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Buying a home can be an exciting and emotional process. Throughout the journey of finding your next home, we will help educate you on the buying process and help you make informed decisions along the way. Below is a brief summary of the steps we describe in our Home Buyer’s Guide...
1. Contact the Cook and Zook Team
Working as Accredited Buyer Representatives®, our job is to help you find the right home and protect your interests throughout the buying process. During our initial consultation, we will give you our Cook and Zook Buyer's Guide which is great for understanding the ins and outs of buying a home. Even though we are working hard for you, the seller generally pays our commission! Contact Us to help you get started!
2. Getting Pre-Approved for a Loan
Loan pre-approval is the process of understanding how much house you can afford to buy. The lender looks at your income, assets, credit history, debts, and expected down payment to determine a price range. The pre-approval process generally takes 15-20 minutes over the phone. Contact Thad Wise (703) 350-1733 or Carter Scott (703) 725-9041 with Bank of America for a FREE loan pre-approval.
3. Go Shopping for "The One" Once we have determined your price range, we will narrow down your search criteria based on your needs/wants and schedule time to see properties until we find the perfect home. This may be the 1st house or 50th house. We subscribe to the Multiple Listing Service and have access to all the homes on the market, regardless of the listing company. Our MLS Search allows you to customize searches, save properties, and receive email updates!
4. Contract Negotiations
When we've found the right home, we will research comparable properties and help you make informed decisions on offer price, closing credits, settlement and occupancy dates, items to convey, and other contingencies. Sellers have the option to accept, reject, or counteroffer. Once the negotiations are agreed upon by all parties and the contract is signed and delivered, it is legally ratified.
5. Inspections and ContingenciesAfter ratifying the contract, we have a specified number of days to complete any inspections and satisfy the contingencies. This includes home and radon inspections, final loan approval/underwriting, review of the Home Owner's Association/Condo documents, and appraisals. We negotiate any problems that arise during the inspections and once all contingencies have been satisfied, we no longer have a “contingent contract.”
6. Prepare to MoveA week or two before closing, you need to call the utility companies, change your address with the post office, schedule moving trucks, call the cable and phone companies, and start packing (Click for our Moving Checklist)! On the day before settlement, we will do a final walk-through to check the condition of the property after the Sellers have moved. Unless the contract is "As-Is" (e.g., bank owned, foreclosure properties), the appliances, heating, cooling, plumbing, and electrical should all be in "normal working order" and all inspection repairs should be completed.
7. Settlement... Let's Celebrate!
 On the day of settlement, you will bring a certified/cashier’s check for the amount of the good faith estimate (equal to the amount of down payment plus closing costs less Seller subsidy and earnest money deposits). You will also need to bring your personal checkbook and an ID. The settlement attorney will prepare and review the HUD-1, loan paperwork, the deed, and other pertinent documents. After signing for an hour (there is a lot of paperwork!), you will have the keys to your new home... Congratulations! Let us celebrate your new home by hosting a house-warming party!
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Property Websites
| We create individual property websites for each of our listings with a unique web address. To view a sample property website, check out cookandzook.com/myaddress.
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3D Floor Plans
| Whether you have a builder’s original floor plan or not, our team recreates 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional color floor plans from scratch!
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Virtual Tours
| In addition to professional photography, we include 360° virtual tours for each of our listings… look left, look right, look up, turn around!
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© 2008 Cook and Zook Team. All Rights Reserved.