Search for homes in Augusta GA and surrounding areas here. There is a wealth of information and support here at Mulich Realty. Browsing beautiful homes that have just hit the market is quick and easy to do. There is a copy of the entire Multiple Listing Service database right here on this site just for you. If you want to do more than just search for homes, you can do that too. You can begin your exciting home purchase by using the search menu to your left. If you want to save the homes that you are searching for viewing later or for the viewing of a significant other, just take a minute to login and create an account. An account will allow you to:
Save favorite homes
Keep notes on those favorite homes on your home note pad
Save searches and have an email automatically sent to you whenever a home is placed on the market that meets your search criteria
Post questions for licensed real estate agents to answer
Read other questions and information others have shared about the area and their real estate experience including mortgage brokers, home inspectors, and many others
Create connections to other members (as "Friends", "Associates", etc.)
Get live help in the live help box
See latest events and open houses in the area on the events calendar
Once you make an offer on a home or property you can:
Have your own private document area where we save all of your documents for your convenient online viewing. You can view your offers as PDF, the counteroffers, anything that is still needed or required by the loan officer, termite letter, home inspection documents, closing information from the closing attorney – all kept in a central secure location.
Home Buyers: What to expect
The home buying process is very emotional for most buyers. Often times a buyer will end up buying a home that was not at all what they described as the home they wanted. It can be very frustrating for buyers especially if they don't have a plan to achieve their home buying goal. I'd like to provide a plan that works:
Step 1. The entire MLS is right here on mulichrealty.com. That is, every home listed for sale in and around Augusta is listed right here (there are 6000+ listings). Begin your search on the Mulich Realty web site. Take as long as you like. Days, weeks, even months. There' s no real estate site in the world that has as much information per Augusta listing as Mulich Realty. I pay a premium for providing and managing this extra information and pass it on to you, the buyer. Keep in mind many of the good deals are only listed for a few days and then they are sold. The not-so-good deals may last a little longer and so on. If you want to buy a home one year from now, you probably won't be looking for a house that's on the market right now. Would you really want to buy a resale home (new construction is different) that sat on the market for over a year while no one wanted it? Even if you did get it at a reduction, that home will be stigmatized as "the home that wouldn't sell." Since there's a record of how long it was on the market in the MLS, all of the agents are aware of it, and all of the neighbors are aware of it as well. When you are going to buy a home within the next 8 weeks, narrow down your search on our web site to a small manageable list of homes that meet your search criteria.
Note on new construction where the home is not yet built: If you go the route of buying a new construction home where the home is not yet built, it will be a tough path. New construction is never easy and problem free. There will be many issues and things that pop up that will have to be dealt with. You should expect many meetings with the builder or his representatives. You should expect to meet with fixture representatives, such as plumbing, electrical, and lighting, and meet with other individuals to discuss details from floor plan changes on down to colors of paint, exterior of home, appliances and dozens of other details. Your real estate agent would normally not be at any of these meetings that do not involve real estate contract signing. Going this route will require an enormous amount of the buyer's time throughout the entire building phase, even if you're married with one spouse as a designated contact, you will still both need to put forth an enormous amount of time no matter how you attempt to split up the responsibilities. Having a home built will be a very stressful and trying time on the both of you.
Step 2. If you are about 8 weeks away from making a purchase then you are now ready to go look at your small manageable list of homes. This gives us a couple of weeks to look, and a reasonable 6 weeks to close on your new home. Note: seller's are not going to accept a contract with a closing date that's more than 6 weeks away (with the exception of short sales, sellers who need to sell their home before moving, and new construction not yet complete). Another Important Note: If you plan to work with, talk to, or call another agent besides me, please let me know this before we get started. Buyers driving around and calling the agents on the yard signs is an incredibly bad idea, and is probably the single worst thing a buyer can do. The agent on the yard sign represents the seller - not the buyer. They are required to get the best terms and price for the seller - not you. Same goes for "For Sale By Owner." Having your own agent costs you nothing. You will be asked to get a pre-qualification letter from your lender at this time and to provide me with a copy of that letter. Typically, your lender will just email it to me. It would have been a good idea to get the letter during Step 1 so that you know you are in the clear and will be ready when you get to this step. Don't have one? It's a small effort to pick a local lender, fill out a form, and ask for a pre-qualification letter. This may take a day or two depending on the lender. What's the big deal with this letter? You cannot turn in an offer on a home without one. A pre-qualification letter and earnest money must accompany all offers. See why it's important now? The lender may also reveal a new lending law concerning down payment or your credit score that may prohibit you from purchasing at this time. If you can't purchase, we can't personally visit homes. Go back to step one while fixing the credit issues.
Ok, so we're ready to get in our cars and drive to these wonderful homes that you chose. There will be two types of homes: occupied and unoccupied. You will likely not have a way of knowing the status. I will have to call each and every listing to schedule an appointment. If they are occupied, it is courteous to call ahead with a 24 hour notice so that those families can put down everything they were working on, and leave the home so that you can view it privately with your agent. Keep in mind, there will always be a new home built, and there will always be a resale home listed each and every day. Theoretically, you could be looking at homes forever. At some point you must realize that you will be picking from a group and then choosing from that group (the manageable list from step 1). If you don't realize this very important point, you will simply wear yourself out looking at homes and end up buying a home out of sheer exhaustion, sheer frustration, or because you have no time left to look. If you are personally visiting more than 30 homes in different subdivisions, you may want to ask yourself some serious questions. Am I ready to buy? Am I being realistic? Am I afraid to buy? What exactly am I looking for? Did I find it? Did I communicate all of these details to my agent? Did I make use of the Mulich Realty web site in Step 1 to narrow down my search? If you find yourself in this rut of looking at a never ending list of homes, then this is definitely not the most efficient use of your time. If you found a home, then personally visited that home and it matches your criteria, the expectation is that you will make an offer on it. If you don't, you are heading for exhaustion. Agents are here to help, and they work very hard, but they are aware of this cycle. Your agent will be reasonable with you and you will be held to that same standard: It's not reasonable to visit an infinite number of homes. The hope is that you will gain some insight to a process many agents have been working with day in and day out for years.If you have your favorite list down to 2 or 3 homes and can’t decide between them, I will do a market analysis and a history on each home and provide you with it to help you in your decision.
Step 3. Have you decided that one of the homes you looked at is “the one”? If so, it’s time to make the offer. We'll use your pre-qualification letter already in our file, gather your earnest money (typically $500 to $1000 and sometimes more if new construction), and spend a couple of hours to review and sign the purchase agreement. It may be requested by the listing company that your earnest money is to be certified funds (money order or cashier's check). Be prepared for that event. I will need some prior notice to prepare the purchase agreement that is typically 30 or more pages including exhibits and agency agreement. We will turn in an offer and ask that the seller decide within a couple of days whether or not to accept the offer. This offer cannot be an amount that just comes to mind. The offer must be a reasonable offer and we must substantiate it, usually with a comparative market analysis (not information from Zillow or another non-Brokerage since the estimates on those sites are typically wildly inaccurate). If the offer is significantly below asking price, a counter offer is almost a certainty. Again, we are holding to a standard of being reasonable. If the counter offer is a reasonable counter, then the expectation is to proceed with the purchase. At this point, the closing is set 4 to 6 weeks away, so long as you don't have to sell your own home first.
Step 4. Perfect. Now we have an accepted offer. At this point you should discuss with your lender any particular financial expectations, such as how an earnest money payment is applied as credit to your account, or any other detail related to your loan. Do not wait until closing day to discuss expectations, nor would you wait until a few days prior to closing. Please don't assume anything - always ask your loan officer. Get all of your financial details covered with your lender the day you have an accepted contract. We will immediately schedule a home inspection which is paid at the time of inspection by the buyer. You must meet with the home inspector at the home for the entire duration of the inspection. Depending on the size of the home the inspection could take 2 to 3 hours. I will coordinate for the inspector to come back out to the home a second time to make sure the repairs, if any, are completed. This re-inspection is usually included in the cost of your home inspection. The seller will take care of structural and mechanical issues. Cosmetic issues, such as flaws/chips in paint, cracks that need caulking, etc. are negotiable. Often times, the seller will reduce the list price by the total amount of the repair estimates in lieu of doing the repairs prior to closing, so long as none of the repairs are a requirement of the buyer's lender. This way the buyer is free to choose his or her own contractors and can supervise the work if desired. If we used a standard Georgia Association of Realtors contract, and if the home wasn't listed in an "as-is" condition, then we will have a due diligence period where we can terminate the contract for any reasonable reason. It is very common to have an inspection list that is several pages long (10 to 30 pages) with lots and lots of pictures that look like mug shots of your prospective home. I will email the inspection report to you as a PDF and will send it to the seller's agent as well. Most of the items on the home inspection list will not be structural nor mechanical issues. Most issues will be cosmetic, minor, and may not be addressed at all by the seller. You will know these things during your due diligence period after we've given a copy of the inspection to the seller's agent and await their commentary. This is not a time for emotional responses regarding the seller's refusal to address cosmetic issues. You are not being cheated or wronged by this. Addressing cosmetic issues was never promised or implied by the seller, but taking care of clear mechanical and structural issues are.
Also prepared at this time is your hazard insurance. If you don't have a company you use, I can get a best quote from several companies and email the quote to you as PDF. Please examine this quote carefully, paying close attention to the yearly premium, deductible, etc. Once you confirm the quote, I will have the insurance company send the necessary paperwork to the attorney's office. Please make changes and preferences at this time and not after the paperwork is turned in to the attorney. Making changes after we turn in the paperwork may jeopardize your closing date. You may always make policy changes after closing. At closing, you will receive a termite report, as all lenders require one. Home inspectors do not inspect for termites. A termite company will come out and inspect usually very close to the day of closing. If there are termites (which is a common occurrence with resale homes in the Southeast) the seller will be required to treat the entire home at the seller's expense.
Step 5. I will personally coordinate with your loan officer. I will get them all the necessary contracts and exhibits that they need to work on your loan. We will need to get additional things together as requested by the lender: additional bank statements, copy of cleared earnest money check, etc. Once all of these things are received by the lender and our loan package comes back from underwriting, we are good to go to closing. We will typically have everything in order a few days prior to closing. If the lender does not have all of your financial information in time, it is not uncommon to have to apply for a closing date extension. This is why it's vital to get pre-qualified so that your lender will have prepared most of the important items they need for your file. There will always be last minute items to collect from you, such as current bank statements and bank activity up to the current day. Note: If you have a rate lock with your loan and the extended closing occurs later than the rate lock deadline, you will have to pay for an extension on your rate lock.This decision of when to lock is completely your own and you will have discussed this with your lender. Also, if you are purchasing new construction and you must close later than the agreed upon date for a reason unrelated to the seller, you may be charged $65 per day or more.
Step 6. Closing day. We will do a final walk through of your home on your closing day just prior to our scheduled closing time with the attorney. We will then all meet at the closing attorney's office to close. All persons on the loan will need to be present to sign and will need to bring the following: government issued photo identification such as a driver's license for each person, and down payment (sometimes needed in certified funds). Your lender will give you all the information you need concerning funds at closing.Closings typically take one hour. After everyone signs - you are now the proud owner of your new home!
Buying
