Fairfax Virginia Home Buying Guide

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FAIRFAX BUYERS AGENTS REPRESENT HOME BUYERS

[BUYING A HOME]  [SELLING A HOME] [ RELOCATION]

Fairfax Virginia Buyers Agents and Buyer Agency

Fairfax Homes for Sale

BUYING A HOME- BUYER AGENCY LAW - WHO REPRESENTS WHOM?**

Buying a home in Fairfax Virginia...? First of all as a home buyer, you should not buy a home without  being represented by an experienced Fairfax Virginia buyers agent! Are you planning to buy a home in Fairfax or northern Virginia? Perhaps you are looking to buy a resale or new home in  the Fairfax county area or Prince William County, Loudoun County, Arlington counties, and suburban Washington D.C.  Need to know about the home buying process?  What can you afford to buy?  How much will it cost you to borrow?  What about loans, closing costs, mortgages, finance options, best rates? What about where to buy, the best schools, and negotiating a contract? How do I buy a home when there is so much competition? Then there are a few things you should know before you begin your home buying process.   As an experienced Fairfax buyers agent I can help!

In a routine real estate transaction, usually the real estate agents represented the party who has signed an agreement with them to market their home, i.e. the seller. It is important that you realize, as a purchaser of real estate, that times have changed. REALTORS can now legally represent the buyer as their buyers agents or buyers representative. The listing agents or REALTORS have a responsibility to you to be honest and ethical in presenting property to you and are required to divulge ALL KNOWN facts in a seller's property disclosure.  This is a list of facts and defects about a property in order for you to make an intelligent buying decision.

However, at no time as a listing agent representing the seller, can they give you any information detrimental to the seller, and they must pass on to the seller any information they have about you, such as your willingness to pay more for a property than your offer indicates. So why is this important?

A sellers property disclosure statement is an important tool for the buyer and the seller. It brings to all concerned parties a clearer picture of the home and a more accurate expectation level for the buyer. A buyers agent can can assist you in reading this statement, and advising you on what to look for both in resale homes, and new homes construction.

An example: If the basement or a roof leaks, the buyer will know that this will need to be attended to before finishing off that family room downstairs or repainting the bedrooms. And if the furnace, air conditioner or hot water heater are old, but in working order, you will be prepared for its replacement when the time comes.

Sometimes the current owner may not know a property’s condition, especially if the property has been a rental. Be sure to review disclosures with your buyers agent carefully and ask all the questions you have until you feel comfortable.  Do not be afraid to ask for a professional to further examine our options.

However, you may also enter into a written agreement with the buyers agent to have him or her act on your behalf. This is called Buyer Agency or buyer representation.  As buyers agents in Fairfax northern Virginia and Washington DC suburbs, we can guide you through the maze of questions and issues that will arise, and as you buyers agents will work on your behalf to resolve them or clarify.

To represent you exclusively as your personal buyers agents, the law requires that we have a written buyer agency agreement, stating our mutual obligations. It spells out your duties entering into a buyer agency agreement, and the tasks I am to perform as your buyers agents. Under such an agreement, we have a legal duty to divulge to all parties that we are working under a "buyer agency" agreement. Under such an agreement, your interests will be represented. There is no cost to you to have a buyers agents represent you, costs are typically paid from the sellers’ funds at closing.