The first step is to talk with a mortgage lender and get pre-approved for a mortgage.  This is crucial so you know what you can afford, understand what type of down payment you will need to get a loan as well as ensure the payment will fit into your budget.  

All good real estate agents will require you to have a preapproval letter prior to beginning your home search and looking at homes.  This is because the real estate agent needs to know you can afford the home before inconveniencing the seller with a showing, and the real estate agent will need a copy of the preapproval letter to submit with your purchase agreement once you find the home of your dreams.

Once you have your preapproval you and your real estate agent can discuss all the details about your home search and get started looking at homes!!

This amount can vary considerably based on multiple factors that your mortgage lender will discuss with you. However, the average downpayment is around 15%, but there are a lot of programs that offer considerably lower option, even some at no money down. These programs can be great for first time homebuyers who don’t have a large sum of money saved up for a home.

Discussing your situation with your real estate agent and lender is the best route to take here because they will review multiple factors and provide you with a clear path towards homeownership. Bottom line; don’t believe everything you hear/read, take the initiative to speak to a professional so you have a clear path to homeownership.

There are a lot of variables here, but an estimated time would be 10-12 weeks from the start (getting preapproved/looking online) to closing on your home. The typical time it takes from making an offer to the closing is 30-60 days; of course if you’re paying with cash that timeframe can be shortened considerably. It’s always important to ask your lender what they’re seeing for closing timeframes as it can change in times of heavy demand, etc.

There is no magic number here, basically when you know you know. Shopping for a home has gotten considerably easier with the ability to look at homes online, see all the details, view pictures, etc.. Also, the more specific you can be regarding your wants/needs when talking with your Real Estate Agent they can really help narrow down the available homes to ensure you’re only spending time looking at homes that meet your desires!

You will meet with your Real Estate agent who will walk you through the process of writing an offer and ensure you understand how the process and negotiations will work. This is where your Real Estate Agent will really hold your hand and lead you through the process!

When you make an offer on a home you will be required to submit ‘earnest money’ which acts as a deposit on the property. The amount of earnest money to submit is usually between 1-3% of the purchase price.

Nowadays the earnest money is usually submitted via a physical check, or via an online transaction system (called “Trust Funds” in our neck of the woods).

The act of submitting earnest money shows the seller of the home that the offer is genuine and serious.

The earnest money is held in a Trust Account until the closing occurs when it is then credited back to you on the closing statement.
Important to

Note: if both parties agree to a contract, but the buyer backs out later there is no guarantee that the earnest money will be refunded to the buyer. It is always good to have this discussion with your Real Estate agent if you’re ever thinking about backing out.

Yes! You must have a home inspection if you want to use an FHA or VA loan to purchase a house. Inspections are not necessary for other mortgage types; however, they are strongly advised because faults in the house can go unnoticed. Home inspections provide comfort and security after one of the most important lifetime purchases.

A good Real Estate Agent will come and take a look at your home, making note of the condition, features, updates, repairs needed, etc.  They will then take that information back to their office and really dig into local market data regarding comparable homes on the market or recently sold, market conditions (buyer or seller market), and do a full comparative market analysis to set the right price!

Well, they can be but in no way should these be relied on to be 100% accurate. The estimates from Zillow or sites like ours  are automated valuations based on tax records and sales data from the MLS. They don’t take into account such things as location, condition of the home, upgrades, recent home improvements, etc.

An experienced Realtor can help properly evaluate your home and prepare a current CMA (comparative market analysis) based on all of these factors.

“Market Value” is the price a home buyer is willing to pay for your home. A professional appraiser can determine the “appraised value” which may or may not correspond with the market value. Lenders typically use the appraised value when determining the LTV (loan to value) ratio during the mortgage process. “Tax value” is the value that the city or county tax assessors place on your home for tax purposes. This value can stay in place for as long as 8 years (in NC) while the market value can fluctuate. Tax value is typically lower than market value, sometimes by 20% or more.

This really depends on your timeframe, and the potential upside from making updates.  One thing you want to be sure of is that you don’t spend a lot of money making updates that will not result in a higher sales price.  Certain updates may be strongly suggested; such as painting the walls in a neutral color, because it will help the home appeal to a larger pool of buyers.  Updates that will be very costly, time consuming and will not produce a higher sales price are not recommended.  

The best route to take in evaluating these items is to consult with a real estate agent who can provide key market information to let you know how your home compares to others, what it will bring in the market as-is compared to what it would bring if you make updates.  Consult an Agent before you start any projects if your goal is to sell!

There are clearly some variables here such as whether or not you’ve taken our advice with preparation and proper pricing, whether or not there are factors that we can’t control (environmental factors, noise from a busy road, power lines behind the home, location, etc), and the current market that you are selling in.

There are always home buyers out there and we most definitely have the skills to make your home stand out from the competition. When the right things are put into place, you can usually expect positive results rather quickly.

You’ll often hear that spring is the best time to list your home. Spring is typically the start of the selling season and buyers become much more active. Others may say it’s best to list in the summer, before the start of the new school year.

Truth is, there are ALWAYS buyers out there regardless of the time of year. If you’re thinking of listing in the spring or summer, there will be more competition in the market. If you waited later in the year to list, your results could be just as good, if not better, because there is typically less inventory.

In a nutshell, the best time to sell is when it’s right for YOU. We will help your home stand out no matter the time of year.

Once your home goes on the MLS, the listing will be syndicated and distributed to nearly every local real estate website (kike ours) as well as popular national portals including realtor.com, Trulia, and Zillow. So, as long as you list your home with a licensed Realtor (and if you agree to public marketing via your listing agreement), your home will be displayed openly to the public along with every other MLS listing.

100% Yes! Which is why we maintain a relationship with the best real estate photographers in Central Iowa! This is so important as over 95% of home buyers start their search online, so maintaining a relationship with a proven photographer that understands proper lighting, angles, how to get the right shot, has good editing skills, etc.

We’ve worked with several great ones over the years and only work with the ones that we feel will showcase your home in the best possible light. This is really non-negotiable!

When you have a showing, make sure your home looks clean, neat & decluttered as much as possible. Turn on all of the lights and ceiling fans, open blinds and curtains, and put on some soft music. It’s a good idea to remove pet items, make the beds and maybe do a light cleaning. Buyers will often open up your closets, cabinets, pantry & fridge too. Another thing we recommend to our sellers is to lock up or remove any valuables and secure important documents in the home.

Although buyers will have their agent with them, they can’t always be with them 100% of the time. For those of you with home surveillance equipment like cameras, nanny cams, and Ring doorbells, please make sure you turn OFF the audio before you leave. Sellers are not allowed to listen in on conversations with other parties without their consent.

Short answer is, no. While you may be one of the nicest, most charming people ever, home buyers and their agents want and need their own private space to freely and openly discuss your home and their feelings.

This is another reason we don’t allow overlapping showings on our listings. Buyers are making a huge decision and usually only have a short window of time to view your home. It’s best to give them their space.

No, not all of them. Anyone coming through your home will certainly be accompanied by a licensed real estate agent but there’s no guarantee that the agent has a contractual relationship with the buyer yet and there’s no guarantee that the buyer has been pre-qualified. However, there’s an unwritten expectation that the real estate broker has at least researched the buyer prior to showing the home and performed some type of due diligence on them.

As the homeowner, you can most certainly ask your listing agent to require proof of funds or a pre-qualification letter from the buyer’s agent upfront, but you may risk losing a legitimate buyer that may have made a last-minute trip to the area, wasn’t prepared with proof of financing or didn’t fully understand the process.

Unfortunately, no.  Not all real estate agents will provide feedback on the showing.  If there is interest, they will most certainly let us know that there is interest, but we won’t always find out what they didn’t like about the home. 

A good real estate agent will work to get feedback, and will follow-up on every showing, but we can’t always guarantee that the showing agent will respond with useful feedback.