Buying Your Home

Steps To Finding Just the Right Home

When you decide to purchase a home, you've undoubtedly thought about the following two questions in some capacity:

Where Do I Want To Live?

&

How Much Can I Spend?

Since you're reading this page, you've most likely answered the first question and identified the Desert as the place to purchase your home. Where else can you get 350 days of sunshine a year, be 2 hours away from the ocean near large cities like Los Angeles and San Diego, and still reap the benefits of our small town, stress free desert oasis? The Desert's uniqueness is only matched by its accessibility. The Palm Springs airport serviced over 230,000 people just in March 2008 alone and that doesn't count the large numbers that drive from California's coastal communities.

If you're wondering how much can I spend?, this will depend on whether you choose to get a mortgage. The very first step in buying a home is to understand your complete financial picture and a mortgage advisor will give you this information. Speak with one of our mortgage advisors to get a complete understanding of monthly payments, taxes, insurance etc. Contact us for more information on choosing a mortgage partner.

The below paragraphs provide a brief outline of the purchasing process.

Pre-Approval

If you choose to get a mortgage, the first step is to get a pre-approval letter from your lender so that you know exactly what you can comfortably pay for a home. We will also present this approval with your offer on a new home. You will determine what kind of loan best suits your needs considering aspects like down payment amount and interest rates. It is important to use local brokers who understand our specific market, especially in these times when interest rates and mortgage products change on a daily basis. Like real estate, mortgage programs are very local. Programs available in Seattle, are not necessarily available in the Coachella Valley. A local broker usually provides the best results.

Finding a Home

Today, the single most popular medium for home searching is the Internet. As more demands are added to your life, time becomes more and more sacred. We know this and we want to save you as much time as possible. The Internet provides an incredible, time saving way to search for property on your own time and terms. For those who are Internet savvy, we have developed this website to deliver powerful tools for home searching along with ease-of-use in mind. This is a collaborative effort, and we are here every step of the way to be your local representative and advocate. Some will prefer to start by a phone call and others will start online. We look forward to helping you in the best way that suits your personal needs. Our local knowledge will help you make informed decisions about each property or about how and where to start looking for properties. Ultimately we'll help you make your final decision – but how we arrive at this decision is up to you. Please call or email us any step of the way to discuss how we can help you best.

Making the Offer

When you have decided on a home, you will want to make an offer and we will discuss your goals, the comparable sold homes in the area and devise a strategy. At this point, our experience, local knowledge, and integrity will be a large asset for you. We work in this area daily and will add important insight for you to consider. For instance, we may know that the homes in one community are selling slower than in another community, and therefore, might recommend that you make a lower offer on a home in that community. In addition to providing you with a comparative market analysis, we will offer detailed interpretation of that analysis as it relates to the specific home you are hoping to purchase. There can be several steps in the negotiation and purchase process. Every decision is always yours. It is our job to advise you and provide you with the best information available so you can make the most informed decision possible.

Opening Escrow & the Due Diligence Process

Once we have a signed contract, we will open escrow. Most escrows run from 30 to 60 days although there is no specific time length – this is dependent on your circumstances. From the time escrow is opened, you have 17 days (by default) to do all “due diligence” – home inspections, obtain a loan commitment if necessary, examine title, read the CCR’s for the community, etc. At the beginning of the 17 day process, we will provide you with 3 names of home inspectors from which you can choose to do a home inspection. We will obtain, review, and forward to you all the seller’s disclosures and follow the purchase process step by step with you. We will review the home inspection report with you and together prepare a request to the seller to repair any items that you deem need attention. After the 17 days, if you are satisfied with all discoveries and the seller's responses, you are expected to remove these contingencies and move forward with the purchase of your home. This is an in-depth process and deserves more than one paragraph. Feel confident that we will walk you through this process at any speed that is comfortable for you.

Closing Escrow

You do not physically need to be in California to close on your house. We have soft closings here and as long as you can receive overnight packages and have access to a notary, we can handle all the details for you to make certain that the closing runs smoothly.

Moving In

As we approach the closing date, we will provide you with a list of names and phone numbers of services and utilities to contact prior to the closing so that your new home is fully operational on the day you move in. We also have an extensive list of “Service Providers” that is readily available for you on this website. In addition, we will make certain to find the names of all service providers for the specific property that you have purchased, should you wish to continue their services (like pool and gardner services).

We believe in the quip that “Knowledge is Power”. We work very hard to provide you with every piece of information we can find. We pride ourselves on our knowledge of this area and we are not satisfied until our clients, both buyers and sellers, have all the information they need to make the best and most informed decision possible.