7 Tips for Buying Your First Home in the U.S.

Nothing says you’re truly an American like owning a home. And just over half of all foreign-born households living in the U.S. own their own home.

If you’re ready to join them, try these seven tips for American-style homebuying success — the process here may be quite different from what you’re used to.

1. Be Ready to Prove Who You Are
You don’t have to get your citizenship, a green card, or any particular type of visa before you buy a home. But you do need:

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. That’s a number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service to foreign nationals who need to file income tax returns.
A valid foreign passport, or two or more current photo identifications, such as a driver’s license, to show who you are.

Although property ownership isn’t tied to immigration or visa status, there are rules about how long you can stay, so if you’re not a citizen, check out U.S. visa requirements before you purchase.   

2. Plan to Get a Mortgage
That way, you don’t have to save your money for years to become a homeowner and start building equity. The U.S. home loan market offers many safe, affordable mortgages, including ones that allow Muslims to buy a home without violating Islamic laws against paying interest. 

To get a U.S. mortgage, you must establish credit and earn a good credit score. To boost your score:

Open U.S. bank and credit card accounts.
Report all your income on your tax returns. Lenders use tax returns to verify your income and decide how much you can afford to borrow to buy a home.

When it’s time to apply for a mortgage, you’ll find major banks with global operations have experience working with foreign buyers and tend to have a process for verifying credit established in other countries.

3. Work with a experienced Realtor. 
Make sure your REALTOR®  has experience, training, and education in helping foreign-born home buyers. An experienced real estate or title attorney can help you protect your interests, too.

Tell your real estate agent how the home buying process works in your native country and ask her to explain U.S. home-buying customs to identify any differences. Even within the U.S., local differences exist in how people buy and sell homes. Knowing how homes are sold here and what to expect with closing costs, inspections, and the negotiation process reduces your stress and helps you get a good deal on your first home.

4. Don’t Be Shocked By Casual Attitudes
Americans’ casual attitudes toward buying or selling real estate is a byproduct of the relaxed U.S. business culture. Although real estate contracts must be in writing, the process leading up to the sales contract signing may be more informal and casual than it would be in your home country.

5. Convert Units
Learn to convert from the U.S. standard measurement into metric, or pick up a metric converter app so you can better estimate room and home sizes while shopping.

6. Find Someone Who Can Translate
If you’re not fluent in English, or prefer speaking in your native language, choose inspectors, mortgage bankers, and REALTORS® fluent in your own language. Dwyer Properties has staff that speak English and Arabic.  Although it’s possible to get translated copies of standard real estate documents, you’ll likely have to sign the English versions during your home purchase.

7. Create a Financial Plan for Your Home
Consider all the real-estate related expenses you’ll have as a homeowner, including property taxes, homeowners insurance, and maintenance costs. Set up a financial plan for your home so you know how much money to set aside for ongoing expenses.

Do 46 Million Millennials Know They Are Mortgage Ready?

Many have written about the millennial generation and whether or not they, as a whole, believe in homeownership as part of attaining the American Dream.

Millennials have taken longer to obtain traditional milestones than the generations before them, such as getting married, having kids, and buying a home. However, that does not mean that they do not still aspire to achieve those things.

History shows that people tend to buy their first home around age 30. Nearly 5 million millennials will turn 30 in the next two years. This will continue to fuel demand for housing.

This is also one of the many reasons why the millennial homeownership rate has continued to grow over the past few years. 48.4% of Americans between the ages of 30-34 now own a home.

There are over 46 million millennials (33% of the generation) who are considered “Mortgage Ready”, meaning they meet the qualifications to be approved for a mortgage today!

• a FICO Score ≥ 620
• a Back-End Debt to Income Ratio ≤ 25%
• no Foreclosures or Bankruptcies in the last 7 years
• no severe delinquencies in 1 year

Rob Chrane, CEO of Down Payment Resource, commented on the findings of the report,

“We now know there are millions of buyers with the income & credit necessary to qualify to buy a home. The biggest question is:

Do they know it? …Unfortunately, many renters don’t investigate homeownership simply because they don’t believe it’s an option.”

The good news is that more and more millennials are realizing that they can afford a home now. Even so, more can be done to increase awareness of low down payment programs to attract even more of this generation.

New data from realtor.com shows that in December, millennials accounted for 42% of all new home loans originated in the month. This is more than any other generation.

Bottom Line
If you are one of the many millennials who may be “Mortgage Ready” but are unsure what your next steps should be, let’s get together to help guide you on your path to homeownership!

Do you know how to properly sell your house fast?

In today’s real estate market, with more houses coming to market every day and eager buyers searching for their dream home, setting the right price for your house is one of the most important things you can do.

According to CoreLogic’s latest Home Price Index, home values have risen at over 6% a year over the past two years, but have started to slow to 4.4% over the last 12 months. By this time next year, CoreLogic predicts that home values will be 4.6% higher.

With prices slowing from their previous pace, homeowners must realize that pricing their homes a little OVER market value to leave room for negotiation will actually dramatically decrease the number of buyers who will see their listing! (see the chart below)

Bottom Line


If you are debating listing your house for sale, let’s get together to discuss how to price your home appropriately for our area and maximize your exposure this Spring Market!

Don't Let Your Luck Run Out, Make Your Move This Spring

Spring Ahead

5 Reasons To Love Using A Reltor

Why You Should List Your Home With A Realtor Rather Than Try It Yourself

Those that sell with a Realtor get 13% to 19% more for their home

Since there is so much information on the internet now-a-days some clients ask, "Why should we hire a real estate agent?" They believe that they can buy or sell a home through the Internet or regular marketing and advertising channels without representation, without a real estate agent.  The truth is only some do fine on their ​own, but many don't. 

Below are 10 reasons why you might want to consider hiring a professional real estate agent.

 Education and Experience
Even for a seasoned Real Estate agent, it is tough to keep up on knowing everything about buying and selling real estate between the legal changes, economic market changes and interest rate changes.    Henry Ford once said that when you hire people who are smarter than you are, it proves you are smarter than they are. The hardest part is trying to find the right agent for you.  You should always work with a seasoned Realtor. If you are working with someone new in the field, ask them if they are working with a season team agent.  New agents do not necessarily have the network nor the marketing ability as a seasoned agent.    So why not hire a person with more education and experience than you.


Acts As A Spam Filter
Agents take the spam out of your property showings and visits. If you're a buyer of new homes, your agent will shield you from relentless calls from builders trying to sell you something you are not interested in. If you're a seller, your agent will filter all those phone calls that lead to nowhere from lookie-loos and try to induce serious buyers to write an offer immediately.  Filtering those phone calls can also help prevent you from being scammed by people pretending to be a Real Estate Agent and buyers that are not who they say they are.


Neighborhood Knowledge
Real Estate Agents possess intimate knowledge or they know where to find the industry news about your neighborhood. They can identify comparable sales and hand these facts to you, in addition to pointing you in the direction where you can find more data on schools, crime or demographics. For example, you may know that a home down the street was on the market for $450,000, but an agent will know it had upgrades and sold at $365,000 after 75 days on the market and after a couple of different purchase agreement offers fell through.


Price Guidance
Contrary to what some people believe, agents do not select prices for sellers or buyers. However, an agent will help to guide clients to make the right choices for themselves. If a listing is at 6%, for example, an agent has a 7% vested interest in the sale, but the client has a 94% interest. Selling agents will ask buyers to weigh all the data supplied to them and to choose a price. Then based on market supply, demand and the conditions, the agent will devise a negotiation strategy. 

Market Conditions Information
Real estate agents can disclose market conditions, which will govern your selling or buying process. Many factors determine how you will proceed. Data such as the average per square foot cost of similar homes, median and average sales prices, average days on market and ratios of list-to-sold prices, among other criteria, will have a huge bearing on what you ultimately decide to do.  Studies have shown that using an agent can net you 13% to 19% more on your home over selling it yourself.

Professional Networking
Real estate agents network with other professionals, many of whom provide services that you will need to buy or sell. Due to legal liability, many agents will hesitate to recommend a certain individual or company over another, but they do know which vendors have a reputation for efficiency, competency, and competitive pricing. Agents can, however, give you a list of references with whom they have worked and provide background information to help you make a wise selection.

 Negotiation Skills and Confidentiality
Top producing agents negotiate well because, unlike most buyers and sellers, they can remove themselves from the emotional aspects of the transaction and because they are skilled. It's part of their job description. Good agents are not messengers, delivering buyer's offers to sellers and vice versa. They are professionals who are trained to present their client's case in the best light and agree to hold client information confidential from competing interests.

Handling Volumes of Paperwork
Many years ago purchase agreements were just a page or two. Today's purchase agreements run ten pages or more. That does not include the federal- and state-mandated disclosures nor disclosures dictated by local laws. Most real estate files average thicknesses from one to three inches of paper. One tiny mistake or omission could land you in court or cost you thousands!

Answer Questions After Closing
Even the smoothest transactions that close without complications can come back to haunt you. For example, taxing authorities that collect property tax assessments, doc stamps or transfer tax can fall months behind and mix up invoices, but one call to your agent can straighten out the confusion. Many questions can pop up that were overlooked in the excitement of closing. Good agents stand by ready to assist. Worthy and honest agents don't leave you in the dust to fend for yourself.

Develop Relationships for Future Business
The basis for an agent's success and continued career in real estate is referrals. Few agents would survive if their livelihood was dependent on consistently drumming up new business. This emphasis gives agents strong incentives to make certain clients are happy and satisfied. It also means that an agent who stays in the business will be there for you when you need to hire an agent again. Many will periodically mail market updates to you to keep you informed and to stay in touch.