real estate tips - Deep Creek Lake Blog

New Year’s Tips for Buying and Selling

New Year’s tips for buyers or sellers will help you position yourself for success! If you are thinking of buying or selling, now is the time to prepare. I put together some of my top suggestions for you. I also included some tips to build equity and what updates are best when investing in your current home.

New Year’s Tips for Buyers

Thinking about buying your first home? Considering upsizing or downsizing? Here are some things to do that will help you achieve your goal.

-Create a realistic timeline and work towards your goal. The items below should be on that list.

-Check your credit scores. If you need to improve your rating, start looking at items that are bringing it down. Work on lowering debt and making timely payments.

-Start or increase your savings for a down payment.

–Choose an experienced real estate agent. You can contact me at betsy@deepcreekvacations.com or call 301-616-5022.

-Begin the loan pre-approval process. I can help you find a lender to work with. Mike Archer, from First Home Mortgage, is the in-house lender at Taylor-Made.

–Start looking for homes. I can show you any home that is listed, even if it is with another brokerage. We can work together to find homes that meet your criteria and that are within your budget.

Ten Steps To A Successful Settlement- Deep Creek Lake Real Estate

Betsy Spiker Holcomb Deep Creek Lakes Favorite Realtor

I have spent my career making sure my clients are educated on all the complexities that arise during the purchase of a home. After my team of buyer agents find the perfect home for their clients, our work toward a successful settlement really begins. As a selling agent for over the last 12 years, I have prepared and taught my team the necessary steps to ensure a smooth home buying experience. Here are some basic guidelines to ensure a successful settlement.

Ten Steps To A Successful Settlement

1.) Get pre-approved by a reputable lender.

2.)Compare your housing desires with what you can afford to begin the process of locating a home that meets your needs and means.

3.)Consider the state of the market your shopping in and decide when the right time to buy is.

4.) Once you have identified the best property to buy and you are ready to move forward with the bid/contract process, ask your experienced buyer specialist to walk you through your responsibilities and your potential need for expert tax & legal advice.

5.)Contact your lender immediately after the contract is fully executed. A reasonable commitment date is 30 days from contract acceptance.

6.) Be sure to follow-up with your lender to make sure they are providing all necessary paperwork required to render a final loan. Ascertain that an appraisal has been ordered and the date scheduled.

7.)Check with your real estate agent to make sure they are providing the appraiser current comps to validate the price of the property.

8.) A good real estate agent will communicate with your lender every couple of days to ensure all elements of the loan process are in order and proceeding in accordance with the contract commitment date.

9.) After receiving formal loan commitment, coordinate with the lender or real estate agent to make certain any and all underwriting conditions have been satisfied and nothing further is needed from you.

10.) When you receive final loan commitment from your lender, select your title company and schedule the settlement date. Remember that you must have a home owner’s insurance policy prior to settlement.

Real estate market looking up at Deep Creek Lake

Real estate market looking up at Deep Creek Lake. YES, this statment is proving to be true! There have been 17 residential sales thus far in 2010, with sales prices ranging anywhere from $80,000-825,000. On top of that, there are 32 additional residential properties that are under contract or pending sale with asking prices of $42,900-2,250,000. This is potentially 49 sales for the 1st quarter of 2010. Nothing to shrug off considering the low consumer confidence we’ve seen over the last 18 months.

For comparison, there were 18 home sales during the same time last year ( 1/1/09-3/1/09), 32 sales in 2008, 49 sales in 2007 and 67 sales in 2006. Our average list price to sales price ratio is still 91%, which is considerably good when looking at the nation’s averages. (Source for # of units sold: Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, MRIS)

Deep Creek Lake’s real estate source

Tag: real estate tips

New Year’s Tips for Buying and Selling

New Year’s Tips for Buyers

Ten Steps To A Successful Settlement- Deep Creek Lake Real Estate

Real estate market looking up at Deep Creek Lake

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