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Testimonials

“Selling my family home after my husband had passed away was a difficult and emotional decision. Jill was not only honest with me about the value of my home, but she also took the time to help me understand how she came to that value. After having previously listed my home with another agency and seeing very little interest Jill was able to get my home priced correctly and under contract in less than a month. I appreciated her ability to tell me not what I wanted to hear, but what I needed to hear in order to sell my home and move onto my next journey.”

Mary – March 2011
Middlebury, Vermont

Home Buyers

Are You Ready to Buy? What To Expect

Below we have outlined the steps you can expect to take when buying a property with the At Home Team.

  • DECIDING ON A BUDGET
    Once you have decided that the timing is right to buy, it is important that you know how much you can spend on a home. If you are getting a mortgage to help finance your purchase, you will need to get pre-approved with one or two financial institutions. This will tell you how much money the institution will lend you. Whether you are financing or using your own funds to purchase property, you will also want to make a budget, to determine how much you are comfortable paying. The general rule of thumb is that you should not spend more than 1/3 of your monthly income on housing expenses. This includes your mortgage payment, property taxes and property insurance. After you have determined what you can afford and are willing to spend on a home, we can narrow down the homes on the market and start looking at what features you will want in your new home.
     
  • DETERMINING YOUR NEEDS
    It is important to spend some time before we begin looking at properties thinking about which features of a home are most important to you. If you are a list maker, now is a good time to get out the pen and paper. We will help guide you through this process, but some general things to start thinking about are: Is there a specific area, town or neighborhood where you would like to live? How much space do you need? How much land do you want? Etc. There are as many options as there are houses, so we will want to figure out the most important features to you, so that we can narrow down the homes available in your price range.
     
  • FINDING THE RIGHT PROPERTY FOR YOU
    Once we have determined that the timing is right, have identified your price range and know what you want in a home we will begin showing you homes that fit your specific needs. We will help you to find the right property in the most efficient means possible.
     
  • MAKING AN OFFER
    After we find the right property we will help you to put together an offer and negotiate the terms of that offer. When your offer is submitted to a seller, that seller has three options, they can accept your offer, reject your offer, or make a counter offer. We will help to guide you through this process and getting an accepted offer. It is important for buyers and sellers alike to understand that the goal in a negotiation is to create a mutually beneficial agreement and not for either side to “win”. The more that one asks for in price or other terms, the more they should be willing to compromise on other terms of the contract.
     
  • CONTRACT TO CLOSING
    Once the buyer and the seller have come to an agreement on the price and terms of the sale, the offer is accepted and the home is considered to be “under contract”. During the contract period we will assist you in making sure that all of the terms are meet in a timely manner. We will be there to guide you all the way to the closing table.