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We'll Guide You Every Step of the Way!
Purchasing a home can be one of life's most stressful processes because it is one of the largest financial transactions that people do in their lives and because there are many decisions that need to be thought about and then acted upon in a relatively short period of time. Once you have decided to purchase a home, one of the first things you will want to do is choose your REALTOR®. Your REALTOR® will help make your home buying experience much more enjoyable by guiding you every step of the way and looking out for your best interests. This page was designed to show you what we do for our Buyers. One of the first things your REALTOR® will talk to you about is getting you to contact several lenders to get you pre-qualified.
Getting pre-qualified through a lender is very simple and is normally done over the phone. A lender/mortgage broker will ask you a series of questions about your financial situation to get you pre-qualified. In turn, you will have questions that you should ask the lender about what they can do for you. Pre-qualification has two primary benefits and they are: (1) To let you know how much you can afford by giving you an amount you can borrow to purchase a home. (2) You will be required with any purchase contract you submit in Arizona to provide the Seller's agent with an LSR (Loan Status Report). Having an LSR in hand before beginning the home search process will help expedite presenting an offer in case you want to submit an offer over the weekend (when most lenders are not available). This is also a great time for you to begin reviewing the documents home buyers need to sign (or initial) when purchasing a home in Arizona, so that you are an educated and well-informed Buyer.
Our professional real estate services will cost you, The Buyer, absolutely N-O-T-H-I-N-G! Even though we are working for you and looking out for your best interests, the Seller is the one who pays our commission. This means working with The Sundin Group will cost you absolutely nothing and gain you everything! Although our services will not cost you a penny, there are typical fees a Buyer pays. Examples of fees you can expect to pay which are associated with the purchase of your new home are: home inspection, termite inspection, appraisal fees, Escrow fees/Title Insurance, and so forth.
As your REALTORS®, it is important for us to discuss and understand your specific housing criteria so that we can appropriately set up a custom search for homes that meet your needs. Because there are many ways to search the Phoenix MLS, this thorough understanding cannot be through an email alone, but rather by a detailed discussion in which we ask very defined questions to truly understand your needs. This allows us to offer suggestions that you may not have even considered. We don't necessarily ask all of the questions that we've listed below, but we will ask enough questions to get us pointed in the right direction to narrow your home search. Here are some of the questions that we ask (and that any REALTOR® should ask) during our initial conversations.
- What area of Phoenix Metro would you like to live in and why?
- Where will you work or go frequently in the Phoenix Metro area?
- How long of a commute is acceptable to you?
- What price would you like to spend on your home?
- How much square footage do you need?
- Do you have a certain home style that you like?
- Do you prefer a one or two story home?
- Do you prefer a newer or older home?
- Are you okay with living in an HOA neighborhood?
- What size property/land do you need?
- Do you need an RV Gate?
- Do you prefer a swimming pool?
- Would you like to have a spa?
- What are your kitchen requirements ( gas cook-top, dual-ovens, etc)?
- How many car garage would you like?
- How many bedrooms do you need?
- How many bathrooms do you need?
- Would you like a casita?
- What type of flooring do you prefer?
- Do you require high speed internet?
- How much home storage do you need?
- Are you interested in a basement home?
- Do you prefer to be located in a city with sporting events or spring training ball games?
- Do you have any friends or family that you would like to be near?
- Do you need to be near the airport?
- Are you looking for a yard with lush landscape?
- Are you looking for a yard with low watering requirements?
- Are you looking for a neighborhood with many walking paths?
- Are you looking for a neighborhood with a community pool or spa?
- Are you looking to live in an unincorporated area?
- Are you looking for urban living with walk-to amenities?
- Do you have horses & need acreage?
If you are new to the Phoenix Metro area, or are open to many parts of the Phoenix Metro area, then we can define your search from the questions above and input this search for many different cities. This will give you a good idea of the housing available in different cities, as well as how much home you get for your money in each city.
Once we have defined and narrowed your search we will create an on-going search for you within the Phoenix MLS. If you do not have access to a computer, we will gladly fax, mail or hand-deliver listings to you on a regular basis. For those clients who have computers, we do not set-up a simple email search (like most other REALTORS® do) and expect you to sort through hundreds of emails to find a home that may have been emailed to you weeks or months ago. Instead, we create a personalized webpage just for you that is customizable by you and allows you to organize your listings by placing homes in a "Rejects, Favorites or Possibilities" folder. You can also write notes under each listing (which many of our Buyers like) because we will be showing you many different homes and this helps you keep track of your thoughts for later reference. You can even write notes to us and email us the listings you would like to see, straight from your webpage.
We have also created a key for you to understand how to read FE codes. This key will be especially helpful to you when you are looking through a lot of property listings (MLS sheets). Understanding FE codes will help you know a properties basic selling features without having to peruse through the entire document. Here is a quick breakdown of what the FE code will quickly show you:
- Number of bedrooms
- Number of bathrooms
- If there a formal family room
- If the home has air conditioning
- If it has a formal dining room
- If it has any other rooms (such as loft, den, exercise room, sauna room, etc)
- If it has a fireplace (and if so, how many)
- If it has a pool
- If it has a spa
- If it has a tennis court(s)
- If it has horse privileges
- If it has guest quarters
- If it has acreage
- If it is also for lease
- If it is new construction
- Number of garages
So how long will this take? We understand that buying a home is one of life's most expensive investments and we will work with you at your pace. We are committed to helping you find exactly what you want. We are not satisfied, until you are satisfied!
Now that you have reviewed the documents you will need to sign, and have chosen a home you would like to write an offer on, we will run a detailed comparative analysis on the home to show you what the surrounding property values are. Next, we will assist you with the following decisions you will need to make before we fill out the required 9 pages of the Arizona Purchase Contract on your behalf.
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What purchase price should you offer?
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Whose name do you want on the purchase contract?
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What, if any, Seller contributions do you wish to ask for?
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What appliances are included & are there any that you would like to ask for?
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How much earnest money should you offer the Sellers?
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How much, if any, of a down payment will you make?
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- If the home is in an HOA, who will pay the transfer fees?
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What day do you want to close on?
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Do you want a home inspection & if so how many days
would you like to perform your inspections?
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Do you want a home warranty?
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How much time will you allow the Seller to respond to your offer?
Once you've decided on which Title Company to use, you will need to make your earnest money check payable to your Title Company and we will hold onto your check until your offer is accepted.
 Earnest money is a deposit placed on the home showing
your good faith
intentions to follow through with the purchase of the home. 
The Title Company you've chosen will act as a neutral, third party in the sales transaction that works with all parties involved (including your lender), as well as handles all the money and documentation needed to change a home's title from the Seller's name to your name. Your earnest money is secure with a Title Company, because these companies are government regulated and insured, just like a bank is.
Typically, the earnest money given as part of an offer is equal to 1% - 2% of the purchase price, but it is not uncommon practice to offer slightly less in a Buyer's market.
Sellers can choose to accept your offer, not accept your initial offer and submit a counter offer, or reject the offer without countering. If the Seller accepts your offer, then you have an executed contract. If the Seller chooses to submit a counter offer to your offer, you must decide whether to accept the counter offer, make a new counter offer or simply continue your home search elsewhere.
Once you have an accepted and executed purchase contract on a house, we will deliver your check and a copy of the executed purchase contract to your Title Company to open an escrow account on your behalf. As your REALTORS®, it is our job to alleviate any stress and make this process less time consuming, easier and less costly than it would be if you were to undertake this challenge on your own.
Once in escrow (under contract) we will be by your side explaining the Buyer's critical timeline that you will have to adhere to within the Arizona Residential Purchase Contract, to ensure that the purchase of your home is a seamless one and closes on the anticipated date. The Arizona Residential Purchase Contract allows Buyers to perform various inspections within the first 10 days (unless otherwise noted) upon execution of the purchase contract. The costs for the inspections you choose to perform will be additional fees that you must incur. If you find an issue that the Seller is unwilling to resolve to your satisfaction, you have the option to cancel escrow and receive your full earnest money back...as long as it is within the inspection timeline set forth in the contract.
During the inspection period, you will receive the homeowner's CC&R's if the subject property is within a homeowners association. After reviewing these documents, should you find anything to your dissatisfaction, you can also choose to cancel escrow and receive a full refund of your earnest deposit as long as it is within the defined inspection period.
The second protection the purchase contract offers to Buyers is the appraisal contingency which is not defined by a set timeline. If for any reason the subject property fails to appraise for the accepted contract price, then you have basically three options. First, you can cancel the contract and receive a full refund of your earnest money. Second, if the appraisal is lower than the purchase price you can ask the Seller to lower the purchase price you originally agreed upon to match the appraised value (or somewhere in between the two amounts). Or third, you can make up the difference between the appraisal and the purchase price, if required by the Lender to obtain your loan.
The third Buyer protection the purchase contract offers is if you have operated in good faith to obtain a loan and fail to qualify. Like the appraisal contingency, this protection is not governed by a set timeline for the cancellation to occur within. Should you fail to qualify for your loan after all good faith attempts have been made, then you are not required to perform your contractual obligation of purchasing the home and therefore are able to cancel escrow with full refund of your earnest money.
Throughout the entire escrow process, which is typically 30-45 days, we will be here as your REALTORS® to guide you every step of the way. We even accept phone calls until midnight in case you have questions or concerns that can't wait until the following day. Your peace of mind is why we make ourselves readily available to all of our clients 16 hours a day, 7 days a week (except holidays).
Keep in mind that this information, especially the part about refundable earnest money, is only for resale homes and does not apply to new homes sold through new home builders. New home builders have their own contracts for you to sign and are often "iron clad," locking in your earnest money as non-refundable.
IMPORTANT: Have you ever wondered by new home builders require you to have your REALTOR® present with you the first time you come through their sales office? Buyers should always have a REALTOR® representing them at a new home builder. Click HERE to find out why!
If you have any questions about the home buying process, we're only a phone call or email away!
- We are one of only a few websites that allows you to search the Phoenix MLS by map. We provide our website users the most advanced (and easy-to-use) home search tool available. Make sure to bookmark us!
- Our website provides an enormous amount of local information that is especially useful when buying a house.
- We provide a list of contractors/vendors who have demonstrated exceptional service to our clients.
- If you are not available to be in town during this process, we will help coordinate activity based on your needs.
- If you are coming in from out-of-town, we can arrange to have you picked up at the airport.
- If you are having trouble with some special need, we will help you find a solution.
- We make it easy for you to connect your utilities.
Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Fissures in the Phoenix Area (includes maps)
Buyer Assistance Information
Useful Articles That EVERY Buyer Should Read
How Much Can You Expect To Pay During A Transaction
Critical Timeline Buyers Must Adhere To Once In Escrow
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