The best way to make sure that you do not miss the right home is to properly prepare. The purpose here is to provide you with some tips that will help your transaction progress smoothly.   

   The U.S. lending markets are not anything like in past years!

• We strongly suggest that you DO NOT look at homes until you are in a position to buy.  Why?  
• Many strong changes are now in place which changed the shape of financing.  What easily qualified before, will not work with new procedures in place.
  
• Homework with a lender is more important now than ever before.
  

• Experienced help is always available. In order to make sure the transaction goes smoothly, it is important that you have leadership from an experienced full time real estate professional.  A great personality also helps to make you feel comfortable.  In Virginia, always have a Buyers Agent working for you, such as the Gordon Laroussini Team. 

• Get pre-approved. The bottom line is you may lose your contract if you are not pre-approved.  Many sellers will not accept contracts without STRONG lender letters. Speak with any lender or ask us about our in-house service. 

• Don't be house poor! Avoid purchasing your qualifying maximum.  Buy only at a comfortable monthly note. In order to determine the amount of home you can afford, all lenders use your debt-to-income ratio. This ratio is the percentage of your pre-tax income that you spend on debt. Your debt ratio will include: monthly housing costs, car payments, credit cards, student loans, and any other installment debt. If you take on more debt right before buying a home it is going to have an impact on the amount of the loan that the lender will finance.

• Once you have limited your purchase price, Sign up for Property Watch. In order to make an educated decision, you need to know what is available and comparable market information. You can browse all the active listings from my website. Once you have identified several homes, save those searches and sign up for property watch so that new listings will be emailed to you. In just about any market, the best homes move fast so you need to make sure that you are on top of the NEW AVAILABLE INVENTORY at all times. It never fails! Even in down markets...the best homes and best deals always sell first!

• Ask Questions & Get a home inspection.  Save yourself time in future headaches and renovation by bringing in a licensed home inspector before you buy. There are many available and if any problems are found, I will help negotiate a better price or some repair expenses depending upon the repair.

• For Sale Buy Owners.  I am finding that FISBOs are usually hard to deal with, are typically not in line with the market, have no experience negotiating repairs and other parts of the contract.  I avoid these environments.