From Start to Sold: How to Get Awesome Results When Buying or Selling a Home

By Thomas Miller

This book is designed to be a roadmap for anyone buying or selling a home. Although millions of people buy or sell their home each year, the vast majority of them stumble through the process and get mediocre results. This book will give the reader a step by step process and provide insight based on real world experience to help you achieve your goals in your next real estate transaction. Whether you are a first-time home buyer or a seasoned veteran, this book will equip anyone considering buying or selling a home with the knowledge they need to succeed in their next real estate transaction.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 30, 2018
• ISBN: 9781543937183

Book preview

©2018 Thomas Miller. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 978-1-54393-717-6 (print)

ISBN: 978-1-54393-718-3 (ebook)

This book is dedicated to everyone who has ever decided to hire me as their Realtor. I could not be in the position I am today or be able to share my knowledge with others without first having worked on your behalf.

Contents

Forewordxi

Part 1: For the Buyers1

Step 1: Preparing for What You Want3

Discover What’s Holding You Back3

How Do You Feel about Contact Sports?5

Selecting Your Lender9

Getting Your Finances Primed to Write an Offer13

Step 2: Finding What You Want16

The Guiding Principles16

The Home Search18

Continue to Gather More Intel20

The In-Person Visit21

Step 3: Getting What You Want24

Think Like a Seller24

Pull the Right Levers to Win the Deal25

Common Terms of a Real Estate Transaction26

The Home Inspection29

Plan for Delays31

The Final Walkthrough33

Closing Day35

Part 2: For the Sellers37

Step 1: Preparing for Success39

Understand Your Expectations39

Identify and Mitigate Obstacles to Selling Your Home42

Finding an Awesome Listing Agent43

You Get What You Pay For—Discount Brokerages45

Step 2: Listing to Get Top Dollar47

How Many Offers Do You Want on Your Listing?47

How to Price Your Home50

How Can I Know for Sure What My Home Is Worth?53

Presentation55

Marketing as a Force Multiplier58

Step 3: Keeping the Deal Together62

What Happens When We Receive an Offer?62

How Can I Tell if an Offer Is a Good One?65

Do Your Due Diligence before Accepting the Offer69

How Do We Handle the Negotiation of Home Repairs?72

Keeping Track of All Contingencies75

Preparing for the Close76

Appendix77

Questions to Ask before You Hire Your Next Realtor77

Thoughts on What to Look for in a Realtor79

Questions to Ask Your Lender When Getting

Pre-approved83

Questions to Ask the Listing Agent before You Go See

a Home84

Transcript of a Conversation with the Winning

Buyer’s Agent86

Play by Play of a Multi-Offer Win for My Buyer

Clients88

How Do I Choose the Best Offer?91

How to Save a Thousand Dollars on Closing Costs93

Secrets from a Top Mortgage Lender94

Foreword

This book is designed to help you develop a rock-solid process for buying or selling your next home. Millions of people buy and sell real estate each year, but the vast majority of them stumble through the process. For buyers, this can mean a search process that takes months or years instead of weeks. When this happens, buyers either can’t find what they are looking for, or when they do find it, they fail to submit a winning bid. For sellers, this can mean having their property sit on the market for months, and when or if they do sell, the sales price is far below what they had hoped for. Often, deals fall apart instead of getting to the closing table.

One thing I want the reader to take away from this book is that a successful real estate transaction requires a good process. Anyone who has ever hit a golf ball or baked a cake understands the importance of process. To crush the ball straight down the fairway, a series of steps have to occur in the right order. If the club face is open by even a quarter of an inch, the ball goes into the woods. If the baker changes the order of the steps in the recipe, the chocolate cake becomes a chocolate mess.

When I became a Realtor, I made it a goal to deliver the best advice possible to my clients. To do that I interviewed almost everyone I knew who had ever bought or sold a home, to learn from their mistakes. I reached out to some of the top agents in my local real estate market and across the country. And now, several years and many transactions later, I draw upon my own experience in real estate to inform you, the reader, of what I have learned about successful real estate transactions. By doing so, I hope that you will complete your next real estate sale, or purchase, in a way that is smarter and more effective than almost anyone you know.

Part 1:

For the Buyers

Step 1:

Preparing for What

You Want

Discover What’s Holding You Back

The first step in the process to a successful home purchase is to understand which obstacles you must overcome in order to make your goal of purchasing a home a reality. When I meet with a new client in my office for our initial consultation, one of the first questions I ask is, What obstacles are standing in the way of you buying your next home? Almost always, the client responds with something along the lines of, I think we are in good shape. I can’t think of anything at the moment.

The best question to ask yourself at this early stage of home buying is, What is preventing me from making an offer on a home, today? The word today brings the buyer from an abstract goal of purchasing a home someday to the very tangible goal of doing it now. When I ask this follow-up question, a light goes off in the client’s head. He can now see that there probably will be a number of things that must happen before he can move forward with the purchase of a home.

There are no right or wrong answers, but it is important to ask this question on day one of your home buying process. The faster you can uncover what is standing in your way, the easier it will be to make a plan to address each obstacle. Some obstacles will be easy to address, while others will require more effort. Completing this process early on lays the groundwork for a smooth transaction and helps you avoid