Insider Tips for Buying a Home in Minnesota

This information is designed to give you some helpful hints when looking to buy a home in Minnesota.

There are always a few people who manage to buy just before the market begins to move up, or sell before a downward spiral starts. For the rest of us who don't have a crystal ball, insider tips are much more valuable than trying to achieve perfect market timing. We're sharing these insider tips with you because you need to equip yourself with the most beneficial tool we can offer you: information.

The truth is, no one - including REALTORS - knows exactly when the Minnesota market will move one way or another. We simply can't predict it. So, if we don't know, you had better prepare yourself for all the possibilities that can affect your home purchase. Here are just a few:

  1. Choose a good REALTOR. Naturally you are thinking, I wouldn't purposefully choose a bad one. You might not know it until you've begun working together. Then you're stuck until you choose somebody else and that takes valuable time. Make sure you choose someone you feel comfortable working with and someone who is enthusiastic, active, and aggressive in the marketplace. Just because they were referred to you, or are a friend, doesn't mean that you will have the best working relationship.
  2. Establish your agency relationship. This means clearly establishing whom the REALTOR represents. Will the REALTOR be an agent of the seller, or a subagent to the agent of the seller, and as such owe their fiduciary duty to the seller. Or will the REALTOR be the agent of the Buyer and therefore owe their fiduciary duty to the Buyer to achieve the best price and terms for that Buyer. Simply stated, do you want the agent working in your best interest, or someone else's?
  3. Only work with one REALTOR or team. You will receive fierce loyalty if you tell your agent that your relationship is an exclusive one. If the agent believes you're playing them against someone else, that agent will lose interest. Wouldn't you?
  4. You should work with a loan officer to determine exactly how much home you can afford. You can't guess. We can recommend some loan officers whom we have done business with in the past and feel very comfortable referring clients to. You may also work through your own loan officer or banking professional. This person should explain and recommend various mortgage programs that best suit your financial needs.
  5. After working with a loan officer and receiving a pre-approval letter it is time to start looking for your home! By providing good information to us about what you are looking for in a home we are able to narrow the search to 4-8 homes that may be right for you.

Our team of professionals will work together to ensure the smoothest transaction possible. In today's marketplace your file will change hands an average of 63 times between signing of a purchase agreement and closing. Our transaction coordinating process will track your file to make certain that nothing is overlooked.

Our goal is to be your REALTORS for life. When it comes time to move up to a bigger home or downsize to a smaller home we want to be the team that you call. Your satisfaction is extremely important to us because our business grows by referrals from people like you.

Thank you for considering the real estate services of Barker and Hedges. We look forward to the opportunity to work with you soon!