Financial Readiness: The Missing Key to Successful Home Buying

Ready to buy a home this year? You need to get your financial house in order first. Many aspiring homeowners make a critical mistake by waiting until they've found their dream property before securing pre-approval. By then, it's often too late.

The current Philadelphia metro market is experiencing a 15% year-over-year inventory decrease, creating fierce competition for available homes. This means buyers must be fully prepared to act immediately when they find the right property. Getting pre-approved isn't just about confirming you qualify for a mortgage—it's about understanding exactly what you can afford, including the impact of property taxes which vary significantly between neighborhoods. 

A complete pre-approval requires submitting W-2s, pay stubs, bank statements, and other financial documentation. Having these organized and submitted before house hunting puts you in position to move quickly. Additionally, your funds should be liquid and accessible for deposits without delays. Today's competitive environment also calls for strategic approaches like "walk and talk" inspections, where an inspector joins your showing to provide immediate feedback without formal reports.

The best time to enter the market is now, before the traditional spring rush brings more buyers in March and April. Sellers are already preparing properties to take advantage of the current low inventory, making early 2023 potentially advantageous for prepared buyers.

At MQA, we customize our approach for each client's unique situation, understanding not just what you're looking for but why it matters to you. Whether buying or selling, the key is treating each client's journey with personal attention and care—as if they were family.

🎧 What You’ll Learn:

• Why pre-approval isn’t optional
• The importance of knowing your true monthly budget
• What to expect from taxes in different Philly neighborhoods
• How to prepare funds for your deposit before going under contract
• What a “walk and talk” inspection is—and why it matters in competitive offers
• Custom strategies Maria uses with each client to ensure a smooth transaction

🗣️ Quotes to Remember:

• “Seeing a home before you’re pre-approved is like shopping without a wallet.” – Maria Quattrone
• “There’s no cookie-cutter solution. Every buyer and seller deserves a personalized strategy.” – Maria Quattrone
• “If you’re not ready when the right house hits the market, someone else will be.” – Maria Quattrone

📚 Resources Mentioned:

• Turn the Key Philly Program
• Riverwards Group
• BIA & Accelerator Fund (more in the upcoming episode with Mo Rushdy)

Want more insights? Follow along and share this with someone who might benefit. And don't miss my upcoming podcast featuring Mo Rashudi from River Wards Development Group discussing exciting initiatives in the Philadelphia market!

Connect with Maria Quattrone:
Facebook: Maria Quattrone
Facebook Page: REMAX at Home Facebook
Facebook Page: Rise in Real Estate Facebook
LinkedIn: Maria Quattrone
YouTube: Maria Quattrone
Instagram: @maria_quattrone
TikTok: mariaquattronerealestate
Website: MQrealesate.com
Office number: 215- 607-3535

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you are a potential buyer this year, do
this to get ready now.
Hi, it's Maria Quattrone.
And if you are a potentialbuyer this year, do this to get
ready now.
I see and talk to a lot ofbuyers who want to buy and I
hear often oh I'm fine, to getpre-approved, it's not a problem

(00:21):
.
You know, I have money in thebank, my credit's good, and they
don't get pre-approved rightaway's not a problem.
You know, I have money in thebank, my credit's good, and they
don't get pre-approved rightaway and they want to see houses
and unfortunately that's a bad,bad idea.
Number one you need to know howmuch you want to spend and you
need to know what your monthlybudget is going to be in and if

(00:42):
that is affordable for you basedon the sales price that you're
in.
That's really important.
And you have to also take intoconsideration the taxes.
In some areas in thePhiladelphia metro market, taxes
are much more than in otherareas and where you think you
can afford a particular propertyand then you see that the taxes
are twice of what you'realready paying.

(01:03):
That has to be considered whenyou're looking for the new home.
The other thing that happens isthis Buyers go, they see the
house and then they'rescrambling to get the
pre-approval because it doesn'thappen in one second.
You have to submit all yourdocuments your W-2s, your pay
stubs.
You have to submit three monthsof bank statements.
You have to show where themoney is coming from.

(01:24):
And if you don't have that allhandy and easy to send out to a
mortgage professional, thenthat's something you have to get
organized.
When you see that house thatyou like, you immediately have
to put the offer in.
You can't wait a day or two orthree because somebody else is
already going to have boughtthat house.
Then you're going to bedisappointed and you're going to

(01:45):
be super annoyed with the wholeprocess, kicking yourself in
the butt for not getting the acttogether in advance of that.
So it's really super importantthat you know where their
money's coming from.
You have the money liquid Ifyou have to pull it out of
stocks, bonds, ira or whatever,because once you go under

(02:05):
contract you need to submit yourdeposit.
You can't wait two weeks.
I have people saying, well, Ihave to move the money and it's
this and it has to clear that.
And no bad idea again, whichleads to a bad consumer
experience.
So having everything buttonedup, your pre-approval
conditioned only on appraisaland final work verification,

(02:28):
which they do right beforeclosing to make sure you're
still employed.
So you want to have thatpre-approval in hand, fully
pre-approved, not apre-qualification, a fully
pre-approved approval for thepurchase price, how much you're
putting down, know around aboutwhat the interest rate is going
to be, what your monthly paymentis going to be, and we can

(02:50):
assist you with this all upfront, before we even go to see homes
.
And then you also are going towant to make sure that, if this
home is going to be competitive,that we bring an inspector with
us to view the property.
It's called a walk and talk andwith the walk and talk the
inspector will go through in anhour time and give all the

(03:10):
information on the propertywithout writing up a formal
report, and usually this isenough to satisfy buyers in
today's environment.
You know, I looked at thenumbers just a little bit ago
and inventory is down about 15%year over year.
This time last year and lastyear it was down.
So there's still less homesavailable to buy.

(03:32):
So in order to be able to getthat home that you want, you
really need to have everythingbuttoned up and there's more
than even this what I'm saying.
That goes into it and it's alonger conversation than I have
to do a video on it, but Iwanted to give you a couple
things that this afternoon thatyou need to do in order to have
yourself financially, in orderto be able to get that home this

(03:56):
year and I do believe it'sgoing to be a strong year.
I think there's going to be.
There's buyers that have beenwaiting to buy, their sellers
that have been waiting to sell.
I think there will be some moreinventory that is coming onto
the market.
I would say looking now beforemore people flood in is really
important, because come Marchthere'll be an April there'll be

(04:17):
more and more buyers.
We're actually prepping people'ssellers properties now to go in
the market early so we can takeadvantage of the lower
inventory that's out there rightnow.
So there's lots of strategythat's involved in this and I
customize the strategy based oneach individual client, so there
is not a cookie cutter way.
I do have certain things that Ido include when prepping for

(04:41):
properties and working with thesellers include when prepping
for properties and working withthe sellers, but when working
with the buyers, we have acertain process as well, but I'm
customizing it for each familyand their needs.
That's what's really important,whether you're working with
buyers or sellers, is toactually listen to what the
people are saying.
You need to listen to whatthey're saying to you and what's

(05:03):
most important to them, and whyselling this home right now is
important, why buying this homeright now is super important,
and what happens if it doesn'tsell or what happens if you
don't buy.
So those are things that youneed to know.
You need to understandmotivation.
You need to understand like thelittle nitty gritty details
that will make a clientexperience much better by

(05:23):
knowing them.
So you really need to do a deepdive, each client individually
and really treat them like ahuman and heart to heart.
Pretend this is your family,who's making this purchase or
that's selling this home.
So often I see people always ina rush, rush, rush Just want to
get the property on the market.

(05:44):
But if you don't understand allthe details in that family's
life, it could have like not thebest experience, and we always
want to give it best experienceat MQA.
So I hope this message washelpful this evening.
Make a comment, you know, sharethis with somebody who you
think needs it.
Please help me grow my audienceso I can bring you more great

(06:06):
content and more great people onmy podcast.
Had a great podcast on Saturdaylive Q&A with Mo Rashudi from
River Wards Development Group,president of BIA.
He's also involved with theAccelerator Fund and the Turn
the Key program.
Key program was one of the bestpodcasts I've had with the

(06:28):
information he provided, becauseI was super excited about what
this these groups are doing herein the Philadelphia metro
market, so that's something thatreally warmed my heart and we
spoke for a full hour.
So that'll be coming out onFriday.
You can hear the replay.
I'm excited to share that withyou in.
In the meantime, have a greatrest of the weekend and I'll see

(06:50):
you tomorrow for MQ's dailyupdate.
Have a good one.