The Top 7 Areas to “Own” Before You Buy
Buying a home is one of life’s biggest milestones. While the process can seem complex, having the right team and strategy makes all the difference on your home buying journey. We’ve refined our approach over thousands of transactions to ensure our clients feel confident, guided, and ultimately, successful throughout the entire home buying journey.
Here are the critical steps and philosophies that define the exceptional buying experience we provide:
1. Choosing the Right Lender: Focus on the Expert
While many institutions offer similar loan programs, the expertise of the individual loan officer is paramount. We help you align with a professional who has a complete command of all programs and qualification levels. Every buyer’s financial situation is unique—your income, credit score, and down payment are all factors. You need an expert who can tailor the advice to your specific circumstances for a smooth home buying journey.
2. Developing a Strategy After Pre-Approval
Once you have a solid pre-approval and know exactly where you stand, the next most important step is to reconnect with your real estate broker to build a proactive strategy. Our strategy covers two main areas, guiding you effectively on your home buying journey:
- Reaction Protocol: How will we immediately react when a new, suitable house pops up on the market?
- Action Protocol: What is the specific plan when we find a house we love and can’t eliminate?
3. The Home Search: A Philosophy of Elimination
Our home search philosophy is simple: we are weeding out and eliminating homes that are not a good fit. The average person narrows hundreds of listings down to a handful to view. When you go see those seven homes, you’ve already done the hard work of eliminating 100 or 200 homes in that pricing category. The goal is to reach the point where you cannot eliminate a house—that’s when we know we’ve found the one on your home buying journey.
4. The Value of In-House Construction and Financing
What if the house is perfect, but the kitchen is outdated? Don’t eliminate a rare find over a fixable issue. Through our in-house company, Premier Pro Construction, we provide you with specific, exact estimates on potential renovations. This allows you to factor the cost into your budget and close the gap between an “almost-perfect” house and your dream home.
We also guide you through the most effective financing options for these upgrades, with the most common being an affordable line of credit after closing. This valuable service supports your home buying journey.
5. Access to Off-Market Inventory
Frustrated by limited inventory? Working with Icon Real Estate Group provides significant value because our large team of 25+ full-time brokers collaborates extensively. This gives us access to a considerable amount of off-market inventory, providing critical options for buyers who can’t find what they are looking for in public listings, a key advantage in your home buying journey.
6. The Art and Science of Negotiation
Negotiation is our personal obsession. After 25 years and over 1,200 transactions, we know the art and the science of getting the best possible deal. This means not just driving the price down, but also negotiating the best possible terms on your home buying journey, including:
- Closing date and timeline
- Inspection contingencies
- Follow-up repairs
Our wisdom lies in knowing when and how to use every tool to get the seller to concede the most money and the best terms without being so rigid that we lose the house entirely.
7. Problem Solving: Expect the Inevitable, Hire the Experts
We don’t promise a seamless, perfect transaction—because something always comes up. Instead, we promise you’ll be working with a professional team that is incredible at solving problems. Whether it’s an unforeseen title issue, a last-minute lender complication, or an unexpected inspection repair, nothing surprises us. We have the best professionals at every level to navigate these challenges and see your transaction all the way to the finish line of your home buying journey.
At the end of your transaction, we want you to feel fully taken care of. You maintain full agency over your decisions, but you have a true partner and legitimate guide who collaborated on the strategy, executed it flawlessly, and ensured you felt in control and confident the entire way through your home buying journey.
