BUYING A HOME -- Real Estate 101 for Home Buyers

Most people have no idea what real estate agents do or what to look for
when seeking professional help in finding and buying a home. Here is a
brief description to help you understand the home buying process and what
we do as agents, and what you need to do to find, purchase and move into
a home of your choosing.

Prequalification

Prequalification is vital to speeding up the closing process. The last thing
you want is to lose your chosen home to another buyer because they were
prequalified and can move ahead while you are busy trying to get approved
for a loan. Have a mortgage officer give you a letter showing that you are
approved and how much home you can purchase. This will help make your
closing go quickly and smoothly. We can recommend a good experienced
mortgage officer if you don't have one.

Choosing an agent

It is important to choose your own agent and USE THIS AGENT TO SEE
HOMES! Every transaction has two sides: the selling side and listing agent,
and the buying side and buyer's agent. Commissions are split between these
two agents. Calling the one on the sign of the house you want to see does
not give you representation on that house. The agent on the sign represents
the seller. Once any agent has shown you a home, if you wish to
purchase that home, that agent is your agent. Just as you would want
your own lawyer in court, you want your own agent when you purchase a
home, one that will look out for your best interests and represent you.

If an agent respresents both sides of a sale, he must act as a neutral mediator
between the two parties.

MLS - Multiple Listing Service

In the last decade, the MLS became computerized and is available only to
Real Estate Agents on a local intranet, making home searches precise and
easy. We put in your criteria, and EVERY Active home that matches it
comes up. We do not hide homes for other "preferred buyers". Other
agents don't have secret homes to show you. We show you every home
that is available. All we need to know is what you want. The MLS currently
lists over 12,000 homes for sale in Utah, 4,000 in Salt Lake County.

These statistics are verifiable at the MLS public website. The public can do
limited searches at the MLS public site, utahrealestate.com. These will not
give addresses, only the home description and the contact information of
the agent listing the home. However, if you have your own agent, you can
search for homes at utahrealestate.com and give your agent the MLS
numbers so they can pull up the listings, print them out, and arrange to show
you the homes.

The good news is, if you use our website to search utahrealestate.com the
addresses will show up on the search, as we have made that available to you.

Hot Sheets

With a Hot Sheet, your personal criteria is placed into a search engine and
as new homes are listed that match your criteria they are sent out to your
agent, who will then look through the listings, and get the list to you by
email, fax, phone or meet you and go through them with you. A Hot Sheet
searches the MLS daily for new listings or *changes in criteria of older
listings.

(*Because of this, a house may show up on a hot sheet that has shown
up before, due to any change in criteria. This change may be the price,
a correction in criteria entered by the listing agent, or something like a
contact phone number. If you get the same house twice on a hot sheet,
it isn't because we don't know what we are doing. Maybe the price
went down $5000. Maybe that would interest you.)

Why be on a Hot Sheet

This is the best way to search for homes. When you're on a Hot Sheet, you
know you are getting first chance at any new listings or price breaks. You
don't have to just take what is left on the market when you decide to buy a
home. Every buyer can have a personalized Hot Sheet, if their agent is alert
and informed. Like in any venture, the best homes sell quickly; usually
within the first 2 days of listing, there is an offer. This is why it's important to
check your Hot Sheets daily and get right on any new or changed listings
you wish to see. There will be other buyers looking at the same homes, so
time is of the essence. A choice home will usually have simultaneous offers.

Your responsibility

As well as being prequalified, we need you to give us a commitment to
work with us. Time is money, and we don't get paid until the closing. It
hurts to work with someone for a month or so, show homes and make
offers, and then because they haven't found their home yet, they think
another agent will be able to find what we haven't and off they go. ANY
AGENT WILL FIND THE SAME HOMES, and remember, finding
homes is the easy part -- while a successful closing takes experience.
Please be patient while waiting for the home you will eventually purchase to
be listed. It may already be listed, it may happen tomorrow, it may happen
next week. Running from agent to agent means you see the same homes
over and over, as they will pull up the same homes we do, given the same
criteria. Please be fair with us as we will be fair with you.

We also need honest criteria so we can give you honest listings. If, for
instance, you're willing to pay $249,000 for a home, and you tell us you're
only willing to pay $225,000, we will search and that home won't come up,
because it's out of the range of your criteria. Also, be honest as to where
you will live. If you prefer Sandy, fine, but tell us if you're also willing to live
in Midvale or Murray, or that home won't show up in a search. If you'd like
a 3-car garage but will settle for two with the right house, tell us that. Tell us
what you are willing to buy, and we'll find it for you. And if you need to
broaden or tighten your search, let us know, and we will do that as well.

Time is of the essence

When you decide on a home, we need to work quickly. We also need to
be honest and realistic and remember that there is a person selling that
home that needs to be honest and realistic as well. We need to make an
offer, based on comparable homes that have sold in that area, that will be a
win-win situation for you as well as the seller. In the case of simultaneous
offers, a seller will choose the best price and offer. Sellers are under no
obligation to accept any offer, and are able to counteroffer any offer that
comes in with unacceptable terms. Treat others the way you want to be
treated.

Closing

Closing is the part of buying a home that requires skill and experience.
That's where we come in. Anyone can show a home, all it takes is an
address and a key. Closing a home requires expertise, attention to details
and experience. Over 50% of all closings fail, and we don't want your
closing to be one of them..

About A-Win4All Realty

Ray Wenger, broker and owner of A-Win4All Realty, has 28 years of closing
experience, and a legal background which is vital to understanding the many
pages of contracts that closings entail. In those 28 years he has never had a
closing go to court. ANY agent with access to a computer can search for
homes based on your criteria and come up with the list of homes that match
it. That is the easy part. It's the offer and the closing that require experience.
Over 50% of all offers fail due to lack of experience or other factors, so
choosing an agent with experience is vital to making your home buying
experience a successful pleasant one. When you choose A-Win4All Realty, you
choose a winning team that will work with you and for you, and help make
your buying experience a pleasant one..

Tell your friends

Most of our business is referral. After you've successfully closed your
home, tell your friends about us. Give them the opportunity to have a good
buying experience as well. And remember us the next time you wish to buy
or sell a home. Please check out our unique selling program. We've been
around for 28 years, and we'll be around for many more, growing and
gaining in experience and expertise. When you choose A-Win4All Realty,
you choose experience, honesty, integrity and peace of mind.

Copyright © 2005 A-Win4All Realty a division of Ultima Inc. All Rights Reserved.