Maryland and Virginia Real Estate and Homes Blog

Go to Homefinders.com and explore real estate and homes for sale in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

For help with your home search, contact:

Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988.

                               *  *  *  *  HARD CORE REAL ESTATE TALK  *  *  *  *

AVOIDING CONTRACT FAILURES is important for home buyers.  If you have a contract of sale on a home in Maryland or Northern Virginia, make sure that the financing is in place and that your loan officer is doing their job. 

DON’T LOSE YOUR DREAM HOME because of poor financing letters.

We regularly read about contracts that “fall apart” because the buyer cannot get financing.  Homefinders agents will make sure that you, our home buyer, are aware of the critical dates in your contract. 

Make sure that your loan officer understands that they need to get the mortgage financing process completed sooner rather than later.

Experienced buyer’s agents in MD and VA know that a missed deadline in the contract can cause a home buyer to lose a home. 

Use a Financial Statement!   Agents need to learn to read the numbers!!

Homefinders.com agents know how to read a financial statement.  We will alert you early on if there are matters in your financial profile that need to be addressed BEFORE you submit a contract offer.

We use a simple Financial Statement.  We use a simple calculator.  We look at our buyers assets and liabilities and “qualify” our buyers or buyers who write contracts on our listings. 

We do not rely on loan officers to qualify.  Qualifying a prospective home buyer  isn’t rocket science.  This is a simple calculation.  We’re not qualifying buyers for credit and we rely on trusted loan officers to do that.  We use qualifying ratios to determine price range.  However, the agent needs to do two calculations.  One for the ratio of mortgage payment/income and one for all debt/income. 

FRONT RATIO/BACK RATIO.  We use ratios of 30% for an estimated PITI/gross monthly income and All Debt/monthly gross income.   30% of your income is an average for home buyers to spend on housing.  Many buyers prefer to pay less.  Some are willing to spend more. 

30/40%.  The concept was learned in real estate school.  It is further perfected in our CE classes for Real estate finance.  It’s important and separates the agents who consistantly have successful closings from the agents who simply write a lot of contracts. 

Step 1.  Provide the buyer with a Financial Statement Form.

Step 2.  Run a qualifying loan amount based on 30% of Gross Monthly Income.

Step 3.  Add the down payment, if any, for the estimated price range.

Step 4.  Run a qualifying 40% of gross monthly income for all debt.

HOMEFINDERS.COM agents and brokers know how to qualify and back it up with help from qualified loan officers, if there are any questions about credit. 

When writing an offer, the first document is the Financial Statement handed to the buyer to complete while the agent runs an Estimated Closing Cost.  Those two documents alone will determine whether or not the offer should even be made.  The Financial Statement is going to give the agent information to qualify a buyer and the Estimated Buyer’s Closing Costs is going to put in writing the cost to close.  Often buyers are surprised by these numbers.  Sure, if the buyer’s have made loan application they should have received a Good Faith Estimate from the loan officer.  Yet, every week we read of buyers who are “disqualified” at the last minute. 

This is just good business practice.  The cost of a failed contract is enourmous to the buyer and seller, not to mention the agents and brokers.  Failed contracts are almost completely avoidable. 

NEW HOME BUYERS REBATE.  CALL LENN HARLEY, BROKER, HOMEFINDERS.COM, 800-711-7988.

HOMEFINDERS.COM REBATES ABOUT 1% OF THE PURCHASE PRICE OF NEW HOMES TO OUR BUYERS.

SEE EXAMPLES BELOW.  CALL LENN FOR A TOUR OF NEW HOMES IN LOUDOUN COUNTY IN YOUR PRICE RANGE. 

“Let’s go to the mall.  I need a new casserole dish.”

“Let’s go look at some new cars.  The new models are coming out.”

“Let’s go visit the boat marina.  I’ve got my eye on a new Bass Boat.”

“Let’s go to the grocery store.  We are almost out of apples and cereal.”

“Let’s go look at some homes today.  I’ve got some Open House listings.”

Hey, what’s the difference?  Shopping for pots and pans, apples, shopping for a boat, shopping for a home??? 

Shopping is shopping, isn’t it?? 

Why do we need an agent to shop for a home?  We have photos of the inside and outside.  We have a map showing the location.  We can compare the neighborhoods and schools.  We can see the prices for other homes in the are that have sold.  Maybe we’ll save some money.  A Buyers Agent will cost a lot of money, won’t it?

Shopping is shopping, isn’t it?  Mom and Dad bought their home.  We can get some advice from them.

Owners sell their homes without an agent all the time, don’t they?  We should be able to buy a home without an agent.  Maybe we’ll save some money. 

How hard can it be to buy a home?  If we find a home we like, we can just let the listing agent do the paperwork.  After all, they have to be fair, don’t they.  I’m sure they’ll let us know if the price is good.  We’ll look carefully when we see a house and if something is wrong, I’m sure we’ll notice.  How hard can it be?? 

Shopping is shopping, isn’t it? 

Courtesy, Lenn Harley, Broker, Homefinders.com, 800-711-7988, E-mail.

About Buyer’s Agency

How a Buyers Agent Helps

Things Home Buyers May Need To Know

Posted by Lenn Harley, Broker, Maryland and Virginia on 04/17/2009 07:28 AM

Comments (19)

Buying a Home in the Home Buying Channel

shopping for a home

Edit

Delete

Groups:	For Consumers    General Information    Featured

Maryland Buyers Agents helping home buyers find homes to buy; new homes in Maryland, resale homes in Maryland, condominium, town house, single family homes in Maryland.  We cover the areas throughout Maryland from the DC to Baltimore to Annapolis areas and the Eastern Shore.  Home buyers also offers experienced real estate brokers to sell your home in Maryland and Northern Virginia.  New home buyers benefit from the Homefinders.com new home buyers REBATE, our way of saying THANKS!  We REBATE one-third of our real estate commission (up to 1% of the purchase price) to our new home buyers at settlement.

Buyers Agents in Northern Virginia helping home buyers find the best resale or new home in your price range and location of choice.  Areas include all areas from DC west to Frederick County, south to Spotsylvania, Culpeper counties and east to Westmorland.

MARYLAND and Virginia HOME BUYERS will benefit from the experience and dedication of our experienced brokers and agents.  Homefinders.com’s agent and broker partners have been representing home buyers in Maryland and Northern Virginia since the mid 1980s and have a depth of understanding of the Maryland and Virginia real estate market that gives our home buyer clients the benefit of real market experience.  We know the counties.  We know the neighborhoods.  As a home buyer, you’ll be represented by a buyer’s agent who is well trained and has experience in the area of your home search. 

Homefinders.com partners participate in on-going training to make sure we have the latest information of real estate law, contract forms, market trends, local settlement procedures, developers and builders activities in our areas, government actions that affect real estate sales throughout the Maryland and Northern Virginia market.