How to buy a home in Northern Virginia Part 1

You have decided that its time to buy a property in Northern Virginia. It doesn't matter if it's your first investment property, or your primary residence the process is the same.

Step 1. Decide on how you will finance the purchase. Will it be cash or financing? If you will finance the purchase, speak with a reputable mortgage broker or lender to find out what options you have available.

If you do not have any contacts with reputable lenders in the Northern Virginia area, feel free to reach out.

Step 2. Get pre-approved with the lender you chose in step 1. The reason to get pre-approved BEFORE you look at any properties is because we want to know what you will be able to finance comfortably. If we go out and look at 550k properties, and you can only finance 350k, none of the properties at the lower price range will be as good as what you saw at 550k. This leads to disappointment, and we do not want that.

Pre-approval comes first

Step 3. Get specific on the area you want to purchase in. Get out into the regions you are considering. Check the schools, check the crime stats, check the commute length, find the shopping centers. Then start elimination until you have 1 or 2 hyper-specific areas that will work for you and your family. The more work you do in this area up front will save you a lot of time when searching for a home.

Contrary to what is seen in the reality shows, shopping for a home can be exhausting, and discouraging if you do not put in the work to get specific on where you want to be.

Step 4. Start shopping! Most beginners start doing this first, and get disappointed fast. All those websites you may look at are not up to date, and because the market is moving fast everything you see is most likely already sold.

You Hired a professional to represent you for a reason... they are the expert.

Fight the urge, stay off the online websites, and stick to the list of properties that your agent sent you for these reasons.

1. The list you were given is a set of properties that meet the exact specifications you(and your lender) set. If your specifications change, let your agent know immediately so the list of homes can be updated.

2. All these properties are currently available for sale.

Be respectful if your agents time, as they are of yours, they cannot accommodate every client sending a long list of properties from (insert real estate website here) to "Check on."

Step 5. Make an offer! This is an exciting and critical step. You may feel you need to take a day to "think about it." By doing this, you could be shooting yourself in the foot, and run the risk of losing the property.

Keep in mind, at this point; there has been a lot of "thought" invested. You have spent countless hours going over finances and your ability to afford the property, you have toiled to narrow down the specific area, and now you walk into this house and BAM you are in love.

Time is of the essence when submitting an offer. It is common to see a home, fall in love with it, and 3 hours later find out it's off the market because another buyer decided to submit the offer immediately.

Be the buyer that submits an offer immediately. Just because you send an offer doesn't mean you are tied to it permanently.

I am going to end this blog post here and put the rest of the process in a second posting. I realize not everyone has time to read a book on how to buy a home :) Thank you for reading, and check back frequently or follow my blog to get alerts when something new is posted.