• Price Range - Never buy more than you can afford. What can you afford?
• Size - Bedrooms, sqft, lot size, etc.
• Type of Home - condo, single family, townhouse, new or resale.
• Location - Proximity to work, friends, family.
• Social - the community in which your future home is located can be just as important as the home itself.
• Future plans - my recommendations may be different if you are staying two years vs ten years.
• Stage in Life - easy care or a large backyard with a pool for the kids?
• Living Style - Great room, large garage with a workshop, etc.
• Special Needs - Master bedroom downstairs, RV parking, etc.

A critical step in the buying process is to secure a loan pre-approval letter; a loan pre-qualification letter has no value. Without a Nevada recognized lender's pre-approval letter, sellers will not take any offer seriously nor do you know what you can afford or what the various costs will be. Note that there have been a lot of changes recently so even if you have a pre-approval letter you need to reconfirm with your lender. If you do not already have a lender, I can recommend one. This process is easy and requires little time but it is essential to obtain this document.

Save Time - At the end of the day, you have to personally see the homes. To minimize the time you spend in the car and looking for homes, I use route optimization software just like Federal Express or delivery services use. This can reduce the total dead time (sitting in the car, waiting for the next home) by 20% to 50% over manually selecting the route. Here are more details. Also, since plans change, I have a satellite navigation system in the car enabling me to optimally move between homes.

Information - Once we have a short-list of homes, I provide you an analysis on the home, the subdivision, the area including price trends, comparable's, proximity to key locations, absorption rates, property history and more. This is the type of information you need to make an informed decision. This type of information is not available anywhere else. These reports were created by me, are copyrighted, and available no where else. Here is a sample area report.

New Homes: Negotiating with the builders can significantly reduce the price and improve the terms. This is a challenge I enjoy. To see sample savings I have achieved for my clients see here. Note: I must go with you the first time you go to the subdivision and register as your agent or I will not be able to represent you. Also, since builders frequently pay high commissions, my contribution to your closing costs and such can be very significant. Here are the details and "fine-print".

Resales: Instead of just faxing in the offer as most agents do, I personally present the offer to the seller and their agent if it is not a bank owned property. I also present analytical information supporting the offer including a profile of the buyers, comps, competition, etc. This information supports what may be perceived as a low offer to the seller. Using this approach, I almost always get a positive response. Just delivering the purchase agreement with an number is frequently taken as insulting.