These days, a Google search can teach you a lot about San Francisco neighborhoods or Bay Area towns and what kind of homes they offer.
People take pride in learning about the cafes, groceries, and entertainment options in the different neighborhoods across the city. But when it comes to buying a home, many folks will partner with the first agent they meet to purchase a home.
Savvy buyers employ online home buying tools that revolutionize how they approach the housing market.
Modern real estate companies put more power into your hands, enabling you to streamline searches, communicate with agents, and easily collaborate on documents for the offer process. Some brokerages in San Francisco can even help you save money when you get the keys to your home.
To give buyers a better idea of this process, the team at Prevu Real Estate created a guide to buying a home online in the Bay Area.
Find a brokerage combining digital tools with local expertise
Depending on your experience with the Bay Area real estat market, you may already know where you want to search for a home. But if you are new to town, having a local's experience can go a long way.
Either way, you want to find a real estate agent working for a brokerage that facilitates your search online, whether you are a seasoned pro or not. But in addition to having a set of online tools, you will want the ability to connect with a broker when you need an expert on hand.
Seeing an opportunity to pair up expert agent knowledge with digital search, Prevu created a digital homebuying platform designed to streamline the transaction process. By providing homebuyer’s with these tools, Prevu can instantly connect buyers with an agent via convenient messaging, research listings in their target neighborhoods, and set up a property tour with a click of a button.
Automated filters allow you to enter your target parameters and get alerted each time a matching home hits the market. Or, if you’re not sure where to start, you can begin your search with the help of a local agent.
Having a platform to search for homes helps. Plus swift communication can mean getting your offer in first or being told the property is already gone.
For instance, when the perfect San Jose home hits the market, you want to be able to set up a time to tour it with the click of a button. From there, you can connect with your agent to prepare making an offer.
To make sure all those steps go smoothly, constant communication is key, which is why Prevu incorporated a streamlined communication system on their platform to enhance collaboration between homebuyers and their agents.
Yet while all these mechanisms help you streamline your home buying process, there is one added perk that can put money back in your pocket at closing.
Seek a broker providing commission rebates
Digital homebuying tools and the right agent can ease the process of finding your dream home, but what if your agent could go a step further?
When you speak to different agents in the Bay Area, ask if they can provide a commission rebate at closing. A commission rebate allows a buyer's broker to give a portion of their commission back to the buyer when they buy a home.
Prevu offers the largest commission rebate in California, totaling up to 2% of the home purchase price. For example, if you purchase a historic Victorian rowhouse in Presidio Heights for $4 million, Prevu’s Smart Buyer Rebate can get you up to $80,000 cash back after closing.
Whether you use the money to furnish your home or rebuild your savings after expensive closing costs, a commission rebate is a cherry on top of an ideal online homebuying experience.
Interested in buying a home in the Bay Area? Browse listings and see how much you can save with Prevu’s Smart Buyer Rebate.
Photography by: Courtesy of Torehan Sharman on Unsplash
