It is fair to say that once a new house hits the real estate market – especially good ones - it’s always a race to see who gets it first, but considering the still shrinking residential real estate inventory, 2018 promises to make this race even more fast and exciting. Specialists in the home buying process believe that, like last year, June will be the quickest month to sell a house. In 2017, the average time it took for a property to get sold, from listing to closing, in June was 73 days!
Realty Agent Hubs have been preparing their clients to sell the house fast using spring real estate marketing strategies, they have studied all home staging tips and tricks to sell and come June everyone will run like crazy to get them. With that in mind, we have some advice for all the fast house buyers out there that are willing to enter this home buying process race and want to learn how to buy a house quickly.
Good Credit score
If this is a race where the winner will learn how to buy a house quickly, you want to be well placed on the starting grid, right? The home buying process pole position is always achieved by a good credit score. If you’ve never stopped to think about what is a credit score and how does it impact real estate you’re way behind the starting grid, my friend. When you get to the first curve with other cars – meaning: when there are other fast house buyers making offers to that home seller wishing to sell the house fast - a good credit score will give you the right of way to the home seller’s attention. In any situation, having good credit creates a shortcut to advanced steps to buying a house; when you’re a fast house buyer in need to do it the fastest you can, it becomes vital. If your tank (credit score) is in bad shape; start fueling with quality gas to improve the performance of your “car”. Otherwise, you’re not making it to the finish line.
Buy a home with cash
There’s always the question if you should buy a home with cash. It’s definitely not for everybody; usually only for people with a lot of “races” under their belt. However, we can’t escape the fact that by paying in cash upfront, without having to go through the whole financing ordeal, home sellers will make your home buying process faster. Paying in cash makes it sweeter for the home seller. He/She will have money in the bank faster, because there will be no need for the mortgage intermediation, that usually takes a bit of time. And, if you play your cards right, even faster for you, because you might be able to reduce the price a notch because of the convenience of paying the whole thing in cash right then and there. However, don’t forget this is a race and there are other fast house buyers out there. If June is going to be the quickest month to sell a house, maybe you should not think about trying to sweeten the deal so much, or you might lose it to another fast house buyer who had no problem eating it unsweetened.
Get preapproved for a loan
Like checking your credit score, this one is supposed to be done before you enter the fast house buyer race, as it should be one of your first steps to buying a house; we’ve only placed it here to put it in contrast with the “pay it in cash” advice. Here’s the deal; like we hinted, it’s human nature, right? People paying in cash will try to sweeten the deal for them, asking to lower the price because they will pay it in cash and faster. When that happens, if you can’t do it too - turning the race into a bidding war for the lucky home seller - it will be hard to compete. So, a way to counter that is going to a mortgage broker or institution with all the paperwork necessary to get not just pre-qualified but preapproved for a mortgage loan of how much you’re willing to pay for a house – you need to make this homework before the race starts and find out the market value of the type of house you want to look for so you’re playing near the correct ballpark. With a pre-approval letter, the house seller will probably keep you in the race, because - although it might take a bit longer to close everything - he/she has the financial guarantee of a higher amount should you be the one who wins the home buying process race. Just remember there’s a difference between being prequalified and preapproved for a loan!
Jump headfirst into the home buying process
This last piece of advice is only for “racers” truly committed to learning the secrets of how to buy a house quickly: if you’re really serious about reaching the finish line of the home buying process grandprix as the number one fast house buyer, you should consider taking vacations next June to exclusively focus on it. Aside from all preparation to make things faster, all the regular steps to buying a house, there’s nothing like a house buyer who’s really available through the whole home buying process. There’s a saying that goes like “ the master’s eye fattens the horse”, which means basically that if you’re present, supervising, things will go according to your will. If you’re constantly in contact with your real estate agent, always replying in a timely fashion to all queries, personally going to your mortgage institution as soon as you can… you’re bound to do better than someone who does that remotely and/or during spare time after work. If last year took 73 days for the whole home buying process to get complete and this year will likely be faster, maybe taking vacations on the 15th day of June, might be the ideal time. That doesn’t mean that you will start the quest that day. No dice! You will be running from day one - from day zero; start now! However, since you’ll hardly have 60 days of vacations, use the 30 you might have later on, so – once you find the property you like – you can start the whole back-and-forth with the home seller so you can pop open that champagne reserved for the number 1 fast house buyer of the quickest home buying process race yet.
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