about to call realtor; what are your suggestions for first steps in home buying / searching?

[Anonymous]

We are [going to be] a family of 4 this fall and want to go ahead and move out of our 2 bdr apartment into a SFH. We've spent this entire summer debating where to buy and what amenities we need and now it seems the inventory has plummeted in the areas we're looking (Vienna, FC City, Dunn Loring and Northern West Springfield).
Couple of questions:
- how exact do our requirements need to be in order for our time with a realtor to be worthwhile? To further that point - we've looked at a lot of open houses and I check online listings regularly (multiple times/day) and I generally know what's out there; what is a realtor going to do for me? I don't need someone to tell me what schools I want or don't want, but I am certainly open to learning about neighborhoods.

Any other advice at this point?

[Anonymous]

The very first thing you should do is decide what your budget is and talk to a mortgage broker. You should then get pre-approved so that when you contact a realtor you are ready to go.

You should know as much as you can about your requirements before you contact the realtor but realize that unless you have a huge budget, you may have to make some compromises.

Your realtor can't discuss schools (as in this is a good school district) for legal (discriminatory)reasons so you should know where you want to be.

After having done this 3 times, I would suggest that you identify and hire an independent home inspector. We've been burned using the person recommended by the realtor and it is reasonable to assume that they do not want major issues to undo a potential deal.

The most inventory is in the spring/early summer but you will also have the most competition so if you are not in a hurry just keep looking.

[Anonymous]

You might want to consider not going with a realtor, or at least going with a cut-rate one from redfin or some such. you are best off finding your own home on-line - I didn't find realtors add much value to the process.
Realtors are quite limited in what they are legally allowed to tell you about neighborhoods - you will find friends and DCUM is a much better source!

[Anonymous]

If it makes you feel any better, the inventory wasn't that great in April, May or June either. I listed my house in late April (sold in 10 days) and then had a really hard time finding something because there just wasn't much out there for sale. Buyer's market, my ass. So try not to kick yourselves for not getting out there earlier. It's a weird market this year. I think a lot of folks are staying put and hoping prices will continue to go up, or waiting to see what the economy will do.

If I were you, I'd also run the numbers on one of those online mortgage calculators and get some idea of your price range. don't forget about taxes - most of the websites will have a home's tax #. Figure out what you're comfortable with, because a lot of mortage brokers will offer to help get you into whatever house you qualify for, and that number might be higher than the figure YOU want to pay monthly.

For a buyer, a realtor is actually pretty valuable. You can see open houses on your own, but a LOT of houses never do an open house. we didn't do one for my house. The realtor can get you in to see all the houses you want to see, using their lockbox code, and the seller pays their commission. When I was looking, I saw open houses on my own, and used my realtor to see all the houses that didn't do open houses. (which was at least 2/3 of them.) I bought a house that I saw "open", but without my realtor, I wouldn't have seen enough houses to know a great deal when I came across it by myself.

[Anonymous]

Have an honest conversation with yourselves about how much updgrading and renovating you are willing to do to a property. Whatever your time and money estimates for fixing something you don't like in a house, double the budget and the time it'll take to get it the way you want it.

[Anonymous]

If you are looking in a popular neighborhood with low inventory, a realtor who truly specializes in that neighborhood can be invaluable. Our experience has been that the really great houses sell before they hit the MLS. The reason they're only on the market "one day," is because the buyer saw it beforehand. The seller's agents all know who has a client who is looking.

My other suggestion is to have friends that already live in the neighborhood keep an eye out for you. Word usually gets around when someone is thinking about selling.

[Anonymous]

greatschools and fcps.edu have the info you need on schools.

Fairfax County has a 911 incident mapper which helps with crime.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/gisapps/myneighborhood/default.aspx?http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/gisapps/myneighborhood/mynpolice.aspx#police

It doesn't, however, work in Vienna Town or Fairfax City.

Anywhere in Vienna Town will be fine to great, except the area immediately surrounding the Vienna Park Apartments. Below say Kingsley Street the housing stock is a little more run-down but not bad by any means (there's more teardowns/buildups closer to 123 and in NW/NE Vienna.)

But then if you're coming from Suitland, even that area will be fine. Not sure where the less desirable areas of Fairfax City are, but none have the notoriety of Culmore, south Alexandria, or Woodbridge.

Remember if you buy in Fairfax City, you get Fairfax City services and pay only Fairfax City tax. If you buy in Vienna Town, you pay both Fairfax County and Vienna Town tax, but do get Vienna Town services (better road plowing, I was able to get out and about 4 of the 5 days of Snowmageddon, for example, trash pickup, improved police response, etc.) IMO, for a house below say $600k it sort of pays for itself, but above $600k it's only the intangible benefits of living in the Town (such as basically being exempt from school rezonings, being closer to a decent retail/dining area, etc.)

[Anonymous]

A realtor is going to be able to get you into see houses. He/she will help you craft offers and give you competitive market analysis (CMAs) for houses you're interested in. He/she will negoiate with sellers (or their agents). And they will help you with all the paperwork. I really think buyers agents are very useful.

It sounds to me like you are probably ready to talk to an agent. You should have an idea of what you want (like number of bedrooms/baths, areas you're interested in), but until you actually see some properties, you probably won't have a good idea as to what your trade-offs are going to be.

[Anonymous]

A realtor is going to be able to get you into see houses. He/she will help you craft offers and give you competitive market analysis (CMAs) for houses you're interested in. He/she will negoiate with sellers (or their agents). And they will help you with all the paperwork. I really think buyers agents are very useful.

I agree with this. We have purchased 2 homes, both of which we basically found on our own, but we would not have gotten either of them if not for our realtor. The first purchase, at the height of the craze in 1999, was a multiple offer situation in NW DC - the open house was on Sunday and there were 11 offers that Monday, including ours, which included some things we never would have thought to do (free one-month rent-back for the seller, escalation clause, etc). The second one was in 2003 in Vienna, and again, open on Sunday, multiple offers on Monday (I think 4) and we got the house again thanks to our realtor crafting an attractive offer that beat out the others. I will add that our realtor was in DC & did not know Vienna, but for us it did not matter that much because we did the research ourselves, talked to a lot of people, and investigated neighborhoods and schools on our own, and when we saw this house, we knew it was the "our house" within the first 30 seconds but she was essential in drafting the offer and negotiating for us. In a market with low inventory where there are multiple bidders for the same property, a good agent can make the difference in getting the house or not.

[Anonymous]

The most important thing for me was deciding what our maximum mortgage payment, including taxes and insurance, would be for each month. Then, I deducted $100 from that just to be safe. I didn't know how much house that would be equivalent to, but having that monthly number in my mind rather than some number in the hundreds of thousands helped us stick to our budget during our search.

I also agree that with all the access to listings online these days, the only thing a realtor is really good for is actually getting you into the house and then writing up the offer. I would use Redfin if I bought again.