Three Pieces Of Advice On Landing A House In West Michigan

You have a better shot of winning the lottery than landing a house in West Michigan.

Ok, that is probably not statistically true, but that's how it's felt for me and my wife Lindsey who moved back home to Grand Rapids from San Antonio, Texas last fall.

Thanks to the help of a coworker, we were able to find a house to rent in Alger Heights while we looked for a new place to call home. The next thing we did was look for a realtor with knowledge and experience. We got a bunch of recommendations from friends and family and ended up going with The Kyle Visser Team.

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Three Pieces Of Advice On Landing A House In West Michigan

After 6 months we finally had an offer accepted on a house that we loved. During that time we must have walked through at least 40-50 houses. Out of all those houses, we made offers on 10 of them and lost out on every one of them. On a few houses, we had the best offer but refused to wave inspection, so the seller went with someone else that would. After going through all that I have three pieces of advice on improving your chance to land a house in West Michigan.

Proof Of Funds
This document shows how much money you have available. When purchasing a home, you may need a POF to show the seller that you can cover the purchase costs of a home.

Appraisal Gap Coverage
Sometimes your mortgage lender's appraiser says the house is worth less than you agreed to pay. This is known as an appraisal gap or a low appraisal. We've heard stories of people getting their offer accepted but then after the appraisal, the bank won't finance the amount that is needed, and people to have any extra cash to make up the difference. In our offers, we did the maximum appraisal gap that we could afford and felt comfortable with. We actually lost out on a house because someone had a $50,000 appraisal gap.

Find A Great Realtor
the only thing that kept us from going insane was that we had a team behind us that had great knowledge and relationships with other realtors in West Michigan. Sam Garret, who's a buyer's agent with the Kyle Visser Team has this advice for people struggling to land a home.

It's easy to get discouraged in this market. Trust the process and ask questions! Get a realtor that isn't in it for the paycheck. If you like the house, but don't love it, don't write on it.

If you're struggling to find a home I hope you find one soon.

And if you're one of those people that cost us a house because you made a cash offer or waved inspections I wish diarrhea upon you and your realtor.