West Town and Chicago Real Estate Experts
The West Town and the Near Northwest Side home buyer real estate market is extremely competitive. According to Crain's Chicago Business and Midwest Real Estate Data, condos for sale and townhouses for sale in West Town and the Near Northwest Side are selling faster than in any other area in Chicago. With record low home buyer inventory throughout West Town, it's important to act be pre-approved and ready for showings! That’s why, as your West Town real estate agents in Chicago, we work exclusively for you to help you realize your home buying goals!
In the real estate business, our commission is paid for by the seller at closing. We provide expert negotiating skills and professional advice to make the entire home search and home buying process quick, easy and understandable. Read what our past home buyer clients have to say about their home buying experiences with us.
With a sharp focus on Chicago neighborhoods, as your expert West Town real estate agents, we are equipped with the latest and most relevant Chicago real estate market information to offer you the most knowledge to be an educated home buyer. While we are by your side as your exclusive real estate agents, Keller Williams is structured around a collaborative, team approach – unique to the Chicago real estate industry. That means you get the personal attention and expertise of our entire team of real estate specialists working on your behalf.
Finding the right Chicago real estate agent is the first step to buying a home that fits your needs. As your exclusive Chicago REALTORS®, it is our job is to protect your best interests by guiding you through the real estate transaction process and negotiating the best price for you.
CALL 312-767-7504 | mike.samm@kw.com
Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home
Step 1: Hire the Right Chicago REALTOR®
After hiring us to represent you as a home buyer in your real estate transaction, we will create a personalized MLS home buyer search to target your area of choice, budget range, bed and bathroom count, parking preferences and more. You will receive a maximum of 3 emails per day with properties that match your exact home search criteria.
Why an MLS search?
The MLS is the central database where every listing agent inputs property information and photos for all of the public listings you find on the internet. All other real estate websites such as Zillow, Trulia, Redfin, Realtor.com and even Google, pull all of their source data from the MLS for almost every listing you see on those websites, but sometimes the information being displayed is delayed because of the day and time those websites pull their source data from the MLS. Your MLS search will be the most complete and accurate source of real estate listings tailored specifically to your criteria to help you find the perfect home.
Pocket Listings - from time to time throughout the home search process, we will periodically send you pocket listings of homes for sale that match your home search criteria. A pocket listing is a home listing that isn't listed for sale publicly on the MLS or any other real estate website, rather it is marketed through a listing agent's professional circle and private online communities that only Chicago real estate agents have access to before the listing hits the public home buyer market.
Provide Neighborhood Real Estate Expertise and Market Data - we are the best source of knowledge for what is currently happening in West Town and the Near Northwest Side of Chicago neighborhood real estate market. We provide accurate and up-to-date information on new developments in the neighborhood, number of homes for sale, changes in median sales price, the average days on market across housing inventory types, number of recently closed sales in any given area and the average percentage of original list price received to help you make the most informed decision as a home buyer.
Schedule Home Buyer Showings - this is the fun part! Once you are ready to go out and see some of the homes you are interested in, we schedule showings based on your availability. We walk you through each home to help you identify the pros and cons of each to help you make an informed decision as a home buyer.
Step 2: Get Pre-Approved for a Mortgage
Chicago Mortgage loan
We recommend talking to at least 2 mortgage lenders for your pre-approval so you can compare the interest rates and estimated lender closing costs they are offering to you as a home buyer. Each mortgage lender should also provide you with your monthly estimated loan payments "all in" based on a specified purchase price including monthly principal, interest, taxes and insurance (PITI) and monthly HOA dues (if you are planning on purchasing a condo). This will help you get a sense for what your maximum monthly payment will be based on an estimated purchase price so that you are comfortable with what your monthly mortgage payments will be.
Step 3: Determine Fair Market Value
Once we find the perfect home for you, we pull recently sold comparables of homes from the immediate surrounding area sold within the last 6 months to determine what the fair market value for the home is. Based on this real estate data, we will have a good idea for what your initial offer for the home should be. This is a very important step, especially if you are taking out a mortgage. Our goal here is to get a good idea for what the home will appraise for so we won't run into any issues with financing later.
Step 4: Write the Offer to Purchase Contract
Once we determine fair market value, we draft the offer to purchase contract, you sign-off and then we submit it to the listing agent. From there, negotiations ensue until we arrive at an agreed upon price and other terms between home buyer and home seller. Then your offer is officially accepted! Both parties sign a fully executed contract and we have a deal in place!
Step 5: After Your Offer is Accepted
Begins the process of booking the home inspection and entering the attorney review period. After your home inspection is complete, there will be negotiations between your real estate attorney and the seller's real estate attorney to remediate the findings in the home inspection report and other items that may come up during attorney review. Once an agreement is reached between home buyer and home seller, both parties sign-off and we get ready to close on your new home!
