Newdad, to add something more specific to flyer’s advice, you should drop your buyer agent asap and look yourself for a place online.
When you find something you want, take one of these courses:
If a FSBO, do not use a buyer agent. This makes your offer better than anyone who does have a buyer agent, who will charge the seller 1 to 2.5%. You may have to pay someone a 1500-2500 to handle paperwork that realtors normally would.
If it has been sitting on the market and is otherwise not hot, use a discount agent who will rebate part of his fee to you.
If it is a hot place you will be competing with other buyers, ask the listing agent to refer both a buyer agent and mortgage broker.
A final point, we have been seeing prices rise pretty steadily the past 3 years, with the two years before that showing very large increases. All signs point to at least another 7% or so over the next 12 months.
So if you are looking at the 650k range, you can expect that prices will go up about $3800 per month on average, possibly more like 5k a month. So I suggest you buy something that is “good enough” and start being on the right side of those increases instead of waiting for something perfect.
