The 9 Steps to Home Ownership

It seems obvious, but it's good to note that the first step to buying a house is making the decision to buy. Consider the reasons you want a new house and write them down. Determine how long you want to live in the new house - does buying still make good financial sense? Can you afford a house that will meet your list of requirements? A good rule of thumb is your mortgage payment should not exceed 1/3 of your net monthly income.

This number can vary considerably in Hawaii, especially on the Kona Coast.  With the problems the lending industry has experienced in the last year, underwriting criteria has become more detail and asset oriented.  Making the decision to buy should go hand-in-hand with making the decision to begin a relationship with a lender; more on that later.

Working with an Accredited Buyer's Representative (ABR) is the smartest step you can take to insure getting what you want in real estate.  An ABR is your representative, a person who is your agent with a fiduciary responsibility to you.  An ABR is trained to work with buyers, helping you determine exactly what will fit your needs, a Single Family Residence (SFR) in Holualoa or a condo at the Waikoloa Beach Resort.

Your agent will then take you through the process to locate, negotiate and close on the property that's just right for you.  Having the most qualified individual working for you is a smart first step.

I'd like to schedule a time to meet with you to hear the reasons you want to buy a house and your plans for the future. We'll talk about neighborhoods, schools, economic factors liable to affect the market today and tomorrow, as well as how you would like your house and neighborhood to grow with you.

At this time, I will also help you get pre-qualified or better yet, pre-approved for a mortgage loan. Pre-qualification is a written statement from a loan officer indicating his or her opinion that you will be approved for a mortgage loan up to a certain amount. Being pre-qualified or pre-approved will go a long way towards making your offer an acceptable one. 

As part of our initial meeting, we will go through MLS together to narrow the field.  In North Kona there are over 400 homes for sale and nearly that many condos out there.  South Kohala has another couple hundred homes and even more condos.  I'll help you eliminate properties that won't meet you needs which helps us zero in on those that will work for you.

As we tour houses, I'll point out positive features and negative features. I'll ask you to tell me what you like and what you don't like. You'll probably amend your "wish list" as we tour houses, some things will become more important and others less important. With this new information, I'll refine our search criteria to narrow in on the precise property that's meets your criteria.

We are currently in a strong buyer's market.  There's a lot to choose from out there and part of my job is being intimately familiar with the property that's for sale so that I can share that information with you.  There are plenty of good deals out there whether you're looking in Kona Palisades, Holualoa or further south in Keauhou or down to Captain Cook and Kainaliu.  The rapidly growing Mauna Lani area and Waikoloa Beach Resort are other great places to look, especially if you're looking for a second home or vacation property.

I've spent over 23 years in Hawaii and have learned a great deal about details like orientation of a home to catch the best breezes, traffic patterns running through various areas that will get you to where you're going as quickly as possible and different elevations that will provide the temperature you're most comfortable living in.

Combining my market knowledge with your specific needs will help us in finding just the right property in the least amount of time.  My job is to inform you about the west side of Hawaii Island, types of buildings, locations and future plans for an area.  I will condense my years of knowledge as a Realtor and a builder and having lived in Kona as long as I have so that you can make informed decisions about when choosing your property.

The offer is normally presented with "earnest money". This is a cash deposit made to a home seller to secure an offer to buy the property and fulfills one of the requirments of a legal contract. The amount is applied to closing costs. If the seller accepts the offer, generally closing is held 30 to 60 days from the offer date (generally dependent on the turn around time of your mortgage financing).

I'll handle the negotiating for you.  I'll provide names and information for home inspectors, pest control companies to conduct the Termite Inspection report and the other myriad professional and personal contacts you'll need to make during the home purchase process.

Market conditions will play a role in how aggressively we negotiate the deal. We will also work within your limits. Emotions can lead to buyer's remorse. It is better to set limits prior to negotiating an offer and stick to these limits.

In making the offer I'll provide you with abundant comparable sales information.  We'll compare other sales in the area for similar homes.  We'll look at what competition there is that may make a seller more inclined to accept a fair offer and we'll continue the negotiations well beyond acceptance on your offer based on unknowns that are discovered during our inspection period.

Getting an offer accepted is just the beginning of the discovery process.  The more we discover the more we can negotiate.  The sale is not done until escrow closes so the purchase is more of a dynamic process than a done deal.

During the closing period, you will be working with your mortgage lender to close the loan. Since you pre-qualified for the loan before starting your home search, you will be that much closer to the end.

As a team we will work closely with your lender whether it's Mia at American Savings Bank or Laura at the Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union to close on time.  Identifying challenges before they come up, providing timely information to the lender and carefully tracking loan requirements is just part of what I do for you.  The three of us, you, the lender and me, will work together so the funding takes place when you need it.  Staying in touch with all parties helps to insure there are no "surprises" as we approach closing on you new property.

When you're searching for a loan officer to work with we'll ask for Good Faith Estimates so we can compare apples to apples when evaluating loan costs and rates.  By law, a lender is required to provide you a Good Faith Estimate within 3 days of your loan application.

The lenders I work with are happy to give you the estimate while you're still in the search for a lender.  You and I will go over the estimates so that you're clear on just what you're being offered.  It is not unusual for actual costs to vary, sometimes considerably, from the Good Faith Estimate.  That's the reason I work with the lenders that I do, their estimate is generally very close to the actual costs where as others I've worked with have come up with nasty little surprises when you're only a few days away from closing and it's really too late to change.  

Important dates we include in the offer are getting the pre-approval, receiving a Conditional Loan Approval and clearing those conditions that can be cleared prior to closing.  A loan is normally funded one day prior to the date of closing, recording the deed into your name.

If closing on property isn't something you do everyday, I'll be happy to join you at the time you sign your escrow papers and loan documents so that there are no unanswered questions before you sign on the dotted line even though there are no dotted lines anymore.