Don Dees Group Buyers Guide

WELCOME HOME

ALL THE DETAILS YOU NEED TO SUCCESSFULLY BUY YOUR NEW HOME

Our Team + How We Work

When it comes to buying or selling a property, having a great real estate team on your side is a game-changer. Not only are we always available to take calls, but we also bring a wealth of experience and expertise to the table. In a fast paced, ever-changing market having market-savvy experts in your corner can make a huge difference in helping you purchase the right house for the right price. This is likely the most expensive investment you will make in a lifetime, and the foundation of your net worth, so it’s really important to get it right. We are here to get it right with you. As your real estate professionals, we are committed to quality representation and this is how we do it.

1. Process Knowledge and Counsel

Most buyers purchase a home every 5 to 7 years. Great agents do this every single day. Real estate transactions have literally hundreds of moving parts, and the ability to guide you through that chaos is invaluable.

2. Market Experience and Savvy

We pride ourselves on being masters of our local market. We watch trends closely and study the stats every single day. We know which neighborhoods are hot, and which might be showing signs of cooling. We immerse ourselves in the market to negotiate the best terms for your situation and create a winning strategy.

3. Specialized Needs Assessment

Over the years we have developed a system to ensure our clients find the right home in the least amount of time. We hear nightmare stories of buyers who searched for months and missed out on ideal listings that went under contract in record time. By understanding exactly what your wants and needs are, we are able to ensure you see every possibility that may be a match. By being full time agents, we are always ready to jump on seeing new listings quickly.

4. Selection and Showing Process

Our team can advise you on which homes in which communities may best meet your criteria, including neighborhoods you may not know about. We’re able to help you filter and narrow down your choices and not waste your time on properties that are not a good fit. Because you’ve hired us to represent you, we will help point out the pros and cons of each property, as well as any deficiencies we see that you may not.

5. Constructing the Contract

Inexperienced agents cost buyers a lot of money by failing to understand how to properly prepare and present an offer. We understand how to structure an offer to be attractive to a seller while also keeping your priorities and best interests at the forefront. While the sales price can be important, the terms can make a difference.

6. Negotiating

Knowing what to offer, and how much to adjust during the counteroffer process can save you thousands. Helping you find a reliable inspection team and advise you on which repairs to ask the seller to complete is a critical negotiation and can save you thousands of dollars (and lots of headaches!).

7. Financing Advice

Many buyers are not aware that there are many different ways to finance a home, and each program has its own unique terms, conditions and closing costs. We can connect you with lending professionals we trust to deliver exceptional service and knowledge so you can get started on the right foot.

8. Our Team

Great buyer agents are plugged in to their communities and can help you settle in quickly. We can connect you to our preferred painters, plumbers, flooring installers, and electricians. Having a network of reliable and affordable vendors is a huge asset especially when you’re new to town. We pride ourselves on being your REALTOR® for life, and being available as a real estate resource for you, your family, and your friends for years to come.

Commitment

Skilled Service

We take our job very seriously and are passionate about the rewards of homeownership. A large part of our work is performed ‘behind the scenes’ prospecting properties, researching relevant sales to review pricing, gaining market knowledge, navigating changing legislation and maintaining our professional credentials. We are constantly acquiring information that will help us serve you better.

How we are compensated

There are many changes happening in the legislative realm in regards to how Realtors® are compensated. In the past when you purchased a home, a seller would agree to pay Realtor® fees from the proceeds of the sale as part of their listing contract. Those fees are part of a negotiation between the seller and their Realtor®. The seller would then agree to pay the buyer’s agent a portion of the total fee they agreed to pay to sell their home. However, this landscape is changing and depending on the fee being offered by the seller, there may be a portion you as the buyer will need to pay to use the services we provide. We will discuss this upfront and strategize the best course of action to help everyone accomplish their goals.

Your commitment to us

The national average of how much time a Realtor® spends assisting a buyer with the purchase of a new home is upwards of 120 hours. We invest a significant amount of time and resources to make sure your journey into home ownership is rewarding and uniquely personal. Our partnership is built on collaboration and trust as we enter an agreement to work together.

Exclusive Buyer Brokerage Agreement

As we commit to working together, our relationship is defined as an ‘agency relationship.’ What this means is our team is involved in acting on your behalf through our representation of you in your home purchase. Our relationship is built on trust and includes our responsibility to prioritize your best interest throughout the entire process of your purchase. Our actions have imposed limits, but are guided by loyalty, confidentiality, communication, good faith and diligence. We will review this in more detail with you and formalize it through a written agreement known as a buyer brokerage agreement.

Successful Buying Process

We know that buying a new home can be stressful as there are many moving parts to completing this process. But it doesn’t have to be. Instead it can be the glorious start to a new chapter. The anticipation of creating new memories in a home that better serves your needs is why we do what we do. We’re here to advise and empower you to make the best decision possible. We always look forward to searching out the perfect neighborhood and hearing ‘Offer Accepted!” Moving to a new home is EXCITING and we can’t wait to help you every step of the way.

Review Finances

Setting a Budget

As you start thinking about buying a home, we recommend you get serious about examining where your money is going. Dust off an excel spreadsheet and start putting all of your monthly expenses into it. Items you should include are:

• Housing Expenses (rent or mortgage payments)

• Average Utility Amounts

• Car/Toy Expenses (payments, insurance, gas)

• Groceries

• Childcare

• Phone Plans

• Credit Cards

• Entertainment

• IRA/401k Contributions

• Rate of Savings

• Anything Else You Spend Money On

Deduct all of these expenses from your ‘take home pay’ each month. How much tolerance do you have to increase your monthly housing payments? Set a comfortable range for yourself with an ideal number and top number.

Next review your savings and start thinking about your anticipated down payment funds.

Down Payment

While some buyers put 20% down on their home, you can often qualify with as little as 3.5% as a traditional borrower or 0% as a VA buyer . While 20% can seem like a big number, the typical down payment for first-time buyers is about 8%, while the typical down payment for repeat buyers is about 19% according to the National Association of Realtors.

It’s important to be clear on how much you will put down, as it has a direct impact on your monthly payment. You’ll also need to have your earnest money deposit on hand as well. While there is no standard earnest money amount, we will discuss as a team how to be strategic with the amount to place with your offer. The higher the purchase price, the higher your earnest money will be.

Meeting With Your Lender

Once you’ve reviewed your own financial health, and before we start the search for your new home, you must get pre-approved. We will have lenders we can refer you to based on how we’ve worked together in the past on other real estate transactions. You’re more than welcome to explore options outside of our referrals as well. Accessibility is one of the most important factors in determining who to work with. Real estate can be a fast moving business and you want dependable professionals on your team. Once you have your pre-approval, we will work on your criteria list and examine what can realistically be secured at your price point. We will always work to find the right combination of what will work best for you.

On the luxury side, it is not uncommon for savvy listing agents to require proof of funds or a pre-approval upfront prior to allowing any showings. This ensures that sellers are not preparing their home for showings to buyers who are not qualified to purchase their home.

Wish List

Most buyers go about their home search process in a haphazard kind of way - never really exploring what is most important to them in their next home. They will spend months and months trying a number of combinations, seeing every home on the market, trying to figure it out. We like to start the home search process by decoding your wish-list and turning it into possibilities.

To do this, we start by daydreaming. First, we will do an initial deep dive into all the ways we may find your next home. Next, we will do exercises in narrowing down your priority list of must-haves and then ranking them. Once everything is in the funnel, we will eliminate properties that don’t work for your needs. This process takes us from 1,000’s of properties to 100’s and then dozens as we eliminate the ones that don’t work. Some we will look at online, some we will drive by and some we will decide to make an appointment and go in. You will be in control of the decisions. As we work through this process together, our goal will be to find your top 3 favorites that could work for you. This can be a rolling top 3 as new properties come on the market and eliminate older selections.

Building Your Timeline

There are two scenarios that impact your buying timeline and every buyer will fall into one of them.

• Are you renting?

• Do you need to sell your current home?

Closings typically take 30 days, so you want to line up the dates to be sure they work for you. If you’re renting, know that your first mortgage payment isn’t usually due for 30-45 days AFTER close of escrow, which helps you not double up on rent and mortgage payments. We get asked many times when is the best time for me to let my landlord know I am purchasing a home or when do we give our 30 day notice? Typically, we don’t recommend letting your landlord know that you’re shopping for a home. Secondly, our recommendation is not to give notice to your landlord that you’re moving until you’ve made it through the majority of the contingencies. We will help you navigate finding the right time to break the news.

If you need to sell your current home in order to buy your new one, it’s important to have it cleaned, model home ready and photographed PRIOR to looking at homes. This allows us to best negotiate a Buyer Contingency , meaning that your new home purchase is contingent on your current home selling. As an agent, we need to be able to show the seller we’re ready to go to market ‘overnight’ so we don’t waste valuable market time. There are many things we can do on the front end of this to make it less challenging for everyone.

Setting Up Your Home Search

Now it’s time to start shopping for your new home! We’ll automate this process by setting up a custom home search for you with all of the criteria we worked together to define. We use a tool called RealScout to set up your search. We highly recommend you download the app because it gives us real time connections to your search. You can like or dislike anything you see, message us, and we can see everything you see. Plus, anytime a new home hits the market that meets your criteria, you’ll get an instant notification and you can let us know right away if you like what you see.

A few ground rules to make this process as enjoyable as possible: Do not tour homes that are not in your budget. We promise you this never ends well and oftentimes makes you disappointed in what is actually in your budget. Also, when touring homes, it is highly likely the owner is still occupying the property. We always want to be respectful of their space especially if little kids are in tow. And finally, there are almost always cameras around these days…hello Ring Doorbell. It is best to save any talk of pricing or negative feedback for after the showing and for just you and us.

Avoiding New Construction Blunders

One of the pieces of criteria we will use in your home search is new construction. It is important to understand how new construction tours work to avoid issues down the road.

Our team has decades of experience with new construction. We have been the sales team for new construction sales in various subdivision projects throughout Sparks and Spanish Springs. Our knowledge and experience is an asset to you and we put it to work when we preview new construction communities together.

Typically, we will set aside a day and one of our team members will tour any and all new construction options with you. We will register together so that everyone receives up to date information on pricing, changes, incentives and new releases. If we do not accompany you on your first visit, it is likely the builder will not allow us to represent you. The sales associates only represent the builder so it is important that you have representation of your own. It is always best to have an advocate for just you. If and when issues arise, no one will have your back quicker than The Dees Group.

Under Contract-Now What?

Once we have an accepted contract, we send it to the Title Company who will facilitate the closing process. The Title Company works with all parties involved (buyer, seller, both agents and lender) to compile all the documents necessary to close.

Earnest Deposit

Your earnest money will be determined when we write your offer. There are no rules about how much this should be, but we will help you determine an acceptable amount based on the purchase price of the home you’re purchasing. Once all contingencies are met, your earnest money will be nonrefundable and will be applied towards your closing funds.

Clearing Contingencies

There are a number of contingencies built into a purchase contract and we will be navigating through them all together. Some of these will include:

• Inspections: Most contracts have an inspection contingency. The typical inspection period is 14-21 days but can be less or more depending on the complexity of the property and professional scheduling. It is highly recommended that you hire a professional inspector to do a full inspection of the home. You can google some options and we’re happy to share a few companies we have worked with in the past. Who you use as your inspector is your choice. A good home inspector should be thorough and will check in all the nooks and crannies and test all of the major appliances and systems including HVAC, to evaluate the overall condition of the property. You will receive a lengthy report, often dozens of pages long. Once the inspection is complete, we will work together to negotiate repairs. If buyer and seller cannot come to an agreement on repairs, the buyer has the opportunity to cancel and receive a refund of their earnest money less any expenses.

• Appraisal: Separate from the inspection, is a property appraisal. Most loans require an appraisal and if the home doesn’t appraise for the agreed upon price there are a few options we can navigate. First, you can exercise your right to cancel the contract and receive your earnest money back less any expenses. Second, we can renegotiate the purchase price with the seller. Lastly, you may choose to make up the difference between the appraisal amount and the loan amount in additional down payment funds to bridge the gap.

• HOA: If you’re buying a home in a common interest community (aka HOA), Nevada law requires a seller to provide the buyer with copies of all documents pertaining to the HOA, known as the resale package, for review. Once received, you’ll have 5 days to approve or disapprove.

• Financing (loan approval): During this time, it’s imperative that we stay in close contact with your lender. They’ll need specific paperwork and information only you can provide them. It is also of the utmost importance that you refrain from any other major purchases that could impact your financing. This would be buying a new car or boat or swiping your credit card for furniture for the new house. These purchases can negatively impact your debt to income ratio and implode your deal before it’s done. They will pull your credit history one last time right before closing and funding your loan, so don’t think you’re in the clear until Title has fully transferred ownership and the transaction is closed.

• Home Sale: If you’re selling your current home in order to buy your new home, you’ll have this contingency as well that needs to be fulfilled before your earnest money can no longer be refunded. We’ll go over all of these dates so you know exactly what is expected of you and with the sale of your home. We will be working through two timelines at the same time.

The Role of Title & Escrow

Dickson Realty is affiliated with a partner in First Centennial Title Company of Nevada. FCT is a full service title and escrow company with over 30 years of experience serving Northern Nevada. They are the only local title company with on-site title records dating back to the 1800s and they are underwritten by four national underwriters. Who you use for title and escrow services is your choice.

In our local market, a title company will typically handle property conveyances (transfers). The title company serves as a neutral third party hired to carry out the terms of the purchase contract. They will conduct a title search on your property to ensure they can pass a clean title to you at close of escrow. During the title search process, the title company looks for any outstanding mortgages, liens, judgments or unpaid taxes associated with the property, as well as any restrictions, easements, or other factors that might impact ownership. They will alert us if there are any issues.

The Final Closing Process

As part of your closing, your escrow team will collect and disburse all of the monetary funds associated with the property transfer. They handle prorations for a number of items pertinent to completing the transaction. The final figures on your closing statement are reviewed by the escrow officer and our team.

While fees vary by Title company, the main costs you should expect to see include: 1.

Your Closing Checklist:

 Complete a final walk-through of the property to make sure the condition matches the offer.

 Bring your valid government issued photo identification to Title on closing day.

 Wire the remaining funds needed to close. You will set this up with the escrow officer.

 Set up or transfer utilities and internet - 7 days prior to close.

 Set up garbage two weeks after closing.

Post Closing:

You will want to keep all of your closing documents and any receipts or invoices for home improvements. Your accountant will appreciate you!

What Others Are Saying

Don and his team have been just wonderful. We were so fortunate to have them as our Realtors®. They definitely go above and beyond! Someone from the team was always available to either show us around or answer any questions. Don canceled personal plans to be there for us at a last minute trip. Always so personable and so kind! We gratefully found our dream home and they were with us every step of the way, even after we moved in. - Sarah H

Don and Natalie Dees were hands down the best Realtor® team we have ever worked with for a house purchase. They made the process super easy and enjoyable. They worked hard for us and supported us every step of the way. Their professionalism and knowledge of the Reno market helped us find the perfect house during a hard market. We highly recommend them if you are looking for a responsive and experienced Realtor® team who will work hard for you. Overall excellent experience with a very personalized touch! - Cheryl C

As a first-time homebuyer, Brittney made my home-buying experience feel comfortable and easy. I really appreciated that she listened to my needs, was always realistic about the market, and never pressured me into making an offer I wasn’t comfortable with. I’m so happy with my new home, and I know it would not have been possible without Brittney! -Jared A

Don gave all his time and support during my downsizing journey. From the beginning he and his team were my strength and guidance in all aspects of selling and purchasing my new home. He has the expertise to tackle any issue, and the contacts for you to trust that the purchase of your future home will be suitable to your needs. I will always be grateful for Don and his team. Always in my prayers! - Roxana G

Don & Natalies Dees went out of their way to market and sell our ranch. They hired a video and photography team that was over-the-top and through The Dees Team’s vision, the marketing was incredible and effective. Don & Natalie are true professionals who go out of their way to do their jobs effectively and professionally. They never miss a phone call, and know how to collaborate with colleagues to spread the word about their listings. Our 85-acre ranch, house and outbuildings sold and closed in less than 45 days from the listing date. Thank you Don & Natalie for going above and beyond to list, market and sell our ranch. -Linda A

Above and beyond…that’s all we can say about this team’s amazing assistance selling our home. Every step of the way they provided superior support and advice. From the moment we contacted them, they were available night and day to assist. They took time to come over and conduct a pre-sale walkthrough, giving us notes on areas we could improve and providing great contacts for services and last minute repairs. They braved blizzard conditions to hold our open house, and guided us through every aspect of the sale process with expert knowledge and unparalleled industry experience. Once our sale was complete, they even assisted with last-minute support - definitely outside of their initial commitment - to help us get on the road. Absolutely recommend this group of amazing, kind, and skilled Realtors®—you won’t regret it!

- Allie B