The home buying process is usually an exciting time; however, it can also be stressful at times. Our goal is to make the home buying process simple, fun and stress-free as possible. Simply put, our goal is to help you achieve your goals!

We are full time Center City professional real estate agents. This isn’t a side hustle; helping our clients is our career. And unlike many real estate agents that try to operate in the city, we actually live in the city and know the blocks and nuances of the city. 

Purchasing a home is usually the single biggest purchase anyone will make in their life and we take that very seriously. We are here to educate and guide you every step of the way and help you make an informed decision.

Speaking of education, we’ve outlined the Philadelphia home buying process below. Even if you’ve purchased a home in the past, the process may have changed, and how we do things in Philly may be different from your prior experience. 

Many buyers believe that they don’t need to get their financing in line until they’ve found a home and then they can start the process. However, if you don’t want to lose out on a great opportunity, having funding in place should be your next priority. 

Even in a slower real estate market, the best homes that are priced correctly can still move immediately and even receive multiple offers. Yes, even when other homes take months to sell. You just never know sometimes. 

Thus, our recommendation is to always get your funding secured first or at least start the process simultaneously and make it a priority to expedite the qualification process with your lender. If you are paying cash, that is awesome and very helpful but still do start the verification process with your bank and make sure you know who to speak with and how quickly a bank rep can get you a letter stating how much you can spend on a home - especially if you are with a large bank that moves slow.

If you will be financing with a lender, your choice of lender can make a difference in the level of stress you (and everyone involved) will be under and can also cause you to lose out on your dream home and even spend more money than you expected. You may still not fully agree that your lender decision matters. However, at least reach out to me so we can discuss. I can make some lender recommendations and also help you avoid any pitfalls. At the end of the day, you’re in control of your home buying process. I just want to help mitigate any stress for you.

Usually setting a goal should be the 1st priority. However, I’ve chosen to make this the 3rd step in the home buying process in Philadelphia. And the reason is that both of the preceding steps can make an impact on your goal. Sure, you will obviously have some goal in mind at the outset but a good real estate advisor will help clarify your goals and knowing your financing is of course extremely relevant to your goal.

If you are following our process, at this stage, you will have spoken to a local Philly real estate agent and also have a good sense of your budget. Now, you can start to hone in on your home buying goal. For example, what neighborhoods should be on your watchlist? What type of home is best for you, a condo or townhome? How much are you looking to spend? What’s important to you and your family? Etc

Naturally your goals will evolve over time and with exposure to neighborhoods and homes. So, your goals could change over time. This stage is just to establish what you think your goals are so we can start moving in a direction.

Now that we have your goals established, we can begin the exciting process of starting to look at properties. We’ll setup a home search using our online website - which is updated in real time unlike many other search sites. Also, the Philly market is a bit more unique than other markets and sites like Zillow or Realtor.com cannot handle many of the local search fields that our website is setup to handle. Our goal for the search process is to get relevant properties in front of your eyes immediately so that you don’t miss out on any good opportunities.

As we start touring homes together, we will tweak and clarify your goals as needed so that you find exactly what you are looking for.

Congrats, you’ve found the one! Now it's time to make sure you secure this home by writing the most appropriate offer. This is where our expertise really starts to shine, as regardless of the type of market we are in, we have a variety of tools at our disposal to help secure this home. 

Most agents don’t know how to pick up a telephone and hit the call button. No, seriously! I’m not joking. The way that I receive an offer on a listing is when I check my email and I see an offer waiting for me. Now that’s great but that buyer's agent never called me to find out any further information. For example, it might be pertinent to know what’s important to my seller client - it’s not always price, or do we have any other offers or possibly float the terms of an offer by me verbally to elicit a response.

I always, always do these things and more before submitting an offer on behalf of my clientele. My job as a fiduciary for my buyer client is to find out as much information as possible to use for our advantage in the offer situation. I will use this information in negotiations, etc to get you into the home while spending the least amount of money possible.

Then I will strategically advise you and make recommendations. I’ll explain the contract and answer any questions that you have. You will ultimately be the final decision maker on the terms of the offer.

All offers must be in writing and accompanied with a financial deposit to be taken seriously in Philadelphia. 

There may be some back and forth negotiations and we bring our expertise in negotiation and the local market to get you the best deal. 

Congrats, your offer has been accepted and assuming your offer had an inspection contingency, it’s now time to inspect your new home and confirm it meets your conditions. A home inspection is normally the period of time where you will hire a professional home inspector to evaluate the main components of the home and raise any possible concerns. It’s important to note that the home inspector’s job is to find issues so expect them to find issues even on a brand new home.

Once we have the inspection report, we will review the report together and decide how you would like to proceed. It is common to ask the seller to remedy certain issues, especially safety concerns and possibly other defects. The seller could agree to fix them, offer a financial credit or deny the request. There may be a bit of negotiations back and forth. Our goal is to make sure you are happy with the outcome of this process, even if it means terminate the contract during the inspection contingency period.

A home appraisal is where an appraiser, an independent and unbiased 3rd party, determines the fair market value of a home. This is required when you are taking a mortgage out. The bank must determine the value to be comfortable lending you the money.

One of the common pitfalls to using a random lender and not a good local lender is the appraisal. Certain banks hire just any appraiser and that could mean that your appraiser isn’t too familiar with Philadelphia. Maybe the bulk of their experience is in the surrounding suburbs. One potential issue with this is they may not understand what an accurate comparable property is and your appraised value could come in low due to their inexperience. This will cause unnecessary stress and potentially even not being able to secure the home. 

Even if the bank does use a good and knowledgeable appraiser, it is possible that the value does come in lower than expected. In this situation, I will advise you on the best way forward. There are numerous options to move forward including negotiating down the price of the home to meet the appraised value. In any case, we are here for you and will advocate in your best interest.