Orlando Home Buyer Academy

You’re Hired!

I had the pleasure of meeting up with a new potential buyer client.

We had s great conversation at my office and went over all the steps to successfully buying a home in today’s market.

At the end of the meeting he revealed that he is interviewing three agents. He said when he purchased his first home in the past he picked the first agent next to him.

How did I feel about that? I loved it! I commend him for being diligent about who will represent him in such an important life purchase.

Be cautious about just picking anyone. You are building a Real Estate Dream Team when buying a home. Make sure each player on the team is the right fit for you and your home buying goals.

Buyer Beware!

Caveat Emptor is an old principle that states the buyer is responsible for checking the quality of a good before purchasing.

Lately I have been quite shocked at the level of non disclosure being done by several sellers agents and sellers on the market.

Simple put. As a buyer buying a home in today’s market you have the RIGHT to ask for what’s called a sellers disclosure.

By law sellers are legally required to DISCLOSE everything they know to be materially true about their home.

Lately what has been happening is sellers agents will say “Seller never lived in the home” and will not provide any information whatsoever on the sellers knowledge of that home.

Please know this. It doesn’t matter if s seller has lived there or not. What matters is what they DISCLOSE during their years of ownership. They can do that via an email, letter, note or whatever but they must disclose what they know to be true.

As a buyer know your rights, stay protected and do your best to have a great home buying experience!

Should I Have My Credit Checked and Risk Having My Score Going Down?

I often get this question a lot from potential homebuyers just starting their journey.

They worry about their score being hit if they check their credit to early in the process.

My advice.....Check your score as early as possible. Why?

Let’s say your lease isn’t up until December. You feel like you have more than enough time and you are just starting to gather some information about buying your first home.

So you talk to friends, family, co workers and everyone who will listen. You hear from people that if you have a lender run your credit it will have a negative impact. So you wait.

Now it’s August and you decide its time to run your credit. The lender reveals that your scores are not high enough to get the best possible terms and rates and they advise that you take some time to build your score and pay down some debt.

Well, now you’re worried. You wonder how you will ever do this in time to transition from your lease to a home all in 3-4 months.

My point is, for this reason you should have had your credit score pulled NOW. What difference does it make if your score is impacted 5-10 points. At least you have time to put a game plan in place and KNOW FOR SURE where you stand and what you need to do.

My advice. Get educated as early as possible in the process so you feel confident and ready when it comes time to make your move.

Top 5 Tips When Making An Offer To Buy A Home.

1 Do your homework and don’t just use emotion. When working with your Realtor do some research on what comparable homes are selling for. How long has it been on the market? Why is the seller selling? Are there multiple offers? Be strategic not just emotional.

2 Price is not the only term that can show strength in your offer. How much escrow are you putting down? How many days do you need to close? How long of an inspection period are you requesting?

3 Have your pre approval in hand and ready to send. Pre approvals are stronger than pre qualifications. Have your fiancés buttoned up. This helps convey strength to the seller that you are ready, willing and able.

4 Be careful with how much closing cost you are requesting. Do you need 3%? 6%? The more you ask for the more you may need to tweak other aspects of your offer.

5 Be ready. Be confident and be sure this is the home for you. This will help depending on how fast you may need to act in order to get your offer in.

Hope this helps!

Buying a home is a process, not an event!

I think the biggest mistake first time homebuyers make is jumping in head first and using all emotion.

The home buying journey is a step by step process. Here’s what typically happens.

Some sort of life event takes place ie new baby, new job, downsizing, etc..

Immediately after that you go straight to Zillow and begin looking at every home that catches your eye. From there you spend a nice weekend driving neighborhoods looking at all the homes you believe you would like.

Some progress to calling the signs, going to open houses and trying to gather more info. Eventually you find yourself doing this for a month or longer and then you decide to maybe get some information from a loan officer or Realtor you met somewhere.

This in my opinion is WRONG! It’s backwards. The first step is education!! Educating yourself on everything that the home process entails.

How much money will I need to buy a home? What kind of loan products are available for me? How do I pick the RIGHT realtor? Do I need a realtor? How do I make an offer? How long does it take to buy a home? Should I even buy a home?

There’s so much to learn and I believe you should learn in Step 1. If I can share any advise it would be this.

Educate yourself. Make the right choices that will ultimately create a much better home buying experience for you.

Do you know the different plumbing products and how they will effect your home purchase?

When it comes time for your home inspection. A good inspector will report back the type of plumbing the home has.

One particular type of plumbing product is called Polybutylene. It’s a specific type of plumbing product that was recalled back in the 90’s due to issues such as pipes bursting.

A lot of Homes that were built in the 80-90’s have this particular type of plumbing installed. Many of those owners never got the home re-plumbed and often times you will find this out when you get your inspection.

This doesn’t necessarily mean your pipes are going to burst and flood but we will run into issues with certain insurance carriers who will want the home to be re-plumbed before issuing a proper policy.

Often times we will try to work with the seller for a credit toward the re-plumbing of the house in order to get the work done after you purchase the home.

When shopping for a home that was built in the 80’s-90’s be sure your agent will ask the sellers and/or look at the sellers disclosures to see if the home was ever re-plumbed. Hope this helps in your home buyer journey.

It’s not just home buyers who get burned by shady realtors… It happened to me.

Okay, this was before I was a realtor, but it’s what inspired me to become one.

It was 2005 and I had just finished reading “Rich Dad, Poor Dad” and I was eager to buy “assets!” I was obsessed!

I spoke with coworkers, friends and family and I decided to buy a house.

Everywhere I went, I asked about homes for sale. I read online and even bought “Home Buying For Dummies” lol. I thought I was being smart, but… I was about to make a huge mistake.

I went to get a haircut and asked my barber if he knew a realtor; he gave me a card. I called right away, told the realtor my plan and met him within a day or two to begin my ultimate plan of buying my first asset.

I met him in his car, in a parking lot.

Did I think this was strange? No.
He told me he was also a lender and could get me a mortgage with $0 down!!
Did I think this was strange? No.
I was in another industry and didn’t know residential real estate. And at that time, it seemed the like the bank would give just about anyone a loan.

I saw a home online and called my agent. It was a 3/2, 1200 sq ft. single family home. It was dark, musty and needed renovations.

Did that scare me away? Nope.
The home was listed for $269,900. I paid $269,900 with the seller paying the closing costs. I then got an 80/20 loan from the agent - ugh I mean lender - and voila I had an “asset.”

I thought I was a master negotiator. You should have seen my smile and my pride. I did it! I went from book to “asset” in a couple of months. I was so excited!

Turns out I bought at the top of what the market could bare at that time. I went from joy to pain in 6 months.

From $269,900 to $250,000 to $220,000 to $175,000 to a final price of $145,000!

I had used all emotion and no logic.
I had no idea who the agent was, nor did I vet him at all. I didn’t look at market conditions.

Why didn’t I learn more and get educated about the whole process and what it entails?

The laughable part (at least now) is that when I went back and read the book he specifically says “Your personal home is NOT an asset”. Lol.

I missed that part in my emotional desire to just do something.

This story is the driving force behind the work I do today. I never wanted someone to go through the uneducated buying experience that I had.

I believe that education and transparency are fundamental to a home buyers journey toward buying their first home. That’s why we created the Orlando Home Buyers Academy.

Top myths about Down Payment Assistance Products for buyers.

1. Bond programs are for people with bad credit.
-Wrong. The avg credit score for 2017 bond program was 700+ FICO

2. Bond loans are only for low income borrowers.
-Wrong. Limits range between $59-$110,000 depending upon county and household size

3. It takes forever to close a bond loan.
-Wrong. Closing a bond is like closing any other loan. There may be delays in closing but they shouldn't be specific to bond program.

4. Affordable housing or homes that can be purchased through bond programs are "low end" housing.
-Wrong. Current maximum sales price for Orange County up to $255,176 and $311,881 in Fed areas

5. Bond programs are always running out of money.
-Wrong. Florida Housing offers continuous funding for first mortgage money toward down payment and closing costs.