Keep As Much Money In Your Pocket As Possible When Buying Your Hampton Roads / Virginia Beach Home.

If you’re planning to buy a home in our Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads area, no doubt you want to get the best deal. When you analyze those successful Hampton Roads home buyers who were able to purchase the home they want for thousands of dollars below a seller’s asking price, some common elements emerge.

If you’re like most buyers, you have two primary considerations in mind when you start looking for a home. First, you want to find a home that perfectly meets your needs, desires and fits in with your longer term plans, and secondly, you want to purchase this home for the lowest possible price, keeping your mortgage low and keeping your closing expenses to a minimum. Although our negotiating skills as your Buyer Agent are important, there are three additional key issues that you need to be aware of long before you ever submit an offer.

These Steps Will Help You Save Thousands When You Buy a Home.

Make sure you know what you want.

Sounds easy, but many buyers don’t have a firm idea about their TRUE wants and needs before they go out searching for a home. In reality, when you go shopping for a place to live, there are actually two homes competing for your attention: the one that meets your needs, and the one that fulfills your desires. All things being equal, our goal is to find one home that does both. Unfortunately, this situation doesn’t always occur. Often you’ll find that you fall in love with one home or another for entirely different reasons. Is it better to buy the four bedroom home with room for your family to grow, or the one with the big eat-in kitchen that romances you with thoughts of big weekend family brunches? What’s more important: a big backyard, or proximity to your child’s school? Far too often people buy a home for the wrong reasons, and then regret their decision when the home doesn’t meet their needs. Make sure you’ve thought about what type of home you REALLY want and for what reasons, and remind yourself throughout the search process.

Don’t shop with stars in your eyes: satisfy your needs first.

If you’re lucky, you’ll find a home that satisfies your needs AND fulfills your desires. The important thing is to understand the difference before you get caught up in the excitement of looking.

Find out how quickly your agent can notify you of new listings that match your requirements. …and find out if they have access to foreclosures, too.

Find out if your agent offers a service to notify you of new listings, and also has a database of the newest FORECLOSURES. This takes the guesswork out of finding just the right home that matches your needs, as you’re emailed as soon as a property comes onto the market. Foreclosures are a big part of the market here in Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads, so you’ll also want to make sure you also have access to them as well. This type of notification service will cross-match your criteria with ALL available homes on the market (including foreclosures if you pick the right Buyer Agent) and supply you with information by email on an on-going basis. For instance, our system will notify you by email as soon as a property is listed for sale, giving you the chance to possibly see it in person FIRST before other buyers. Our database includes bank-owned foreclosures in Virginia Beach, Chesapeake foreclosures, Norfolk, Suffolk, Portsmouth, and every area of Hampton Roads.

For more information and to search Virginia Beach and Hampton Roads homes, condos, townhomes and more, click here and start now – It’s easy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Jody Cowdrey is the Marketing Sales Director for the top producing Brian Duncan Group Real Estate Team of Keller Williams Realty, serving the entire Hampton Roads region of Virginia. He can be reached at Jody@JodyCowdrey.com and by phone at 757-802-3004. For complete Virginia Beach MLS listings, visit BuyVB.com or Virginia Beach Foreclosure info at JodyCowdrey.com