Expert: Jessica Bryan - 5/23/2004

Question
I am in the military and will be relocating to the Jacksonville,Florida area in about 11 months. I am presently overseas (Spain) and have some questions about relocating.
1. What can I do right now to start the process of finding a home?(I know this is a general question?
2. What will be the role of the broker and what will it cost me?
3. Is there any advantage to buying from a "For Sale by Owner?"
4. Is there a way to get in contact with someone to get a pre-approval without any obligation so that I know what range I should be looking at?
5. What criteria do I use to determine who the best realtor is if I do not know anyone or have a referral
Any help that you can provide would greatly help me.

David

Answer
Dear David;
To answer your questions about relocating to Jacksonville, Florida; first of all there are several things that you can be doing right now.  Log on to www.realtor.com and search for homes in Jacksonville.  To do this effectively, you should get a general idea of how much you can afford.  You can do this by using one of the many credit calculators available online.  (There is one on the realtor.com website--just click on "find a lender" and get a prequalification as well as find out what you can afford.) A rule of thumb is that your monthly house payments, taxes, and insurance shouldn't be more than 28% of your monthly income.  In addition, your total monthly payments: house, taxes, insurance, car, loans, credit card minimum payments, and other financial obligations should not exceed approximately 1/3 of your monthly income.  Now you can calculate what a monthly house payment will be based upon a 30 yr. fixed rate mortgage. Since you are in the military, you qualify for a loan that will be lower and better terms than other loans.  This will allow you to buy a more expensive home. Any inquiries you may make (military or otherwise) do not obligate you in any way, but let me caution you that you should not have too many lenders run a credit check since that shows up on your credit report and can actually hurt your credit.  It's okay to have one credit report run just so you are aware of what it is though.

There is sometimes an advantage to buying a For Sale By Owner if the Seller is willing to cut the price because of the savings in commission.  However, more often than not, the Seller--not the Buyer is the one who receives the advantage. The Seller will often charge slightly less than a listed home but will then not be willing to negotiate as much.  They are often difficult to deal with when it comes to inspection issues as well.  I have sometimes seen FSBO's cost more than a listed home in the end. I do not recommend buying a home this way.  There are too many things that can go wrong.  Sellers and Buyers are not as informed as a trained REALTOR. REALTORS (not real estate agents) must abide by a code of ethics, receive additional training, and along with licensed agents, must take additional classes every year as a licensing requirement.  This keeps them current on issues that are ever-changing in the market.  A good Buyer's agent will look out for your best interests and make sure that you get the best and fairest deal that you can.  He or she will troubleshoot for you, make sure that you get all of the inspections, disclosures, etc.  Unless disclosure of additional fees is made, there is no cost to you to use a Buyer's agent.  Fees are paid by the Seller.

To find a good agent, there are several things you can do.  You can interview agents by going into offices in the area and finding one you feel you can work with.  You can also contact REALTORS who advertise a particular home and see if they are knowledgeable and easy to work with. The best thing to do is to get a referral. I can assist you with this if you like.  Once you are ready to talk to an agent contact me and I will call one of several agents in my referral network.  I will interview them and find one who will work well for you.  I will keep in touch with the agent and make sure that they are doing their best for you.  Referral networks allow for agents to establish business alliances around the US and the Buyers benefit by having experts looking over other agent's shoulders.  It makes for a smoother more professional transaction.  When someone refers a client to me I work extra hard, because I not only want to please the client but the referring agent so I will continue to get referrals.  You see?  It is a win-win situation!

I hope that this information helps you.  Feel free to contact me again with any other questions you may have.

Sincerely Yours,
Jessica Bryan
Managing Broker
House to Home Realty Services