A: You may hear some agents say, “It is always a good time to buy!” However, the answer is rarely that simple. The real answer largely depends on your plans and goals for the next few years. Many factors go into the decision to rent or buy: your timeline, financing and/or interest rates, market inventory, your wish list, and even larger economic trends, such as the labor market. To arrive at the answer, we get to know you and your specific needs, help you weigh all the factors, and advise you on different strategies to meet your ultimate goal of homeownership–when the time is right for you.

A: There are quite a few reasons that you may want to purchase a home through a real estate agent. Here are some of the ways an agent can improve your home buying experience:

• Like stock values, home values change all the time. What you think is a good price for a home may or may not be competitive. Our priority as a real estate group is to be on the forefront of market behaviors, following leading indicators such as inventory levels or active-to-pending timing, instead of lagging indicators like Zillow sales data or Zestimates. 
• We can help you assess the quality of the homes you look at. On home tours, while you’re taking in all the features of the house, we examine all the nuts and bolts of the home, looking for any problem areas, things that might need to be addressed in due diligence, while also thinking about the resale impact of various features. We’ve seen a lot of houses and we know what to look for.  
• We can provide strategic guidance in how to compete, both in a market that favors sellers and in a market that benefits buyers. We can also prepare you for every kind of market in between! 
• When buying a home, you’re not just dealing with the seller. We have long-standing relationships with a wide range of real estate-related professionals, including lenders, home inspectors, contractors, and more. We vet them so that you don’t have to, and we ensure that they adhere to our standards and values so that you can have peace of mind.
• We also develop quality, professional relationships with many of the agents in the area. When we’re sitting across the table from them, we not only know how many of them think and can strategize around their tendencies, but we also have a history of good working relationships that can help the whole process run more smoothly.

A: Feeling overwhelmed is completely understandable! The home buying process involves hundreds of decisions and is one of the most significant events of your life. There’s one decision you can make early on that improves the whole process: select a real estate agent you trust. 

Just as you would lean on a financial advisor when making a major financial investment, we encourage you to find a real estate advisor who will walk through all the steps to buying a house with you. Don’t wait until the last minute when you want to write an offer to bring an agent into the mix. Agents have many resources and are a wealth of information that can serve you before, during, and long after your purchase. They can help you get the job done and in the right order, so that your real estate experience is smooth and, more importantly, successful.

A: The market changes all the time, almost on a daily basis. Whatever the market’s condition when you’re buying, we’ll prepare you with the strategy you need to compete, and we will be timely about getting you in to see houses, so that you have a chance to make an offer on the one that’s right for you.

A: Because factors like purchase price, due diligence fees, financing mechanisms (and more) are market-dependent and negotiable, what are considered “good” terms are constantly changing. At Atwell Ford, our team has extensive experience and a large volume of sales under our belt, so we have much more data to draw from when advising you on terms that will be competitive.

A: A due diligence fee is paid by a home buyer to the seller in order to secure time to complete “due diligence” on a home, including home inspections, walkthroughs, contractor quotes, etc. Note that the term “fee” is used here rather than “deposit” because the money is given directly to the seller, who is entitled to keep those funds whether or not the buyer follows through with the purchase. If the buyer completes the purchase, the due diligence fee amount is applied towards the balance they owe at closing. However, if the buyer backs out, the seller does keep this fee. 

An earnest money deposit is a second negotiated amount that is deposited in the attorney’s trust account for the duration of the contract period, post “due diligence.” If the buyer opts to terminate the contract before the end of due diligence, the earnest money is returned to them. If the buyer terminates the contract after due diligence, but before the settlement date, the earnest money is owed to the seller. If the buyer completes the purchase, the earnest money (or deposit) is applied towards the balance they owe at closing.