Im ready to look for a home

Ok, I’m ready to look, now what?
Here are some good first steps -

1. Get a good real estate agent (or agent team) to help you. Remember that you pay almost nothing for this support. The real estate agent makes his/her commission off the seller at closing. Most agencies charge an administrative fee for work that the agent did for you during the search, but that is not collected until you close on a house and is normally only a couple hundred dollars – nothing in the big scheme of things. Other than driving some neighborhoods to get a feel for them and for driving distances, it's a waste of time for you to drive around looking for signs in front of houses. (CLICK HERE FOR MORE ON WHY USE A REALTOR)

2. Let your agent do the MLS (The Multi-list Service that real estate professional use) searches for you. Your agent should take the time to go over an explanation of the forms of Real Estate Agency with you and have you sign the form that indicates that he/she has done so. The agency form is not a contract; it's just a form that states that you have been informed about agency. This is not only a good practice; Michigan Real Estate licensing law requires it. Make sure that your agent is a Realtor, which is a designation for a member of the Michigan Association of Realtors and which means that the agent has agreed to do business following the Code of Ethics of that Association.

3. Use the power of the Web! Statistics tell us that 89% of people looking for a house see it first on the Web. There are several very good search sites - www.realtor.com, www.moveinmichigan.com , www.realestateone.com and even MSN and EBAY have real estate sections. These Web sites can't replace the work done by a good agent and they run anywhere from days to weeks behind the MLS that your agent will use. They do provide a good way for you to look at houses in the areas and price ranges that you may have in mind. The Real Estate One site has a nice map-based search feature that you might want to try.

If you have in mind to “get away from it all” and live in a rural setting, there are some special things you need to consider and perhaps even a different approach to your search for that country home.

4. Once you see something that you might like, make note of the MLS number, if it is given, and contact your agent to set up a showing. There are also tons of real estate booklets around. Most of them are weeks to months out of date and most don't have any of the critical information in them. They make good reading over a meal and let you get a feel for different style of houses. There is also a Real Estate channel on cable TV, which is somewhat boring to watch, but which may give you one or two houses to look at with your agent. Get the MLS number when it shows up! If you need every break you can find to buy a house, look for houses with seller concessions or subsidies on them

5. Once you get a list from the Web or from your Realtor, drive by all of them and make notes about the neighborhoods and anything that you notice from the outside that you may need to ask your agent to look into for you. Just doing drive-byes will eliminate a number of houses that might have looked good on the Web or on paper. You may also want to get school report cards for the school districts that you would be in and get profiles of the communities.

6. If you see a house that you want to visit, call your agent and have him/her arrange for the visit. Remember that your Realtor can represent your interests in any house, even those that are "For Sale By Owner." If you should decide to stop by an Open House that you may see, let the agent that is in the house know that you are already working with a buyer's agent and that they will be representing you on any offer made on that house.