How to Buy a Home from Afar

How to Buy a Home from Afar

Hi, and welcome to Living in El Paso, Texas. In this episode, we're going to spotlight a little area over on the west side, and we're going to talk about buying or selling a home from out of town or out of state. Hi, my name is John Peña, and I'm a real estate agent here in El Paso, Texas, and this is

a channel where we talk about all things eat, sleep, work, play in El Paso, and if that's the kind of information that you're into or you're looking for, by all means, please consider subscribing to the channel, click the notification bell so that you know exactly when new videos come out.

And in this episode, first off, last week I introduced that kind of new map feature. I really want to help people understand the area, kind of get a feel for, you know, the town, the layout of the town, the geography with the mountains and all the borders and everything.

So, we're going to spotlight an area that I've been working with a client in this week, and it's over kind of by Trans Mountain, it's on the west side, and so we're going to take a look at that area, and also, we're going to go ahead and talk about how the process works if you want to buy or sell a home from out of town, from out of state, because a

lot of people are reaching out, and El Paso is a great place to move to, we've got so many things going for us, affordability, great people, great community, moderate climate, so we're going to kind of explain, I'm going to break down how that process works, but before we get into that, let's go ahead and take a look at the area over on the west side.

So here we have our map again, you can see this is zoomed in, the blue is the Rio Grande, the green is I-10, you can see the borders there between New Mexico, Mexico, and then everything to the right essentially is Texas, hopefully you're starting to identify the Franklin Mountains, you can see Fort Bliss and the airport over there, the far east,

Horizon City starting to come into focus, and we showed a little bit of footage last time of me driving through Trans Mountain, that road that goes through the mountains there, and up even a little bit further than that, just north of that is Enchanted Springs, this area is just north of Trans Mountain, just east of I-10, and we don't really have

a far west here, that's not something that people really say, but this is starting to get about as west and north as El Paso really has developed so far, and it's starting to push out a little bit further as you're going to be able to see, there's still plenty of land out here, and plenty of lots that are being brought up, and this area isn't officially

called Enchanted Springs, it's just that the road that I'm on right here is called Enchanted Springs, and so that's, you know, what I used for it, but you can see that we've got some nice newer homes here, most of these homes are, you know, probably 10 years old or less, lots of, there's kind of an open feel out here, you can see the mountains, which I love,

they were developing a little gated community, which we don't have a lot of in El Paso, but I thought I'd spotlight some of these homes, like with the mountains behind there, I thought that just looked fantastic, really nice homes, nice design, these are probably, I believe the sign said around, starting at 260, it wouldn't be El Paso without a park, and there's

just one more area for you to know. Okay, so for those of you that are looking to sell a home, I had somebody reach out to me a while back and inquire, you know, they have a family home here and they're looking to get rid of the home, selling is pretty easy, quite honestly, we just need to come

to an agreement that I'm going to work with you as a client, and essentially, I'll take care of pretty much everything else, we'll make some of the important decisions together, but essentially, I'll manage the process while you manage and control all the decisions, and selling from afar is pretty darn simple.

The majority of you, though, are more interested in buying a home from, let's say, out of town, or most of you are from out of state, right? So I'm going to kind of just break down that process for you, because like I said, as a value-added real estate agent, it's my job to manage the process, and then it's your

job essentially to control the decisions. And so, the way that that looks for most people happens as follows. So the first thing you've got to do is you've got to reach out to me, and like I said, my phone number is right here on the screen, my email, if you don't like talking on the

phone, totally cool, shoot me an email, and we can manage it that way. Some people really don't like talking on the phone, and I've got a couple moving from the East Coast, and we've essentially done this mostly via text, believe it or not. Whenever something really big comes up, say with a contract issue or a repair amendment,

then I jump on the phone with them, but for the most part, they just want to text, and like I said, it sounds kind of funny, but we've been able to do almost an entire transaction just via texting. She did come into town, though, a couple weeks ago when we were looking at homes, but we'll

get to that later. So first thing you've got to do, reach out to me. Personally, I like jumping on a phone call with somebody because it's pretty quick and efficient.

We'll get to know each other, I'll ask you a bunch of questions, I'll take down notes, and then that'll kind of kick off the process. I can kind of get an idea of your price point, I can get an idea of your timeline, what you're looking for in a home, and then we're off to the races.

So step number one, just reach out to me, and that'll kind of kick off the process. Okay, step number two, I'm not going to dwell on this too much. I do have some videos that I'm starting to put together, and those are in the home buyer playlist on the channel, but essentially, if you're really serious about buying a home,

we need to know how it is you're going to pay for the home. Some of you are cash buyers, and if you're a cash buyer, well, it doesn't get much easier than that. Cash is king, right?

If you're getting a mortgage, though, then you need to reach out to a lender and go through the pre-qualification, pre-approval process, essentially. That involves picking a lender of your choice. It could be your local bank, it could be an online lender, it could be a local lender

here in El Paso. I can recommend a couple that I like, and they're going to ask you for your income, what your job is, how much you make, how long you've been working there. They're going to want to know about your debt.

To go to the stage that I'd really like you to go to to get the pre-approval, they're going to want to maybe look at tax records for a year or two, see those actual bank statements. But once you have that pre-approval that says you are approved for X amount of money, then you know what price point that you can realistically look at, because if you start looking at homes

that are $350,000 and start falling in love with these homes, and then you go to the bank or the lender and you get a pre-approval and you realize you're only qualified for say $300,000, well then some of the homes that you fell in love with now are a little bit out of reach, and that can be disappointing and frustrating, and so we definitely don't

want that. So the pre-approval is also great because when you're ready to start making offers on homes, I can pass that along to the other agent to show the seller, like, hey, look, this person has gone through the necessary steps, they're a serious buyer, and they're

much more inclined to negotiate with you and take your offer seriously. So step number two, cash buyer, jump to step number three. If you need to get a mortgage, reach out to a lender, and again, if you want to reach out to me, I can help you more with that.

Okay, step number three, this is the one that I really like, and I think that a lot of my clients like it. I recently put out a video about my motto, going above and beyond for clients, and how I really pride myself on my ability to bring you the most value that I possibly can.

And part of that is home tours, because now that you've reached out to me, we've started a relationship, now that you've got your financing ready to go, now we're ready to go to the fun part, assuming that you want to move sooner than later. If you're not going to move for, let's say, six months, then quite honestly, we don't

want to go to this stage yet, because any homes we look at now are going to be sold, way before you're ready to move here, if it's a couple months out. So if it's a couple months out that you're looking to buy, then what we're going to do is we're going to get you a subscription that's tailored exactly to the criteria that you're

looking for, and that's going to get automatically emailed out to you, so that you can kind of be looking at homes, you can let me know what homes you like, and you can kind of start to really educate yourself on the market. If you're looking to move in the next month or two, then we definitely need to start doing

home tours, and the way that we're doing home tours is, obviously, you're not in El Paso, but you're going to find homes that you like, and sometimes I find homes that I think you might really like, and I'll suggest those to you, but we're going to find homes that you're interested in, you're going to let me know like, hey, I'm interested in 123 Main

Street, can you go check it out? And I'm going to say, of course, I can go check it out, and I'm going to set it up, schedule it, and then I'm going to go to the home with my phone, and I'm going to, first, I'm going to try to FaceTime or Zoom you, so that we can go through the home together,

you can see what I see, I can talk you through what I'm seeing, you can point out things and say, hey, can I see that closer? And if you can't do the FaceTime or the Zoom, that's no problem either, because as you know, I can make videos, right?

And I'll make the video myself, I'll explain everything, I'll shoot every inch of that home, and then I'm going to post that on my YouTube channel as unlisted, so that not everybody sees it, just the people that I send the link to. I'll text you that link, it'll pop up on your phone, you'll click that button, and voila,

you're going to see a live virtual recording of that home. Then we're going to talk about it, and you're going to say, oh, it's great, I love it, you know, what's going on, are there other offers on it, do you think we can get a better price, and we'll start that path, or you're going to say, ah, you know what, the picture's made

it look better than it actually is, which happens a lot, and you're going to say, you know, pass, and we'll go on to the next one. So that's a really fun part, I enjoy that, I love it when we can do FaceTime or Zoom calls because through those home tours, we really start to get to know each other, and

it's kind of a lot of fun. Every once in a while, my wife comes along, and she is the super detailed person, so she'll be snooping around, and she'll point out things that she sees, so it's been a lot of fun, and like I said, I really enjoy that part because we really kind of get to know each

other on a more personal level, and it turns out to be a lot of fun, and, I mean, buying a home is pretty exciting, and so we want it to be exciting, we want it to be fun, and I think this is a great way to capture that spirit. Step number four is, when you find that home that you really, really like, you can, there's

a couple of options. Some people are more kinesthetic, you know, they need to feel it, they need to touch it, they need to get into the space and, you know, feel the energy, and if you're that type of person, you might want to do what my client that I was talking about earlier did, and

you might want to, you know, have five to ten homes that you really like, and you might want to fly in and take a look at those homes with me, live, in person, you can, you know, touch the doors, the walls, you know, get into the backyard, the whole thing. Some people like to do that, some people, though, they're more visual, they're more

auditory, they can get a sense of the home from the video tours, right, and if they find a home that they like, a lot of times, especially in this market where things are moving pretty quick, they'll say, okay, I like this one, I've seen a lot of other homes, I think this might be the one, let's put an offer on it, and at that point, I'm going to write up an

offer, we're going to email back and forth all the legal documents, you're going to digitally sign the documents, and once we've crafted our offer, I'm going to send that to the listing agent, and, you know, we're off to the races, there'll be a little, probably, negotiation back and forth, they might accept, they might not accept, the process is, like I said, that's

where, that's where you need a real estate agent, because that's where you need someone to manage the process, and I will manage that process. I've been doing it a lot now, and I feel like I'm refining it to a very high quality level, so I'm going to manage that process for you, every step of the way, I'm going to very clearly,

articulately, I'm not sure if that is a word, I'm going to very clearly articulate to you everything that you need to know about the contract, and any other questions you might have. Now, if you get, if the seller accepts your offer, then we have what is called an executed

contract, and that means that, essentially, you and the seller are under contract for the purchase of this home, the title is going to transfer from the seller to you, the buyer, and so, at that point, a couple of things need to happen, and this, again, this is a process, within three days, you're going to need to deposit earnest money, earnest money

is typically $500 to, you know, let's say $1,500, and essentially, it shows the seller that you're serious about making this transaction happen, and that needs to happen within three days, right? But, you're probably saying, well, how am I going to get $500 in three days?

That $500, or $1,000, or whatever it is, that earnest money is going to go to the title company here in El Paso, Texas. And the easiest thing that most clients do is they just wire the money from their bank account directly to the title company, done in a day.

The next thing that has to happen in three days is what's called, you can purchase a termination option, and essentially what that is, that's typically $500 to $200 that buys you anywhere from 10 to 14 days to cancel the contract, to terminate the contract, for absolutely any reason.

You are not going to get your option money back, that $50 to $200, that's going to go to the seller for their trouble of taking it off the market for that time, you are going to get your earnest money back. The title company will write you a check, and they'll send that $500 to $1,500, whatever

it is you pay to them, they will send that back to you, and essentially then we start over. That option money is really, really important because, let's say that it gives us 10 days. In those 10 days, we are going to do a home inspection on that home.

We are going to bring in a licensed, third party, unbiased home inspector, who is going to go through that home with a fine tooth comb, looking for anything that might be wrong. Because when you're buying a home, there are going to be things that are not perfect, right? You're not buying a brand new home, unless you're buying a brand new home, and that's

a different story. A lot of new homes are going to come with a warranty, and so that's a different story. But a lot of people are buying resale homes, homes that are a couple of years old, or even older homes, 1960s, 70s, say.

The home inspector is going to go through that home, and he or she is going to identify everything that might be a little bit off, or need repair. If something big comes back, like the worst thing is if something comes back where there's a problem with your structure or your foundation, those can be, you know, kill the deal, you

keep the termination money, but we're out, right? You don't want to deal with that, but chances are, there are not going to be big things like that, and then we're going to negotiate those repairs, but having those 10 to 14 days, that option period, that's really, really important, because it gives us that time to

do that inspection, make sure that, you know, everything is looking great. A lot of my buyers like to come down at that point. A lot of my buyers like to come down for the home inspection, because then they can get into the home, touch the things, walk around the space, kind of feel it out, and they can

be there with the home inspector who can explain to them everything that he or she is seeing. So a lot of people that do want to actually come down and see the home in person, that's a great time to do it, because you're already under contract, you essentially have the home. Now you can really get in there, and you can be there with an inspector, and you can check

it all out. So if everything goes well with the home inspection, and we can negotiate some little needed repairs here and there, essentially, from the moment you have that executed contract to the closing, and the closing is essentially when the title company is going to transfer the title to

the home from the seller to you, the buyer, and the deal is going to fund. So the money from your lender or your bank is going to actually move to the seller's bank. At that point, from the executed contract, when the seller signs, to closing, is roughly

30 to 45 days. It can be a little bit sooner if you're a cash buyer, but typically, it's going to be about 30 to 45 days. So after those 10 to 14 days of doing the home inspection and all of that, then we have

some time where third parties are working on paperwork. You're probably still out of town, out of state, just chilling and hopefully getting excited about this new home you're going to have. Maybe documents are going back and forth, but this is all handled via email and digital

signatures. And essentially, we're going to get to that closing date, and at this point, sure, you can come down again, and you can be present for that, but you do not have to. The title company handles closing, and they can do one of two things.

They can do the back and forth digital signing of all the necessary documents, and there's a lot, or they can actually physically mail out all the documents to you. You'll take all those documents to a notary, sign in front of the notary, and then mail them back to title, and that's how closing can be handled that way.

Closing will happen, and essentially, congratulations, because you just bought a home in El Paso. I can hold on to the keys for you, or we can just have title hold on to them. What I like to do, if you're still not in town, or you're not going to be down for another week or a couple of weeks, I like to get the keys to your home, because then I can go in,

I will hire somebody to clean it up, I'll probably leave some, you know, welcome to your new home gifts there, things like that. I might hire somebody to come over and clean up your landscaping and make it look sharp and nice, so that when you do come into town, and you, you know, make that move to El Paso,

you've got, you know, something to be excited about, and that's really, that's really how the process works. I'm smiling because I get excited about it. I love it.

I think it's fun, and I hope that kind of clarified kind of how the process works, more or less, for you. By all means, if you're thinking about El Paso as a potential place to move, and if you just want to chat to somebody who lives here, no pressure, not going to try to pressure

you on anything. If you just want to talk to somebody, leave a comment, call me, text me, email me, whatever works best for you, and that's, that's about it for this episode. I hope that everybody out there is staying safe and well.

Thank you for all of your well wishes. As you guys know, our COVID situation here in El Paso, and now, unfortunately, now like the rest of the country, has really kind of skyrocketed, so everyone's trying to kind of pull back and, you know, really do their part to make sure that, that we can get this

under control. So, so many of, many of you have reached out and offered your well wishes, and I sincerely appreciate that. Thank you so much.

Coming up on Thanksgiving, but I'm not taking a break from these, these videos, so you guys are going to keep seeing me every Saturday at least. If you have any questions about this process or anything else, by all means, reach out, and until then, we'll see you next time.