Comprehensive Buyer's Guide | Kendra Gaeta and Lindsay Morris

Step 1: Research

Do you already know where you want to buy? If you want a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Which features do you like and dislike? What’s available on the market now? If you answered no to any of these questions, now is the time to start researching. In addition to looking for homes that interest you, also take note of any changes in asking prices. This could give you valuable insight into housing trends in specific neighborhoods and help you when the time comes to make an offer.

Step 2: Decide on Your Budget

Notice we said to decide on your budget—not determine how much the mortgage company will give you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for more than you’re comfortable spending, which is why you need to determine the monthly payment you feel comfortable with before talking to a lender. This likely includes doing a full household budget and taking into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or with roommates, you may overlook new expenses like garbage, water, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget.

Step 3: Get Prequalified

Just because you think you can afford a certain payment every month doesn’t mean the mortgage company will agree. Just as they may approve you for too large of an amount, they may also approve you for a lesser amount or deny you a mortgage altogether. Lack of time at a job, insufficient credit, past bankruptcies, or other financial issues can cause major problems when trying to secure a mortgage. Before you get your heart set on a home, talk to a mortgage professional to find out what amount you can qualify for. This will also be an advantage when you make an offer on a home, as some sellers won’t entertain offers from those who aren’t already prequalified for a loan.

Step 4: Choose a Real Estate Agent

Can you shop for, look at, and ultimately make an offer on a home without a real estate agent? Technically yes, but why would you when it costs you nothing for agents like us to take much of the stress off your shoulders? Not only will we help identify properties you might be interested in, arrange showings, and ultimately handle the offer process, but we also have knowledge of the market that you don’t possess. Finding the perfect home can be a daunting task, this is where our expertise and wealth of knowledge come into play. Let us show you around some homes that meet your dream home criteria so you can find the one that's right for you.

Step 5: Find the Right Home

This should be the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). We will arrange showings of homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details. Turn light switches on and off, open and close doors, and run the faucets in various rooms. Don’t limit your inspection to the home itself. Make sure to take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.

Step 6: Make an Offer

Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. We will be able to help you negotiate if you receive a counteroffer and reach an agreement. At this point, the house will go into escrow.

Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

In most cases, your offer will be contingent on having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or large repairs needed. We can help you arrange this, and you can schedule it within days of making an offer. If there are no major issues, the process goes to step eight. If there is, you can renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed, or you can withdraw it.

Step 8: Select Your Loan

Now is the time to go back to the mortgage lender who pre-approved or pre-qualified you and choose your mortgage. You will be presented with various options based on your unique financial situation, including fixed-rate, variable-rate, 15-year, 30-year, or special programs such as VA loans or FHA loans. Work with your mortgage lender to select the option you feel the most comfortable with.

Step 9: Get a Home Appraisal

Your lender will have your new home appraised so they have their independent value of it. The appraisal is to ensure that all parties involved are paying a fair price for the house.

Step 10: Finish Paperwork

No one looks forward to all the paperwork involved in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Fortunately, everything will be arranged by your lender and title company and, when you’re finished, you’ll know you are the legal owner of your new home.

What Our Clients Say

Jennifer

Over the past year or so, I've had to be closely involved in 3 home sales, in 3 states with 3 different real estate agents. Kendra and Lindsay were hands down the best of them all. Most brokers will do the basics of listing the...

Jennifer & Vince

Recently, my husband and I found ourself looking for more house to make a home. We contacted Lindsay Morris and Kendra Gaeta to help move us through this process smoothly. And, they did just that! After much searching, we found...

Cynthia & Jeff

Best experience ever! Kendra is professional and personable. We were casually looking for a year and she was patient and continued to send us listings and was very accommodating to our busy schedules. When it came time to put i...

Krystal

Kendra was wonderful in marketing and selling my home. She pursued any and all options to keep potential buyers engaged and kept me well-informed throughout the process.

Danielle & Josh

My husband and I had the pleasure of working with Kendra through the process of buying our first Bay Area home. This was a daunting concept for us, as buying in this area is totally different than buying anywhere else! Kendra w...

Delphia & Mike

We were very pleased with Kendra's service and support in the sale of our home. She was always professional and communicative. We highly recommend her.

Robert

Kendra was great. She is very personable. She managed all the details of the sale, made excellent recommendations, kept us informed, and got us a great deal. We had not moved in 32 years and she made us feel comfortable with th...

Alexandra

We have worked with Kendra for three separate sales and purchases now and I could not sing her praises more if I tried. To say that we would not have been able to get our dream house without her would be an understatement. In t...

Kailey

My husband and I have been working with Kendra for the past -5 years! I wish I could give her a million stars for this review. We really wanted to buy a house and plant some roots in the Bay Area. Throughout the years, she has ...

Prasanna & Nalini

We were in the market for a single-family home in Sunnyvale or San Carlos parts of the Bay Area. We ran into Kendra while visiting an open house in Redwood City and had a long chat. I was immediately impressed with how much att...

Charles

Kendra made my selling experience wonderful and easy by knowing what was coming up and keeping me informed. I wish more businesses worked the way she does.

Matt

Over the last 20 years I’ve worked with over 5 real estate agents - actually buying and selling homes with 3 of them - and I have to say Kendra Gaeta is by far the BEST realtor I have ever had the pleasure of working with!!! Un...

Kavya and Siddharth

Buying a home for the first time is an ordeal in many avenues - location, budgeting, personal preferences to list a few. From the start to finish Kendra was both professional and personal with the search of our home providing e...

Brian & Bethany

My wife and I are huge fans of Kendra and highly recommend her to anyone looking to represent them as a buyer or seller. We've now worked with Kendra on 3 transactions in this volatile Bay Area market. We first met Kendra 4 yea...

Debra

Kendra didn't get an easy task when she took us on as clients! Big family, tons of kids and animals, working from home, schooling from home... We had already found our perfect home out of the area and needed to sell our current...

Thomas

We couldn’t have asked for a better realtor! Kendra took the overwhelming process of buying a home and made it smooth and very manageable. She was an invaluable resource while looking at houses, and a helpful guide through all ...

Patrick

As trustee of an estate I worked with Kendra to sell two properties in the San Jose/Santa Clara area within a few months of each other. Kendra did a great job to establish the right price for the market and property conditions,...

Melynda & Eric

Kendra is amazing! She was very honest with us while we were searching for our home. She told what she liked and didn’t like about the houses and areas we were looking in, she wasn’t just trying to make a sale. She wanted to ma...

Erik & Christina

When my family and I were ready to sell our house and escape the city, we turned to Kendra Gaeta. Ashe came highly recommended through many reviews. We were so happy to have her help us in every aspect of the Realestate game.Up...

Ricky

Kendra was critical to achieving our goal of home ownership. Though we were experienced with the home buying process by owning and selling a home in the Atlanta area, nothing could have prepared us for what we had to face in th...

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Whether you're buying your first home or selling a property, we’re here to make the process seamless and stress-free. With personalized guidance and a commitment to your goals, we ensure every transaction is handled with care and expertise from start to finish.

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Buyer's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Buyer's Guide