Tulsa Real Estate Agent | The Wolek Group | 918-550-9243

As the events of the last few years in the real estate industry show, people forget about the tremendous financial responsibility of purchasing a home at their peril. Here are a few tips for dealing with the dollar signs so that you can take down that “for sale” sign on your new home.

Get pre-approved. Sub-primes may be history, but you’ll probably still be shown homes you can’t actually afford. By getting pre-approved as a buyer, you can save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can't afford. You can also put yourself in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right home. Unlike pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt, and credit history. By doing a thorough analysis of your actual spending power, you’ll be less likely to get in over your head. This also allows you to show a strong offer in a multiple-offer scenario. You will give the pre-approval letter to your real estate agent who will then submit it to the other parties' real estate agent. This ensures that the sellers know that you mean business and are ready to buy your future Tulsa home. 

Choose your mortgage carefully. Mortgage shopping is an extremely important part of the process. You could be in that mortgage for up to 30 years! Do your homework with a local lender (recommended by your real estate agent preferably) who will have your best interest in mind and can give you advice on what type of mortgage will work best for your unique situation. Something a lender might offer as well is the option of paying additional points (a portion of the interest that you pay at closing) in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you plan to stay in the house for a long time, taking the points could save you money in the long-run! However, that will be a question to ask your local trusted lender.

Do your homework before bidding. This is where having a real estate agent really pays off. It is the job of the real estate agent to make sure that you are paying no more than market value for the home. Real estate agents are able to ensure this because they have access to the MLS, which includes the most up to date info on which houses have closed at what prices for the past 6 months - years. The real estate agent will then be able to pull comparables or "comps" from the neighborhood to be able to tell what similar homes to the one you are buying have sold for in the past 6 months. This helps ensure that you still purchase your dream home, but not at a price that will set you up poorly for selling in the future. A good example of this would be, if homes similar to yours in the neighborhood have recently sold for 3 percent less than the asking price, your opening bid should probably be about 5 to 7 percent lower than what the seller is asking. That way you can meet in the middle with a 3% discount! Woohoo!

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Buying a home is an important and exciting thing! But it is not something that should be taken lightly, make sure you have one of our top real estate agents on your side when walking through the process. Here at The Wolek Group, we even do a free Buyer Consultation that walks you through all the steps of the process, give us a call today, 918-550-9243