home buyers

Congratulations on your considering the purchase of a piece of real estate. Owning real estate has the opportunity to provide wealth, stability, freedom, and tax advantages of which renting cannot compete.

To begin your incredible journey of home ownership, start with the following:

Find out what you can afford by talking with a mortgage broker or lender; I am happy to provide referrals.

Commit to the downpayment available to you. This may mean having conversations with and committments from family who plan to help you financially.

Establish your needs and wants; determine the must haves and like to haves.

Identify target neighborhoods. To learn more about the different districts of San Francisco and what they have to offer, you can check out my neighborhoods section. You'll also find some special, fun information on San Francisco History and some of my favorite things to do in the City.

Do your homework-go to open houses, drive by properties, and spend time in neighborhoods to get familiar with them

To help get you started, I have a few articles that I can email to you; clicking on the hyperlink will take you to a form to request this and many other articles which you may find useful.

The first article is called "Getting Started With Financing." This will give you a handy checklist of how to get started with financing and the options available. I am pleased to provide names of local mortgage brokers to get you started in the pre-approval process, just let me know when you contact me if you would like this.

Prior to going to open houses, you should have an idea of what to look for when viewing a property, to view a piece on wrote on this topic, click on the hyperlink, ?Viewing Properties?.

If you've never been through the property buying process before, you may have questions about what you can expect from a buyer's agent, please click on the hyperlink "Professional Services to Expect from Eric Castongia for Buyers of Residential Real Estate".

Perhaps you?ve been out looking, or stumbled into an open house on a property that you are interested in. To find out how to make a purchase offer, please request ?Making An Offer - What to Expect.? Clicking on the hyperlink will take you to a place where you can request this article. As part of this, you will also receive, ?Opening Escrow?, which describes what happens after you successfully get into a purchase contract.

I am happy to meet with you at my office to discuss your real estate needs. Please let me know if something I send you, or something you find somewhere else in your search, looks interesting. I would be pleased to assist you in finding your new property.