 at a slightly above average 12 percent.  Atherton real estate has one of the highest average prices in the country at just over $4.5 million dollars.  So far in 2013, we are seeing a surge in mega priced homes that will be hitting the market soon in the over 50 million dollar range.  Atherton real estate is held by many a VC, CEO and tech giant who might be living behind those closed gates leading to properties well over one acre.

Atherton

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 73 82 12%
Average Price ($000) $4,125 $4,626 12%
Average DOM 78 60 -23%
Months of Inventory 0.2 0.3 50%

Woodside Real Estate Down, All Others Up

January 3, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments
Woodside Real Estate Down, All Others Up

Woodside real estate figures were the only blip on the charts with negative numbers while all other areas of San Mateo County showed gains in real estate prices and sales numbers. Woodside has been stagnant except for a 100 million dollar sale by a Japanese businessman. The huge off market number did not affect the charts as the sale happened off MLS. San Mateo county real estate prices were at a healthy 10% rise across the board.

Portola Valley

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 70 62 -11%
Average Price ($000) $2,256 $2,405 7%
Average DOM 80 68 -15%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.3 200%

Redwood City

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 535 593 11%
Average Price ($000) $755 $842 12%
Average DOM 72 48 -33%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.1 0%

Redwood Shores

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 49 72 47%
Average Price ($000) $982 $1,061 8%
Average DOM 30 27 -10%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

San Carlos

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 278 317 14%
Average Price ($000) $960 $1,072 12%
Average DOM 44 35 -20%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

San Mateo

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 595 680 14%
Average Price ($000) $807 $871 8%
Average DOM 54 38 -30%
Months of Inventory 0.1 0.0 -100%

Woodside

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 99 83 -16%
Average Price ($000) $2,504 $2,077 -17%
Average DOM 111 85 -23%
Months of Inventory 0.4 0.4 0%

 

 

Microsoft’s Paul Allen Buys in Atherton

Microsoft’s Paul Allen Buys in Atherton

San Francisco 49ers fans have a new rival in town – Paul Allen.  Yes, the Seattle Seahawks owner has purchased a 27 million dollar mansion here in Atherton.  The home was sold to him by an agent in our Menlo Park office and despite being  a enemy on the football field, Paul Allen will be welcomed to the area.  With all the business happening here in the Silicon Valley, do you blame him? It was evident he would come after his Vulcan Capital announced the opening of their Palo Alto office to continue their expansion into the internet and technology sectors.

 

San Mateo Country Real Estate Sales Up in 2012

January 2, 2013 Real Estate News No Comments

Menlo Park & Atherton Photos_0033Homes sales in San Mateo County took a decent jump in 2012 with the number of sales up 10% for the entire county and the average price was up 7% to almost $995,000.  It’s amazing to think that it’s almost a million dollars to buy an average home anywhere in San Mateo country.

San Mateo County

2011 2012 % Change
Number of Sales 4,646 5,130 10%
Average Price ($000) $932 $995 7%
Average DOM 68 49 -28%
Months of Inventory 0.2 0.1 -50%

My Contact Information

Gary Kurtz
949.565.5201
gkurtz@homgroup.com
BRE# 01710776

Kathy Kurtz
714.394.2676
kathyk213@aol.com
BRE# 01876966

HOM Sotheby's International Realty
1200 Newport Center Drive, # 100
Newport Beach, CA 92660

949.565.5201 (cell)
949.478.7769 (office)
650.796.5507 (Silicon Valley #)

Contact me now with any questions:
gkurtz@homgroup.com

Kurtz Real Estate Group




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