How to Buy a House With No Real Estate Agent
To save money on real estate agent fees and get more for their home sale, many homeowners are selling their homes without a real estate agent. As a buyer, you have a few extra responsibilities to attend to when buying without a real estate agent to make sure your sale goes through to your satisfaction. Much of what you have to do as a buyer involves research that is normally done for you by a real estate agent.
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Instructions
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Determine which lender you will want to get your mortgage through and get pre-qualified for your mortgage. When you are pre-qualified you will know exactly how much money you can spend, and the fact that you have already been approved for your mortgage will speed up the process.
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Begin looking through real estate publications for listings that fall within your price range. You can also find listings on the Internet by doing a search of FSBO real estate listings. FSBO is an acronym for "for sale by owner." Use a pen and paper to make a list of the properties that you may be interested in.
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Visit each property you are considering purchasing and see if the property meets your needs. If you have children then find out how close it is to local schools. Drive around the neighborhood and get a feel for how the other homes in the neighborhood look and if the neighborhood looks like a place you would like to live. Determine the proximity of each property to things that are important to you, such as shopping malls and your place of employment.
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Rate each property based on the criteria that you have set, and then make personal appointments to look at the top three properties on your list.
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Look around the interior of each property and make note of any repairs that may be needed, or any remodeling that you feel may need to be done if you were to purchase the home.
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Research properties in the area that are for sale through real estate agents, and visit them when there is an open house. Make notes comparing those houses with the homes you are considering.
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Contact the local government office that files recently purchased homes and find out what homes in the area of the ones you are considering have sold for recently.
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Analyze the data you have collected and compare the prices of the FSBO homes you are looking at to the other homes for sale in the area and homes that have recently sold.
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Determine which home you would like to purchase and make an offer to the owners that you feel is fair based on the information you have collected.
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Hire a real estate attorney to help you file the proper paperwork and make sure that your transaction goes smoothly once your offer is accepted.
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Tips & Warnings
Remember that, without a real estate agent, you will be responsible for things such as reviewing sales contracts and making sure the title insurance is in place before you close on your home. This is why it is important to get a real estate attorney involved in the closing of your transaction.
