When you decide to buy a home in Tucson, Arizona you can begin your real estate experience with the comfort and satisfaction of knowing that you've picked one of the fastest growing areas of the country to live in. The Tucson real estate market is booming – much to the delight of buyers and sellers alike. When you buy a home in a market that is surging like Tucson's is, you can rest assured that not only have you purchased a new home in a wonderful city, but that its value will appreciate quite favorably for you. In other words, your new home will be a good investment.

Buying a new home always brings with it a big sense of accomplishment and pride, as well it should. First-time buyers get to experience the thrill and challenge of changing from the temporary lifestyle of renting, to the permanent benefits and responsibilities of ownership. Veteran home buyers already know the joys of ownership, and are now ready to move into a new home – one which better suits their needs and wishes – maybe even their "dream home." Or maybe that will be the next one…

Purchasing a home should be a very enjoyable experience all the way through the process. Of course, there's a lot of paperwork, and a great many details to sort out and attend to, but your realtor will be an invaluable aid to accomplishing these less than exciting tasks as quickly, easily, and painlessly as possible. The whole point of this paragraph is simply to remind you to have fun during your home buying adventure. It's a marvelous and rare experience in your life – and you should thoroughly relish it. And your realtor should ensure that you can by leading the way down a smooth, trouble-free path.

The current schools of thought on purchasing real estate all pretty much direct you to 1) determining how much house you can afford [how large of a payment can you reasonably afford to make each month] and then2) securing a loan, or pre-qualifying for one anyway, before you do much of anything else. There's not much you can do about that first step. You really should have some basic idea of how much a bank will loan you, based solely on standard formulae used to compute that figure. Click here for some tools that will calculate that for you. Don't forget that if you can gather a bit more of a down payment, you can look at houses costing slightly more.

Now that you have a rough idea of how much money you'll be able to borrow, you're supposed to gather up your finances and head for a loan institution to start completing the superfluous paperwork needed for a new home loan. If you've been through this, you know what to expect, but since you're a previous homeowner (mortgage holder), it will be easier. But before I send you down to the bank to write until three pens are devoid of ink, don't you think you should start having some of that fun mentioned earlier? Now don't worry, we'll get back to some of the more tedious elements later on in this article…

You've probably spent months, or maybe even years determining things that you want in your new house. A bigger kitchen, a place in the garage for a workshop, a swimming pool, and so forth may be on this list. If you haven't already, it's time to get more specific, and time to write down what you need, what you want, and what is completely unacceptable. Inasmuch as the list of options and combinations is almost unlimited, this will only be slightly touched herein.

To organize your new house wants, make a new list (in your computer or on paper is just fine) that has three columns in it. Column one will be for what you need in the house, column two is for what you want, and column three is for anything that would make a house unacceptable under any circumstance – including a great price. Here are just a few very basic items to remember as you put information into all three columns.

NEEDS:

WANTS:

UNACCEPTABLE:

Get the whole family involved in looking at new houses on the computer, either together, or individually. You'll be amazed at what is said during such group house viewings. It's a really good way to refine that list you made earlier. Anyway, enjoy this project, and don’t rush it – there are lots of properties to view in Tucson. Find the very best ones for your needs and wants and use the 'save your searches' facility to make re-viewing them fast and easy. Believe me – you're going to want to see the homes again, so marking them saves lots of re-searching time.

This is a good time to start looking for your realtor – while you collect and organize all of your necessary financial records and materials. While this is going on, if you are also selling a home, it's time to go ahead and start making any obviously necessary repairs (see the Seller's Toolbox article A Silk Purse for suggestions on how to prepare your home for sale in Tucson). Don't get too deeply into preparing your home or collecting tons of financial information until after you have your first meeting with the real estate agent you've selected to represent you. Your agent can be invaluable in guiding you through preparing your home for sale, and can also help you minimize the amount of financial documentation you'll need. The agent will know the financial institutions, and what they each require. This knowledge will save you time, hassles, and headaches.

A good idea is to organize your real estate documents, including financial records, in a fan-fold style file container. These are cheap, lightweight, small, and provide adequate separation capacity for the task at hand. These are readily available at discount stores and office supply stores.

By the time you get to this paragraph, you should already be enjoying the security that comes from having a competent, experienced real estate agent working for you. But here's a sort of schedule of what will happen now…

First, your agent will get you properly on the way to getting your financing. Getting pre-qualified is definitely the preferred route. It relieves you from the rush, strain, and worry of trying to get a loan after you've already found your new house, and it also gives you a much stronger position in the negotiation phase of the purchase. Your Mehalic- Halle Team real estate agent will explain to you (in detail) the advantages you'll enjoy at the bargaining table, if you've pre-qualified for a mortgage loan. While no buyer jumps at this task, they invariably express great relief when they have that pre-approval letter in hand.

Now it's time for the next fun, exciting phase of your quest: perusing town with your Mehalic- Halle Team representative, and viewing the homes and properties you are most interested in. Windermere Distinctive Homes and Land will have made all the necessary arrangements and appointments, so your Mehalic- Halle Team agent can focus on you and your questions, and you can focus on enjoying the tour, and all the exciting new input.

You'll be glad later that day if you bring along a digital camera and notepad, or a small voice recorder is even better. Take low resolution photos so that you can get more on a storage card. You'll be viewing on the computer, so the low resolution really won't matter. HINT: It’s a good idea to make your first picture one of the house address – it'll make it easier later when you are organizing and reviewing photos from 5 different Tucson properties. And take lots of digital photos – they'll answer loads of after-the-fact questions, which saves you time and frustration, and also makes your final real estate purchasing decision a better informed one. Photos can tell you how many sockets there are in a room? Or whether there was ceiling fan at that house or that house? Even if you only view three houses, you'll be bombarded with entirely too much information to effectively remember. Which one was it that had that built-in microwave with the automatic popcorn setting? Was that carpet tan, or mauve? Tape or write notes as you deem fitting.

(It's a little off the straight and narrow of this article's intent, but this is a very good place to mention that if you take lots of pictures and make good notes, 'selling' the house to the family becomes easier – and more fun. Younger family members don't usually go along on the viewing adventure, and if you make a decision, you can introduce them to their new home in the controlled atmosphere of the house computer room – skipping the less attractive elements, and highlighting the appropriate ones – as you deem best. Pictures of new bedrooms, closets, yards, pools, basketball courts, etc. will quickly put you into favor with younger family members. It should all be as much fun as possible – for everyone.)

While you're touring homes in Tucson, be sure to ask your Mehalic-Halle Team agent all the questions you want to – about anything and everything to do with real estate, the homes you're looking at, the area of the home, the school district, shopping – anything at all! Our agents spend a great deal of time every week staying fully current with all aspects and trends of the Tucson market, and all of its relative tangents. Your agent will tell you about new roads that are proposed, school district changes or improvements that are slated, and much, much more. One thing each and every member of The Mehalic-Halle Team is completely familiar with is the sales history of the area, and the sales history of builders, which comes in very handy when you're looking at newly constructed homes. How well have this builder's homes performed as investments in the past? Every member of The Mehalic-Halle Team takes great pride in maintaining their education about many topics so that they may serve your real estate needs fully, professionally, and with the most current information available. Ask LOTS of questions – buying a new home is important, and you should be as well informed as possible. Don't worry that you don't know every "right" question to ask, your Mehalic-Halle Team agent will enthusiastically tell you all that is needed, and a whole lot more. Your agent is your representative in the real estate transaction at hand, and can only succeed at the same level you succeed. If you get the house you want at a fair price, and don't experience any surprises, unnecessary postponements, or hassles, then your agent has succeeded.

Now that you have a few houses that you've viewed, you'll most likely want to review the day's information and discuss anything that could not be discussed during the touring. Tucson real estate sells extremely quickly in many areas – particularly in northwest Tucson, including Marana, and Oro Valley. Be sure to check with your agent about the probability of the houses you're interested in selling before you can make an offer. A good rule of thumb is this: if the real estate you're interested in is selling for $300,000 or less, it will move very quickly. If it's in the Northwest area of Tucson , it will move faster. These homes can commonly sell in one or two days. For more specific information, ask your agent. Just be aware you may need to make a decision quickly, or lose the chance to submit an offer. In the fast-paced Tucson market, many people end up losing any chance of making an offer three and four times before they finally make it in time. Of course, don't make a hasty decision – this is a decision that is way too important to imprudently rush. At least now, this having been said, you won't be caught off-guard.

As soon as you make a decision, including the offer you are prepared to make, contact your agent with the news. Your agent will discuss your decision and offer with you. Part of a good agent's responsibility is to ensure that you are aware of the probability of your offer succeeding, and also the latitude the agent has in the pending negotiations. At this point, your agent will handle things – starting by immediately submitting your offer.

If your offer is not accepted, then you go back a couple of steps and start again. Don't be too upset by not getting the first house you wanted, it's quite common in Tucson. Remember – the real estate market here moves very fast.

If your offer was accepted, congratulations! Your agent will immediately notify you of the good news. Your new home is removed from the market, and the wheels of your closing begin to turn.

It's now that having the best real estate agent you can find will once again pay off with big dividends. Your Mehalic-Halle Team agent will guide you through all the steps of getting to your closing, and then through the actual closing itself. During this part of your real estate buying experience, you'll meet some of the members of The Mehalic- Halle Team support staff. This part of the team assists the agent in ensuring that your closing comes off without a hitch. You can relax with The Mehalic-Halle Team, everything will be attended to. If you need to provide something or be somewhere, your agent will ensure that you know it in a timely manner. Your transaction will be closely monitored all the way through the process.

The "closing" is the legal consummation of your real estate transaction. All of the title transfers and money matters will be attended to, as well as any special requirements for the specific transaction – things like easements, etc. When you leave the closing, you can go home to your new house and begin transforming it into your new home.

The Mehalic- Halle Team of Tucson real estate professionals is ready to help you with your real estate experience from start to finish. You can contact us by clicking here or at:

Windermere
Distinctive Homes and Land
10335 N. La Canada Drive, Suite 117
Oro Valley, Arizona 85737
Voice: 520-797-1771 • Fax: (520) 797-0909

©Copyright 2005 Nikki Mehalic- Halle • The OV Team, LLC • 10355 N La Canada Dr, #117 • Oro Valley, AZ 95737. All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced without the express, written permission of the copyright owner.