8 Critical Things to Do Before Buying a Home

Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search 
Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

Before you actually buy a home, there are a few things you need to take care of. More specifically, there are 8 critical things you need to do to ensure your home purchase goes smoothly:

1. Crunch your numbers: Know what you are financially capable of affording and get a pre-qualification or pre-approval from a lender before you start looking for homes to buy.

2. Know your credit score: When you talk with that lender, make sure you know where your credit score is and what you can do to bump it up a bit. The better your score is, the better rates and terms you will receive.

3. Get a down payment: There are a few lending programs out there that allow you to get a home with 0% down. However, the more you can put down on a home, the better rate you’re likely to get.

“

Don’t stretch yourself to make payments.

”

4. Get educated with a local home buying seminar: There is a lot of information out there you can learn about how to buy a home intelligently and how to stay objective throughout the process. Attending one of these seminars can really make the buying process simpler.

5. Interview real estate agents: Ask them questions like how many homes they’ve sold, how long they’ve been in the business, and if they do real estate full-time. You want someone who has a great track record and is easy to work with.

6. Ballpark closing costs with your lender: After you’ve figured out your down payment, figure out the total amount of money you’ll need at closing. Closing costs aren’t cheap, so you want to make sure you’re prepared beforehand.

7. Consider any future financial problems: Make sure you will be able to handle your payments if for some reason you suddenly lose your job or income.

8. Live below your means: Don’t stretch yourself to make payments. You want to be able to consistently make them, and having a lower payment will make things easier.

If you have any questions for us, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We would love to hear from you!

Five Ways to Avoid Buying a Money Pit

  Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search 
Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

When you buy a home in Flathead Valley, you don’t want to end up getting trapped in a money pit. Here are five ways to avoid buying a home that will leave you with a headache and expensive repairs.

1. Get a thorough home inspection. Once you’ve found the perfect home, get a qualified home inspector to come in and take an in-depth walkthrough of your property. Talk with them at length about what is wrong with the home and what your options are.

2. Read the reports and disclosures. Take time to thoroughly examine the report you get from the inspector, and make sure you have all the necessary disclosures from the seller so you know everything you possibly can about the condition of the home.

3. Get multiple bids on repairs. If you end up coming to an agreement with the seller that you will make some of the repairs, make sure you get multiple bids on them. 

4. Don’t get too overconfident. Be skeptical when buying. Don’t let little things get you down about a home, but make sure you’re not buying something that will be more trouble than it’s worth, either.

5. Prioritize price reductions and credits over seller repairs. If a seller reduces the price or gives you credit for repairs and it doesn’t affect your financing, don’t worry so much about having them fix everything.

“

Be skeptical when buying.

”

These are all great tips to remember, but the most important one to keep in mind is that you need a great home inspector. If you have any questions for us or would like a recommendation for an inspector, give us a call or send us an email. We can’t wait to hear from you!

Common Seller Questions in the Flathead Valley

Looking to buy in the Flathead Valley? Get a full Home Search 
Looking to sell in the Flathead Valley? Get a free Home Price Evaluation

When selling a home in the Flathead Valley, there’s a lot of questions to ask a real estate agent. Knowing what to ask is important, so I wanted to share the most common questions with you.

1. How much needs to be done to my home before putting it on the market? Sometimes there’s construction issues that must be addressed, and they happen on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes it’s a new handrail, sometimes it’s a major foundation issue, and sometimes it might be mold.
2. How much is my home worth in today’s market? This depends on your property and where it’s at. We’ll look at homes in your neighborhood or similar homes in the Flathead Valley and try to get as many comps as we can - we try to do seven.
3. How long will my home take to sell? It usually depends on the price bracket it’s in. Homes under $400,000 move a lot quicker than homes above $600,000 in the Flathead Valley, so you need to be a bit more aggressive. If you’re curious about this and know your home’s exact value, we can provide you with the average days on market per price bracket.
4. Is staging important? It’s very important! While I can’t give an exact percentage for money that goes into your pocket because of it, I can tell you that there’s a totally different perception by buyers in staged homes. They can really picture themselves there, where their furniture will go, and how the home flows.
5. Should I be present when buyers view my home? Buyers fall in love with the home while going through and picture themselves in it. When someone is there who they don’t feel comfortable with, they tend to pull away from that emotional connection.
6. What is the agent’s commission? That varies. I always tell sellers to focus on how much money they’re going to make and the agent’s statistics. I can tell you that we’re very competitive with that. We have different commission packages to choose from.

“

Buyers fall in love with homes because of emotional attachments

”

If you have any more questions, please feel free to reach out over the phone or by email.