As a new agent and first time home buyer, I am learning so much about the real estate process. I had no idea there was so much involved in     purchasing a home or property. I had already gotten my real estate license when my husband and I began looking for our first home, and even  with the amount of knowledge needed to get my license, I had a lot to learn. I have decided to document our journey and blog along the way to offer some behind the scenes looks at what exactly is involved in buying your first home.

Step 2: Making an Offer

After months of searching for the right home, we finally found what we thought was the perfect property. On close to 7 acres, this property would allow us to remodel the existing home and eventually build another home a few acres away, giving us a great investment opportunity. After taking a week to think it over and making sure this was what we wanted to do, we decided to make an offer.

Making an offer involves lots of paperwork and very specific timelines. Did we want an inspection? How long would we give them to accept our offer? When could we close? Was the property on a septic tank or city sewer? Would we need inspections on the septic? Buying land out in the county is different from buying in the city limits. You need to look into the quality of the land and whether or not it’s in a flood zone, if there are any wetlands on the property, how it is zoned and if it’s on a well or city water. Working with an agent makes this process much easier. They will prepare the paperwork, do research on the land, and help you put together a great offer. My mentor went through all the details with me until I was familiar with the information and Purchase and Sale Agreements. After they were all signed and ready to go, I called the listing agent to let him know I had an offer to submit. This is where our problems began.  He informed me that the sellers had gotten an offer the week before. Our excitement about our first offer immediately went down the drain- after all those months of searching and preparing, we would have to compete with another buyer for the most appealing offer. After reviewing our options and with lots of advice from my mentor, we decided to increase our offer and hope that ours would be more appealing than the other prospective buyer. When making an offer, there are other things to take into consideration other than just the price. Our offering price was higher, but the other buyer offered a much quicker closing date, which appealed to the sellers because they wanted to sell ASAP.  We were planning on getting an FHA Rehab loan, and the process required for that kind of financing would not allow for a quicker closing. In the end, we decided to start searching again to see what else was available.

We started from scratch, re-evaluating our goals and expectations, and started searching for houses that needed less work and were closer to town.  After looking at some more houses, we finally found one that fit our criteria. It was ready to move in, had beautiful upgrades, and was close to the freeway, making my husband’s commute about 5 minutes shorter. However, instead of the 7 acres we had found and loved at the previous house, this had a tiny yard and was in the middle of a very populated neighborhood. We had to compromise and decided that the yard would be large enough for our 2 small dogs and we liked the house enough to put in an offer. I wrote up the offer the next day and sent it along to the listing agent. He informed me that another agent potentially had a cash offer to bring in, but there was nothing submitted yet. This made us nervous and brought back nightmares from the other offer that didn’t work out, but we got down to business, got our lender in order and closed on our new house in 3 weeks. It was a long and emotional process full of excitement, disappointment and a lot of compromise, but in the end, we got a house that we can start a family in and can make our own.

Watch for next week’s blog: Step 3:  Closing. If you have any questions about real estate, the buying or selling process, or would like to see how eXp is changing the real estate world, please contact me

Mikki Flaherty -Realtor

Direct: ( 360)402-8968

mikki.flaherty@exprealty.com

homesweetbellingham.com

exprealty.com

As a new agent and first time home buyer, I am learning so much about the real estate process. I had no idea there was so much involved in purchasing a home or property. I had already gotten my real estate license when my husband and I began looking for our first home, and even with the amount of knowledge needed to get my license, I had a lot to learn. I have decided to document our journey and blog along the way to offer some behind the scenes looks at what exactly is involved in buying your first home.

Step 1: Searching for Your Dream Home

Whether you are just browsing the market to see what’s out there or if you are actively searching for your new home, looking for houses is easier today than ever before. With resources like the internet, you can shop for homes from the comfort of your couch. That’s how we started our search for our first house.  We would get online and Google the night away looking for homes in Bellingham. With no specific criteria in mind, we were quickly overwhelmed by the amount of properties available. After signing on with eXp Realty, I was able to access all sorts of resources that made our home search significantly easier, more in-depth and relatively stress free. With the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, agents are able to search with broad or specific search criteria, see property history, photos, and do market analyses to get ideas on property values. I have had an amazing mentor to help me learn how to access this information and how to present it to client- the average first time home buyer won’t have access to these kinds of resources. Having an agent to help with your search is an invaluable resource, and I highly recommend working with one if you are seriously looking for property.

There are a lot of things we needed to consider when searching for our first home. Did we want acreage? How many bedrooms? What was our price range? After sitting down to go over our goals and resources we had available, we had decided to look at houses in poor condition with acreage and plan to rehabilitate the existing home. With those criteria in mind, it was time to go out and view some properties! This was another huge learning experience for me. The photos that are posted with the listings are a great way to get an idea of what the home looks like, but you really need to see it in person to get the whole story. Those photos are taken to show the home in its best perspective, so as a potential buyer, you need to go look at the bad things too. We looked at quite a few homes that were much different in person than they appeared in the photos.  This is another reason that working with an agent is so important- get together a list of homes that you might like and go out and VIEW, VIEW, VIEW!! Keep your options open and plan some time to go look at any that you may potentially like, because just like buying a car, you never know how you’ll like it until you get in it.

Watch for next week’s blog: Step 2:  Making an Offer. If you have any questions about real estate, the buying or selling process, or would like to see how eXp is changing the real estate world, please contact me

Mikki Flaherty -Realtor

Direct: ( 360)402-8968

mikki.flaherty@exprealty.com

homesweetbellingham.com

exprealty.com

Lakeway Mobile Estates boasts 218 units and an established community in which they have taken great pride in their homes and beyond. The asphalt roads are always well maintained, along with community clubhouse for gatherings. On site management to help you with all your needs. It is close to shopping and buslines, What a fantastic place to retire!

Nwmls #132567

The park is free, open during daylight hours and unsupervised. Helmets are a must, and gloves and padding are strongly advised for all riders.

This is a well used park, a great place for both young as well as pros who want to build up their skills before heading for the hills.

Go inside for a swim at Bellingham’s public pool. There are is something here for everyone with four swimming pools, “which include a beach-entry instructional pool with a 135 foot water slide ending in it, a 25 yard, eight-lane lap pool, a dive tank with a one-meter springboard and a hydrotherapy pool for those 16 years of age and older. ”

The Arne Hanna Aquatic Center offers loads of programs, including lap swims, American Red Cross swim lessons and training courses. If you want to exercise in the water there are three different intensity levels of shallow water aerobics, deep water running, deep water aerobics.

They also offer water child care, kayaking and preschool, family and open swims.

You can check out there schedule here.

Address: 1246 St Paul Street, Bellingham, WA 98229

MLS #: 29074338

This solid 1954 home in located in the desirable Puget neighborhood. It has views of Bellingham Bay and the city. The home has beautiful mature landscaping with a fully fenced backyard and a variety of well established trees & flowering shrubs. The basement could easily include a third bedroom or an office/rec room/family room.  It has air conditioning and it is located near schools, parks & shopping. The versatile outbuilding in the backyrard that sits at the back of the property could be  wonderful art studio or  workshop.

A few years later we moved to W.Racine which became the Mecca for our games. Having lots of brothers and sisters and all their friends we always had something going on. Kick the Can was one of the most popular. Of course everyone has different variations which you can check out in the link above.

I have many found memories growing up in this neighborhood and looking forward to showing you the area.

You may be wondering why Pizza is in my post? Well, I was in the Puget neighborhood Papa Murphy’s picking up a pizza for my family. I visited with the manager and she indicated the particular pizza I was ordering has been very popular this month. It was 4 dollars off the normal price and it took in 22% of their sales. 

As always, looking forward to your call

Real estate- Real life

Katharine

Buyertours Realty 360-220-5915

The Puget Neighborhood is located along Lakeway Drive east of I-5. It includes a wide variety of real estate from the hillsides south of Lakeway Drive that provide sweeping views of the Bay to the low, wetland areas along Whatcom Creek. Civic Field, Bellingham’s public recreation complex, is located here and brings in people from all over Bellingham and Whatcom County. The neighborhood has a commercial area nearby Civic Field that includes Lakeway Center, Fred Meyer, numerous restaurants and other businesses. Another development is located along Whatcom Creek and includes industrial, retail and office areas.