Greetings from all of us here at your local Vermont Mortgage Specialists! We hope you’ve had a lovely week, and are as excited as we are for the weekend. With work out-of-the-way, many will take to the streets to once again search for a dream house to move in to. We wish you the best of luck! This week’s blog is more geared towards those who may be having a bit of trouble getting their offers accepted. As we all know, it is currently a seller’s market, meaning housing inventory is tight. Any house will probably have a good few offers, so you need to stand out! But that doesn’t necessarily mean having the highest offer…

While this may be old news to many of our veteran readers, we cannot stress this enough: get pre-approved! Going through the legwork of being pre-approved for a mortgage shows the sellers that you are considered more trustworthy in the eyes of the bank. This tool is more powerful than just a higher offer, as it gives the sellers confidence that they aren’t gambling with the funds for their new home. This is where they created memories for years, and they want to make sure they sell to the right buyer. As always, we are here to pre-approve you when you want to start your journey!

Once you have begun your journey, move quickly! Again, this is a seller’s market. A house you see on Tuesday could be sold by Saturday. Make sure you have everything in order so you can go into an open house with an offer that is strong. Being able to jump on a house right away can give you a huge lead over those who prefer to mull it over, or chose to do the work AFTER seeing the house. We don’t want you to make a knee-jerk decision that lands you with a house you don’t want, but we caution thinking it over for a few days. The quicker you can come to a decision, the better.

Finally, don’t expect your first offer to be accepted right away. Negotiating isn’t a bad thing, in fact you should expect it! The sellers probably have several offers, and want to make they get the best (and safest) deal for their home. Ensure you have the wiggle room to barter and find a middle ground that works with everyone. Again, ensuring all of your documentation and pre-approval is in order can make these negotiations as short as possible.

Now, all of this is necessary to win in the seller’s market of today, but it is a lot. Therefore, we offer this last nugget of advice: get yourself the best realtor and mortgage team you can find. This is where you do not want to cut corners and save money. Find and assemble the best team you can – this will ensure everything will run as smoothly as possible. There are people who dedicate themselves to this line of work, so why not use them as a resource to make your job that much easier? Who knows, they may even find something special that your competition missed because they didn’t make the same effort?

We are your local mortgage specialists, and will ensure you get the best service possible. While we aren’t realtors, we have a wide network that we can personally vouch for as being the top of their class. We want you to get your dream home, so assemble your dream team to make it happen! Give us a call at 802-863-2020 for pre-approval and realtor suggestions, or find us online!

And as always, happy house hunting!