Improve Your Montclair Buying Experience; 3 Simple Steps

With moving being listed by the experts as one of the top three most stressful situations in life, whatever we can do to improve our odds makes sense for us to get done.  While we can’t control the fierce competition in the New Jersey real estate market right now, we can definitely make buying your New Jersey home as pleasant and rewarding an experience as possible.

Here are three of the top ways to get all your ducks in a row and improve your own experience when buying your new home:

#1 – Choose your real estate agent carefully

Although you definitely should be proactive, viewing all the home choices online to help pinpoint what you want most in your home and reading those self-help articles about purchasing, don’t neglect to seek out the right agent to help you!  You will want to choose someone local, who really knows the housing market in the area you want to live.

Hiring the right agent will provide you with the information you need to purchase with confidence:

• Market conditions that greatly affect your search
• Neighborhood details not available elsewhere
• Home valuation practices needed to craft your best offer

If this is your first home purchase, it is vital you have an expert on your side, guiding you through what can be a process filled with potholes.  Get  – to make your experience a smooth and successful one. (Your buyer’s agent will be paid by the selling side)

#2 – Determine the best lender to finance your purchase – they are not all the same

Knowing your wants, needs and your financial limits before you fall in love with a house is your best insurance against making a poor decision you may regret later.  It can also be your best defense against losing a home you love due to poor preparation.  Interview several of the top recommended lenders and compare what each can offer to your home buying situation.  Keep in mind these helpful hints:

• Know your own financial goals.  As part of your team, a good lender can help you choose the mortgage loan package that best helps you meet those goals and will clearly outline the costs of a loan along with the rate available
• Be prepared and budget for your downpayment and closing costs
• Once you are pre-approved, your lender will give you financial tips for making it to the closing table successfully and smoothly.

Just a ¼% difference in interest rates changes your bottom line.  You also need to know what not to do once you are qualified so there are no surprises at the closing.  Those tips from the lender will help you do just that.

#3 – Tracking down your perfect house

We don’t call it HOUSE HUNTING for no reason!  Not every house will meet your specific desires, so trust your agent to eliminate those that don’t fit your criteria from your viewing list.  Just like any good hunter, knowing what you are looking for will make it easier to find.

• You might think touring every house on the market is the best way to proceed but in reality, it has the opposite effect. Viewing too many homes makes it that much harder to make your best decision.
• In the course of your own online research, if you’re looking in the top NYC suburbs such as searching Montclair homes for sale, your best resource is the MLS. Try the direct search in NJrealestatehomesearch.com or livinginmontclair.com, for more success.  Often, the big nationwide portals are usually 30 or more days behind the activity in the marketplace.
• Working with a top New Jersey Realtor in our competitive marketplace, where multiple competing offers are common, can be the difference of your success in being the winning offer.  You don’t want to place bid after bid, risking losing out on the home you have fallen in love with. No amount of online research can replace the invaluable source of counsel you will receive from your local agent.

Defeat excess stress and let the professional knowledge of your agent lead you to the discovery and purchase of your dream home.

INTERVIEW LAURA FOR YOUR EXPERT HUNTING GUIDE!