How to Buy a Home in Long Island

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Want to buy a Long Island home? Search all homes for sale

Today I'll go over the steps to buying a home in Long Island. From the outside, purchasing a home may seem like a long and tedious process, but once you have a basic understanding, it seems much less intimidating. 

Get approval from a reputable lender:
This is the most important part of the buying process. Once you know how much you can afford, it makes the process of searching for a home much easier. You'll also become a much more desirable buyer in the eyes of a seller once you have a pre-qualification letter in your hand.

Find a buyer's agent: 
It's important to work with one agent and form a relationship with them. This allows the agent to find homes that you want, and it makes the process of communicating much more efficient. Define what is important to you and let your agent know.

Locate the home that you want and put in an offer: 
Once you have found a home, you need to place an attractive offer on it (a good price with good terms) and get some inspections done. You'll want an engineer inspection in order to tell you what may need to be fixed and what maintenance needs to be kept up. 

After the inspections you'll receive contracts from the seller's attorney: 
You will sign these contracts with your down payment and send them back to the seller, who will also sign them. Once this happens, you're in full contract and the loan process can begin. This will take 30-60 days in Long Island, but after this, you're a homeowner! 

This was a brief run-through of the home buying process, so if you have more detailed questions about buying homes in Long Island, please don't hesitate to contact me.

How to Increase Your Home Value in Long Island

Selling your Long Island home? Get a free home value report 
Want to buy a Long Island home? Search all homes for sale

Sellers in Long Island always ask me about how they can quickly and easily increase the value of their home before they sell. Each home is different and will require different remedies, but there are certain things that can help all home sellers.

This might seem obvious, but cleaning and decluttering are the #1 way to get more money for your home. This is really easy, but it requires a lot of effort. We accumulate a lot of belongings, and clutter can distract buyers immensely. 

We're not saying that your belongings are undesirable, they just won't help you to sell your home. It's a good rule of thumb to throw away or pack away at least 1/2 of your belongings before a buyer comes to see your home.

Another easy thing to do before a sale is hiring a professional painter to come in and spruce up your interiors. Paint in an earth tone, or something neutral, and make sure the paint is uniform throughout your home. It's also not a bad idea to have your hardwood floors re-stained. These are some of the best repairs to make before you sell.

If you're interested, I can stop by your home and provide suggestions on how you can improve the look and feel of your home before a sale. If you do it right, buyers will not think twice about purchasing your home. 

Please feel free to contact me if you need help buying or selling in Long Island!