Buying a home should be an exciting experience! When you finally decided “it’s time”, the JS Realty Team is ready to help guide you every step of the way. We are happy to make a recommendation for financing with one of our trusted lenders. We will put you in touch right away, so you can begin to understand how much you can afford and which financing options are the best for you.
Once you have the financing portion started, and you have determined your 
purchasing power, your designated agent with The JS Realty Team @ Samson Properties will schedule a home tour. Allow approximately 2-3 hours for your tour depending on your home selection. You are welcome to ride along with your agent, or follow along in your own vehicle.
We want to know more about your needs, and we will set aside time to learn more about you and help guide you on what is going to be the best fit for you. Our experience shows us that most buyers will narrow down their selection to 4-5 homes – from which they will choose one. When there are more homes than that on the tour, it probably means the agent didn’t narrow down enough “specifics”, or you are in luck with a massive inventory in your area and price range and are not too “picky”. You can help narrow down time by browsing through the photos and home features in the MLS listing your agent has sent you and eliminating any homes that are not strong candidates for your selection.
Suggestions for a productive home tour:
- Have all decision makers on the tour
- Be prepared with things to keep the kids busy on the tour so you can focus on notes and questions
- Bring a digital camera and take pictures of each home or better yet, capture video. Your smart phone is great for this. Your agent would be happy to follow along and record for you so you can take notes.
- Have a pen/pencil and notepad to make notes. You will forget. It’s important to note LIKES and DISLIKES for each home. Example: Island in kitchen is amazing. 2nd bedroom room for nursery is a bit small. Love the tub in the master bathroom! Home will need a deck.
- Upon leaving each home, rank the home on a 1-10 scale on how likely you would be to write a compelling offer.
- During the hot months, frozen bottles of water are a great idea for the trip. Some homes will not have power or air conditioning. In the cold months, remember your jacket and gloves.
- Don’t wear shoes that you are worried about scuffing. You will be walking the lots to learn more about the property; keep in mind being able to be comfortable inside the home and out.
- Be prepared to write an offer. Remember you are looking to buy a home so there is not much sense in touring homes when you are not prepared to buy, as those homes are certain to not be available at a later date.
If we have done our job, as your Brambleton real estate agent, you are prepared, have selected strong candidates, have your financing ready, have a comfortable knowledge of the process and you are ready to buy.
Think you are ready to start the buying process? CONTACT US TODAY. We’d love to help you get started!
The JS Realty Team – not only serving Brambleton, serving all of Northern Virginia.
Appraisers generally use 3 standard approaches to determine the market value of a property: The Cost Approach, The Comparison Approach, and The Income Approach. Combining these 3 approaches enables the appraiser to give their professional opinion on the market of the home.
Commuter Connections can provide you with information on all your commute options, so you can make a smart choice about how you travel to work. 
inspection. At the same time as the home inspection, we will schedule any other inspections we deem necessary. We will meet our buyer and Inspector at the home for the inspection. After a thorough inspection, the Inspector will provide us with a full report of the good features as well as areas of concern about the home. We will review this report with our buyer and decide which items we will ask the seller to fix. If there are major concerns that make the buyer too uneasy about the home then we will void the contract and search for other homes. If the buyer and seller agree to the home inspection terms, then we will move on to the next step. As long as we are comfortable with the inspections, we will proceed.
read the disclosure packet and by Virginia law if they are not content with the rules and finances of the community, the buyer can void the contract.
are showing that this year is starting out strong! In January of 2015, closed sales showed a modest increase of +1.8% higher than in January 2014. There were 589 new listings that posted this past January, a +5.4% increase over the number listed in the same month in 2014. The $410,000 median sales price this January was 4% lower than the same month last year, though the $550,000 median sales price for detached homes increased 5.7%. The median list price for new pending sales was $420,000, less than 1% below last January’s $423,982 level for new pending sales. 
contracts need to be carefully reviewed to ensure you know exactly what the potential buyer is proposing. Only after you have reviewed and researched all offers will you be able to proceed to choose the contract that works best for you.
In this 2-part series, we’re walking you through everything to consider when reviewing an offer to purchase your home for a successful and smooth transaction. If you missed PART 1, you can find it 
you need to give them time. Financing is typically 3-4 weeks and it is the weakest of the contingencies. The buyer has control over the home inspection and HOA disclosure contingencies; however they do not have as much control over the appraisal and financing. That is why we want the Home Inspection completed and HOA documents reviewed as early on in the process as possible.