Agent – JD PDX Real Estate | Your Portland Realtor

4 Proven Useful & Practical Tips For Financing Your First Home

Jamohl DeWald — Tue, 24 Jul 2018 15:18:21 +0000

4 Outstanding Quality Tips For Financing Your First Home

Are you thinking about buying a home this year? Are you slightly overwhelmed by the whole process? Are you not sure where to start and who to speak to? No worries, you are not alone! In this article, I will share with you a few things to consider and make the path to homeownership an easier one when you decide that you are ready to buy a home.

It’s a good idea to fully understand the home loan process. If you’re thinking about buying a home this year, use these 4 tips to optimize your opportunity.

Credit-Check

Do you know what your credit score is? Do you have any credit? Do you have battered credit? This is step number one in the pre-approval process. It’s a good idea to pull a copy of your credit report and look it over for any errors or inaccuracies. This is the time to start working on fixing those inaccuracies that you find. It would also be a good time to speak to a credit repair expert or your local mortgage broker for advice. They can advise you which outstanding debts to tackle first and what type of account you should open to help build credit if you don’t have any/enough.

Your credit score will have a direct impact on your mortgage loan rate and what types of loans you can qualify for. If you have been procrastinating and thinking your battered credit will just go away on it’s own, it’s time to change that mindset and deal with it head on!

Save-Down Payment

While experts may advise putting 20% of the total sales price down, in today’s world the average first time home buyer puts down about 3 to 5%. 20% down is just not possible for most when it comes to their first home purchase. There are programs out there that don’t require any money down or as little as 3-5% down depending on your credit and where you plan to buy a home (Check with your local lender or mortgage broker for loan options available to you in your area) There are all types of down payment assistant programs out there from grants, to non-profit organizations that can help you as well.

More than likely, there will be expenses beyond just your down payment. These can include, closing costs, mortgage insurance (if less than 20% is put down), homeowners insurance, flood insurance , negotiated repairs needed to the home, and let’s not forget the move itself! It is in your best interest to save as much money as possible before you start the pre-approval process. When you have a few months of mortage payments saved it can lead to more flexibility from the lenders.

Pre Approval

Now that you have gotten your credit cleaned up and all inaccuracies removed, saved up some money for closing costs and down payment, it is time to get your home loan pre-approval done. With inventory at an all time low in most areas of the United States, it is also still a seller’s market in most areas. You must have a pre-approval in hand, not a pre-qualification when you decide to offer on a home in today’s market. A pre-qualification is just that…that means you have spoken to a lender and told them how much you make etc, whereas a pre-approval means that a lender has verified the things that you have said on the phone and have documentation to back it up. A pre-approval is much stronger than a pre-qualification. A pre-qualification is barely worth the paper it’s written on.

Ultimately getting pre-approved for a home loan will save you and your realtor time because you will know exactly what you can afford. It also shows the home seller that you are serious and that you have done the work needed in order to be able to perform on your end of the loan.

The Offer-Agent

This part of the transaction can be overwhelming and stressful. You don’t want to offer too high and over pay for the home but you also don’t want to offer too low and not have your offer considered.

You can do your own research online to get an idea of the market activity around the home you want to offer on. How quickly do homes sell in that area, do most homes end up closing over the ask price? Are there a lot of homes available around this one and similar, is there no inventory around it? These are all things that an experienced realtor will be able to advise you on and help you figure out a fair offer price that will give you the best chance of getting your offer accepted.

Buying a home can be a stressful process whether it’s your first home or third. Between, the loan process, homes search process, offer, inspections, negotiations, appraisal there are a lot of things that can go wrong! But if you take advantage of these 4 tips, they can definitely help you on the path to homeownership. Check this article called “First Time Home Buyer & How to Prepare to be a Homeowner” for more first time home buyer help.

About the author:

Our philosophy is simple: clients come first. we pledge to be in constant communication with my clients, keeping them fully informed throughout the entire buying or selling process. If you’re not left with an amazing experience, we haven’t done our job. Success is not measured through achievements or awards but through the satisfaction and repeat/referral business of our clients. Our goal is to be your top realtor choice when it comes to buying or selling real estate. Having spent most of our lives in Portland, OR., living in Northeast, Southeast, Bethany, Hillsboro, Beaverton, downtown, St. Johns, Clackamas and West Linn, we're very knowledgeable of the many different neighborhoods our city has to offer.

The post 4 Proven Useful & Practical Tips For Financing Your First Home appeared first on JD PDX Real Estate | Your Portland Realtor.

Helpful Advice & Why It Matters Who You Hire to Sell Your Home

Jamohl DeWald — Mon, 09 Jul 2018 16:21:29 +0000

Helpful Advice Why It Matters Who You Hire to Sell Your Home

In this blog post we are going to talk about the importance of hiring the RIGHT realtor to help you sell your home and why it matters. We have all heard stories about a home selling experience that went wrong. I’m going to share some tips on how to make sure you pick the best realtor to ensure things go right and sell your home the quickest and for top dollar.

Interview Agents

You must take the time to interview a few agents! After all, this is one of your biggest investments, and you don’t want to leave it to chance. It’s in your best interest to interview a few different agents so that you can see if you have a connection with one agent or a possible disconnect from another. Just because an agent has all 5 star reviews on Zillow, does not mean you will automatically enjoy working with them. On the other hand, just because they are a good friend and you get along great, that also does not mean they are the best choice to sell your home. The best agent for your needs should cover a combination of these: someone you connect with, highly rated in the industry with proof to back it up!

Referrals you could always ask friends that have recently sold their home if they would recommend their agent to you and if they were satisfied with their services. Google can tell you an awful lot about most agents, and if you can’t find them on Google, that may be your 1st warning sign. Reviews and Google alone should not be used as the only tools to research agents. I believe it’s imperative after you research a real estate agent that you meet face to face with them to determine which agent is the best fit for your needs. Just because the agent worked well with your friend or family member does not mean they will work well for you and your personality.

The Interview steer clear of the agent that tells you everything you want to hear and tries to do what we call “buy the listing” by telling you they can sell your home for an amount that you and the market can’t see happening. This can be a huge mistake on your part and a costly one! If your home sits on the market and gets 0 activity because it’s over-priced, it will hurt your chances for top dollar on your home and you may lose money. Typically the highest and best offers come within the first few weeks of your listing live date…if it’s been 60 days with little to no activity, the market is telling you that your home is over-priced.

The listing agent should show up to the listing appointment prepared with a CMA (comparative market analysis) showing data of similar, active, pending and sold homes directly in your neighborhood and/or close to you. The CMA will help determine a good starting point for the sale price of your home. An experienced listing agent will also be fully prepared to tell/show you samples of their marketing material & how they plan on marketing your home to the world to get it sold for top dollar, as quick as possible. It’s in your best interest as a seller to make sure the agent you hire is going to do everything in their power to market your home to the masses by using all tools available to them:

Print (flyers, just listed postcards, property books, floor plan, ads, etc) Print is not dead.
Social Media (FB, Pinterest, IG, website, Youtube, Twitter, Google Plus, LinkedIn, FB Groups, landing pages etc)
Word Of Mouth (realtors office & network) this can be a big benefit to you depending on how many agents are in your listing agents office and how many they work closely with, in the industry.
Local RMLS and all other realtor resources.
The more ways for your home to be consumed and with the least amount of friction, the better! Some people hate paper and would never take a flyer, some love flyers, some search for homes from a phone, some search from a desktop computer, some love “junk mail”, some don’t even look at “junk mail”. These are just a few of the reasons why it’s important to have your home marketed in every way possible.
99% of Millennials search on online websites compared to 89% of Older Boomers and 77% of the Silent Generation (Source: NAR Home Buyer and Seller Generational Trends Report 2017 & 2016 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers)

These are just a few of the different ways to have your home marketed for sale. With most home searches starting online today, do you think it’s to your advantage to work with a realtor that uses two of these marketing methods or ALL of them? It’s a pretty easy choice if you are trying to sell as fast as possible for top dollar. [bctt tweet=”The more eyes on your home, the better the chance you have of accomplishing your goal of selling at highest and quickest.” username=”JDPDXRealEstate”]

Now what?

You’ve researched, interviewed, checked references, confirmed, listened to the listing presentation, learned the listing agents marketing plan and are ready to put your home on the market! You’ve found your listing agent, so what should you expect of them going forward?

Communication from the very beginning of the transaction to close, is one of the most important aspects of selling real estate. Without it, breakdowns can happen, it can cost the seller or buyer time and money. I believe that you can’t over-communicate when it comes to selling real estate and I make it my goal that my client never asks me “What’s next?”. A client should never have to ask their realtor “what’s next?” because we should be advising, informing and educating along the way.

Communication is key because it can save time for everyone involved. Great communicaton can prevent a lot of headaches down the road. There should be no changes in the level of communication after the listing paperwork is signed or at any stage of the transaction. I can’t tell you the number of times something happened in a transaction and I thought to myself “Could you imagine the headache/stress this would have caused my seller/buyer, if I didn’t already inform them of this possibility/scenario?”. That’s a far easier conversation to have than your seller saying “You never mentioned anything about this possibly happening or that we needed to do this!”

Communication is key.
The agent should be easily reachable and return all messages in a timely manner. All realtors have lives outside of real estate, but with today’s technology there really is no excuse for not following up in a timely manner.
The real estate agent should be advising, educating and informing along the way. This, by itself, can eliminate the question “What’s next?”

Follow Through from the real estate agent is also very important. What good would it do the seller if the real estate agent promised top dollar, quick sale, to be a high communicator and help guide you through the process but then after the listing agreement was signed, was not capable of most of these or just plain sucked at them? This is not a good thing to figure out after you have signed the listing agreement, right? This again points to why it is so important to do the homework and research on referrals and agents before you choose one. It’s in the best interest of the seller to know exactly how things will work once under contract and who the seller will be dealing with when questions do arise (listing agent, team member, etc).

Did the agent send that form over that they said they would?
Did the agent call you back in a timely manner after you left a voicemail?
Was that bid you asked for ever received?
Were photos scheduled yet?

There are so many things to do in order to get a home ready for market and it’s very importand that the seller be working with a real estate agent that not only means what they say, knows what they are doing, but also follows through at all times.

These are just a few tips to help you pick the best realtor to help you sell your home.

More Helpful Home Selling Resources:

A Practical Step-by-Step Home Selling Guide-Via Petra Norris

7 Home Seller Mistakes To Avoid When Choosing A Real Estate Agent-Via Xavier De Buck

Marketing Strategies Expert Realtors Use To help Sell Your Home-Via Paul Sian

11 Reasons Why Sellers Need to Hire A Real Estate Agent-Via Anita Clark

How Do You Pick a Real Estate Agent?-Via Bill Gassett

About the author

My philosophy is simple: clients come first. I pledge to be in constant communication with my clients, keeping them fully informed throughout the entire buying or selling process. If you’re not left with an amazing experience, I haven’t done my job. Success is not measured through achievements or awards but through the satisfaction and repeat/referral business of my clients. My goal is to be your top realtor choice when it comes to buying or selling real estate. Having spent most of my life in Portland, OR., living in Northeast, Southeast, Bethany, Hillsboro, Beaverton, downtown, St. Johns, Clackamas and West Linn, I’m very knowledgeable of the many different neighborhoods our city has to offer.

The post Helpful Advice & Why It Matters Who You Hire to Sell Your Home appeared first on JD PDX Real Estate | Your Portland Realtor.

What To Expect From Your Realtor As A First Time Home Buyer

Jamohl DeWald — Mon, 26 Mar 2018 22:26:27 +0000

What to expect from a good agent

Are you working with a good agent? First time home buyer should look for a realtor that is competent, efficient, and has ethics. According to the All America’s Real Estate Book by Carolyn Janik and Ruth Rejnis, good agents take the time to qualify first time home buyers and show properties in their price range. They plan showing routes carefully and have pre-inspected most properties. They have a thorough knowledge of financing options, are up on the latest housing trends, and share with prospective first time home buyers data on the local housing market and home sales. Good agents also adhere to a strict code of ethics. They avoid high-pressure sales tactics, refrain from showing properties that do not fit your needs or goals, and alert you to problems about the condition of the property. And they show respect for other agents and real estate firms.

Don’t be a “not you”, let me help guide you!!

Please reach out if you have any questions about buying or selling real estate.

JDPDXRealEstate.com

Another Helpful Article About Finding a qualified Realtor:

What Are 10 Essential Questions to Ask When Hiring a Realtor?

The post What To Expect From Your Realtor As A First Time Home Buyer appeared first on JD PDX Real Estate | Your Portland Realtor.

Confessions Of 3rd Year Agent – So You Want To Be a Realtor?

Jamohl DeWald — Wed, 28 Feb 2018 16:27:48 +0000

Confessions of a 3rd year agent-

I’m not going to name names in this blog as far as where I have hung my license prior to KW (it’s easy to find out), but I will share with you my experiences, tips & suggestions for anyone that is new to real estate or thinking about getting into real estate.

#1) And MOST IMPORTANT – as #RyanSerhant from Million Dollar Listing said “Find the best realtor in your area, go to work for them…for free & learn everything they do or have done to become successful in real estate” (Real estate is not as easy as the show makes it look so don’t get it twisted)

This is so, so true. I have had the privilege of working at 3 different brokerages that all take a similar but different approach toward real estate from training and marketing, all the way to the technology side of things. My start in this business educated me really quickly on how competitive this industry can be even within your own office.

My 1st Stop–

Was a big name in real estate. I went through the 6 week required training program, which broadly went over all the things you will need to learn and do in order to be successful in the real estate industry. Having already been self-employed for 10+ years prior to real estate, most of this stuff was common sense and I was already fully aware that being self-employed is no small task and that most fail to succeed in selling real estate. To sum up the training-You have to show up every day, work hard, build your client base, follow up, ask for the business, find your niche, & market.

Take advantage of the training available to you

Having gone through the 6 week training course, settling into my new office, showing up every day at the office and attending all the weekly broker/agent Tuesday meetings for my 1st 3 months at this brokerage, I had decided that the absolute best way for me to learn this business would be by doing it and learning from someone that is experienced at it. I set out on a quest to hold an open house for someone or shadow a fellow agent from my office so that I could see just exactly what happens at an open house. What questions do buyers ask? What do you bring to an open house? What should you know about your open house? How do you market your open house etc.? After asking over 200+ agents at 2 different offices and not getting one person to help me, I began to rethink my choice in brokerage immediately! It was at that very moment that I realized I had better check around at other brokerages and see what kind of training and systems they offered because it was obvious that the agents @ my 1st stop were not willing to share any tips or tricks of the trade or help educate me to the processes as they thought I was their direct competition.

My 2nd Stop-

Was a boutique brokerage. After interviewing at my 2nd stop in real estate, I knew immediately that it was where I needed to be if I wanted to expedite my knowledge of buying and selling real estate.

I was told that they have broker teams on all of their transactions and all new brokers (me) essentially can get picked to be on buyer/seller files with SR brokers so you get to learn the business of real estate by doing it with the SR brokers in the office rather than reading about it. Sort of a paid internship. Not paid very well but you get to learn the business by doing it and make a little money along the way while gaining 1st hand knowledge about real estate. I have always been a learn by doing type of person, so I was very excited at the opportunity to have the hands-on learning experience.

Paid internship

In my interview, I was told that I should pay attention to their newest associate broker who had just had their 1 year anniversary and was able to work on 35 different transactions with the SR brokers within the company…a new record. I thought “That is awesome!” He was involved in 35 transactions?!!! How could I ever get that kind of knowledge anywhere else?? After all, if you are on your own, in real estate, you may take years to get to 35 transactions and he was able to get that experience in 1 year. I was pumped and immediately set out to break that record with my goal of 50 transactions for my 1st year, which I smashed with a total of 68 transactions in my 1st year. It was no easy task and I put 18k miles on my car, worked almost every weekend and was in the office almost every day for that year-my point here is; selling real estate/being self-employed is NO EASY task and requires discipline and a LOT of HARD WORK to become successful.

Do the work-

After my 1st year there, I was blessed to have worked with some really good agents and ended up on the team of the top producer in the company. I thought I had learned a lot on my 1st 68 transactions but that was about to get blown out of the water. He threw me into the fire pretty quickly and the whole meaning of hands-on experience was elevated to new levels. I loved the challenges though and I gained soo much knowledge having gone through it. I really got into the meat of real estate, writing offers, helping buyers find homes, going on listing appointments, helping prep homes for photos, input homes into RMLS, reviewing offers, going to home inspections, negotiating repairs, and a million other things you do in real estate. I was on that top producing team for about 9 months before I decided it was time to spread my wings and give this a shot on my own.

It was at that point that I began to look very seriously for better opportunities at other brokerages. The commission splits at stop 2 were a lot higher than the average fees around town…essentially you are paying for all that knowledge gained through their methods/systems which for quite a while I thought were well worth it, but I really wanted a shot at being paid what I felt I was worth and wanted more freedom to build my brand and not said companies brand that I have 0 input on, so that landed me at stop 3.

My 3rd Stop–

Is a major player in this world of real estate and a combination of my 1st 2 stops, in a good way. They have all the class training in the world available daily and at your fingertips. Everyone I have met is very friendly and are willing to really help, unlike stop 1. I am huge into marketing on the internet and they use/have cutting-edge technology available to us here as they invest millions yearly into technology. Not a lot of real estate companies can say that. I’m at the top producing office in Oregon, we are the top rated company to work with and I really feel like the people in charge are looking out for my best interests just as I do for all my clients. As a very successful agent, Chris Suarez once told me when I was really, really green to real estate “It’s not about winning, It’s about win, win” meaning it’s about both sides of the transaction feeling like they won, not just one side of the transaction.

Summary-

Just as stated at the beginning of this blog, the absolute best advice I can offer, is to do what #RyanSerhant said and find one of the best realtors in your area and go to work for them for free. It really is the best way to learn this industry quickly. That may be easier said than done depending on where you are. Another good choice to gain experience quickly would be to get on one of the top producing teams in your area which is the route I took.

Things to remember-

Real Estate Is Very Hard Work And Very Rewarding. It can require a lot of your time and weekends. It’s not for the 9-5’r. Keep grinding.
Do your research before you pick a brokerage/team. Make sure you are working with someone that is actually good at what they do…this is a MUST.
Read the fine print on your brokerage agreement. Know how you get paid. Make sure you fully understand the terms and conditions if you ever decided to leave said brokerage/team. (this rookie didn’t)
Real estate is not a sprint, it’s a marathon…trust me! Be prepared to keep grinding, if not, you will not make it. Never get too high or too low. It can be an emotional roller coaster.
It’s best to be surrounded by like-minded people all working toward the same goals-to be successful and learn as much as you can about real estate. Become the expert at whatever your niche is. Keep grinding.
Closed deals mean nothing until both parties have signed & left the closing table. Anything can happen before that and blow up a transaction. It is our job to represent our clients best interests at all times and get everyone across the finish line feeling as if they won…not an easy task, trust me! Keep grinding.

Do you still want to sell real estate?

More from my blog:

3 reasons you should absolutely work with an agent to buy a home

The post Confessions Of 3rd Year Agent – So You Want To Be a Realtor? appeared first on JD PDX Real Estate | Your Portland Realtor.

3 Reasons You Should Absolutely Work with an Agent to Buy a Home

Jamohl DeWald — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 04:17:06 +0000

Agent

With so many resources available online – from research materials, to tutorials, to vendor ratings – it’s not uncommon to wonder whether or not you actually need a real estate professional to help you buy a home. So… do you?

It’s hard to argue with all of the quality traits that an experienced Portland Metro Area real estate agent brings to the table for their clients: savvy negotiating skills, a rich understanding of the local housing landscape, legal knowledge, and in-depth advice for1st timehomebuyers on how to approach the entire process. Also, as a buyer our services are FREE to you and paid by the seller. Here’s exactly what you can (and should) expect when hiring a real estate agent:

Market Expertise

Everything from where home values are rising most, to the most in demand neighborhoods and homes coming soon to the market– that’s the kind of intricate knowledge a real estate agent will have about the markets in which they work.

Sure, anyone can Google housing statistics and local Beaverton community information, but agents are constantly in the know; they spend an enormous amount of effort on building and maintaining their networks. Agents work hard to provide buyers with every last detail they need to know about the market.

Negotiation Skills

With a veteran real estate agent comes veteran sales techniques. Put your trust in an experienced buyer’s agent who has proven to negotiate prices and the best terms possible for past clients.

Legal Knowledge

Legalese is not something the average homebuyer knows a great deal about. Then again, it’s not crucial, so long as you employ a real estate agent!

Agents are well-versed in the language you’ll find with home purchase agreements and other legal real estate documents. This means that you don’t have to study up on real estate law just to have a successful home-buying experience.

Referral Networks

Buying a home entails a lot more than simply attending open houses, arranging private showings, and making bids. It also involves dealing with lenders, title insurers, appraisers, and other real estate professionals who have a huge role in handling sale agreements.

Real Estate agents work tirelessly to grow their vendor networks by nurturing relationships with reputable pros and firms who know how to conduct business correctly and efficiently. This saves you a bunch of time in two ways; first in finding a group of trustworthy pros and, secondly, in making sure everything runs smoothly the first time.

Start the journey towards your Portland Metro Area dream home and reach out to a real estate professional for proper guidance!

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