Four things you need to do if you looking to buy a home.

If you have been looking for a home or are considering looking for a home in the District and most close-in Maryland communities you need to be prepared for a seller's market. This is especially true in DC, downtown Silver Spring and Bethesda where home inventory has been low for over a year now. We simply have too many buyers chasing too few homes. The result has been a steady increase in values and a lot of multiple contracts. There is no reason not to expect the same situation for the coming year. For home buyers this means difficult times ahead.

Many purchasers are losing out on homes because they are not prepared. They are either not getting into see the home in a timely manner or are not writing the best or winning offers. This can be very frustrating. If you are a buyer here are some suggestions that might help you.

1. Find an experienced Realtor and set up a buyer's consultation.
2. Select a lender and make your loan application now.
3. Find a good mobile real estate search app and download it onto your phone and pad.
4. Commit yourself to the process.

When I hold open houses, I am surprised at the number of potential buyers that are out looking at a home but have no affiliation with a Realtor. It tells me one of two things.  Either some of these prospective clients are not seriously looking or they do not understand agency and the importance of having their own advocate who will look out for their interests. A good buyer's agent will not only be there to advise you about the home and surrounding neighborhood but will be ready to act in your interest when you are ready and the need for speed is urgent. Find a good agent and put him or her to work for you.

You must have your ducks in a row as far as the loan process goes. As a listing agent, whenever there are multiple offers, the first thing I do is look for offers that can be weeded out of the process. This serves to help me and the sellers as well. The first offers to get rejected are those that are not perfect financially. To protect my sellers, I need to know with confidence that your loan will get approved. You the buyer must be working with a reliable local lender (forget about getting a loan over the Internet) and have already made application.  Along with your offer, you need to submit a signed financial information sheet, a solid lender's commitment letter and the name of a contact with the mortgage company that I can actually reach by phone. It is important that your lender and loan officer are available for questions from the listing agent. Sometimes a quick phone discussion about a minor detail will make the difference between acceptance and rejection.

If you have been looking at homes on Trulia and Zillow  now it is time to wean yourself off of these web sites and get a good mobile search app that is linked to the local MLS service. I get frequent complaints from clients about how out of date these large web sites can be. In a competitive market you need an app that works all the time and is completely up to date. We live in a world of instant information. In a hot market the quicker you know the better.  Why not start with Keller Williams new mobile app? Click here to download it. Then ask your agent to set you up with a listing alert that will send you new listings as soon as they are placed in the Multiple Listing Service.

This is not a time to be indecisive. Either you have a need to find a new home or you don't. I have seen so many times when a casual buyer walks into my open house on a Sunday and all of a sudden finds themselves in the home of their dreams. However so frequently this sort of buyer is just not prepared to act quickly and as a result they lose out on a home that the should have had.  Don't waste your time and set yourself up for heartbreak. Take the leap and commit to finding your home. Then give me a call. I will make sure that you will get the home that is the right fit for you.

What Buyers Want

It is hard to say where the market is going these days in this area. One thing I know, is that we currently have a shortage of good listings. There are still plenty of short sales and distressed homes coming on the market but what is missing is an inventory of homes that show well. Buyers are out there in droves. There has been a lot of pent up demand built up over the past few years. The strong local economy combined with  mortgage interest rates that are so low that it is obscene has generated a large pool of folks wanting to buy a home. However, with the recent recession under their belt many young buyers are choosing to be very picky about the homes they look at. We are not seeing the rush to plop down good money on just anything that comes on the market. Most buyers who are not investors want more bang for their buck when considering a home purchase. I would have to say that one of the biggest factors is the age of the kitchen. New or refurbished kitchens are in high demand with new bathrooms being a close second. If you are selling a home with a 20-30 year old kitchen  then you are going to have to be patient and price it correctly. There are two factors driving home sales these days- product and price. Exposure is not necessarily the issue. Any good Real Estate Company is going to get your home exposed on the Internet. But if your product (home) is not in top shape then your only choice is to consider the asking price. You must measure what the competition has to offer and act accordingly. I realize that this is not rocket science. But many sellers are having a hard time adjusting to the realities of the market. Yes, we are in a competitive market with hungry buyers. However, the buyers out there are looking for value and passing up on the average or the overpriced. They are limiting their choices to homes that are in exceptional condition and/or have an attractive low price.

Where are the houses for sale?

A quick look at the listings for sale in the Silver Spring area shows a remarkable shortage of decent homes on the market. Interesting considering that this is considered a "buyers" market. A couple of reasons for this in my opinion. One is that rates are so low that the small amount of buyers out there are snapping up the small amount of decent homes on the market. And two, not only is there pent up demand these days but I think we are seeing a case of pent up supply. That is, with housing prices so depressed these days there simply a lot of potential home sellers who are delaying placing their homes on the market. This would include folks who have opted to retire a little later, thinking of buying up but are waiting for the market to improve, or who just refuse to sell and have placed their properties on the rental market for a year or two while waiting for some good news. There still are good deal of distressed properties on the market but a lot of folks are staying away from these homes because the sale can be problematical and very few of these homes are in what we call "market" condition.

What does this mean? Not really sure. However I think we might see home prices actually start to go up this spring. Not because of the booming economy but because the amazingly low rates combined with this shortage of decent homes might just create a supply problem and have buyers out there in competition with other buyers for a change. That generally means sellers will get better prices. We will just have to see how this plays out.