01
What to expect from me
Before any process. This is the bar.
Fiduciary duty — OLD CAR
Every licensed agent owes you six duties: Obedience, Loyalty, Disclosure, Confidentiality, Accountability, and Reasonable care. That means your interests over mine, always. It’s not a nice-to-have — it’s the standard.
Same-day updates. Every step.
Inspection results, appraisal news, seller counters — the moment I have information, you have it. No end-of-week check-in emails, no waiting until we’re on the phone.
Every step explained
No black boxes. You’ll know why we’re doing what we’re doing before we do it — from why we asked for a specific inspection to why we structured an offer a certain way.
A vetted vendor list on tap
Lender, inspector, plumber, HVAC, roofer, cleaner, landscaper. My referral list is at the end of this guide as a downloadable CSV. First calls I make at my own house.
Watch out for
If an agent goes quiet between meetings, or brings you news two days late, that’s a red flag. Communication is a service standard, not an extra.
02
Start with a lender
Before we look at a single home. This is step one.
Get the referral
A great agent will connect you with a lender they trust — or you’re welcome to bring your own. Either way, this call is free and it’s the most important thing you do first.
The honest picture
The lender pulls your credit, looks at your income, debts, and reserves. They’ll tell you where you stand today — and what number you can realistically buy at right now.
If not now, then a plan
Some card debt to pay down? A credit score bump that could shift your rate? The lender will build a 30/60/90-day plan to get you into a better price range before you shop.
A real pre-approval
Once you’re approved, you have a verified letter to write offers with. That letter is the difference between an offer sellers take seriously and one they pass on.
Watch out for
Falling in love with homes before you’ve had the lender call. Every home above your true budget will make every home in your budget feel small.
03
Now we sit down
Lender call done. Time to actually plan the search.
A real meeting
Coffee, phone, or Zoom — whatever fits your week. This is where we go deep on what you want and what your life actually looks like.
Neighborhoods, not "the market"
Scottsdale is not Peoria. Cave Creek is not Chandler. We narrow to 2–3 areas that fit your life, budget, and commute — everything else is noise.
Look at real listings, live
We pull up 5–10 active homes and go through them together. What you react to (positive or negative) teaches me more than any spec sheet.
The plan you leave with
By the end of the meeting you know: your search areas, your saved-search alerts are set up, and how our tour cadence and communication will work.
Watch out for
Skipping this meeting to "just get out and see stuff" is how buyers waste 12 Saturdays looking at homes that never fit in the first place.
04
Wants vs. needs
You’ll never find the perfect home. Aim for 80%.
Must-haves are deal-breakers
If a home doesn’t have this, we don’t tour it. Be strict — 5 or 6 items max, or your list stops working.
Nice-to-haves are tiebreakers
These are how we pick between two great options. They should NOT rule out otherwise-perfect homes.
The 80% rule
The perfect home doesn’t exist. Aim for 80% of what you want — the other 20% is what you customize, upgrade, or grow into over time.
Location > features
You can change a kitchen. You cannot change the neighborhood. When budget forces a trade, always trade features for location.
Try it right now
Sort your wants from your needs.
Tap each item once for must-have, twice for nice-to-have, a third time to clear. Screenshot your list when you’re done and text it to Dakota — it’s the fastest onboarding you can do.
Space & layout
Outdoor
Kitchen & finishes
Location & lifestyle
Watch out for
Buyers who chase 100% perfect never buy. They just tour. Discipline your list — the right home is out there; the perfect one is not.
05
The home tour scorecard
Rank every home the same way. Keep a rolling top 3.
Rank each home 1–10
Do it IN THE CAR before you drive to the next one. Memory of homes decays fast. Numbers are honest.
Keep a rolling top 3
After every tour, your top 3 gets re-ranked. Home #7 might unseat Home #2. If a new one doesn’t crack the top 3, we let it go.
Photograph the problems
Instagram already has the features. You need photos of the issues that could cost you at inspection — cracks, water stains, HVAC age plates.
Same criteria every time
Location, layout, condition, price-to-value, gut feel. Score all five on 1–10. Patterns emerge fast.
Watch out for
Emotional buyers pay $30k+ over comps on the first home they connect with. The scorecard is the whole point — it slows the emotion down.
06
Making the offer
Every term is a negotiation surface. Not just price.
Every term is a lever
Earnest money size, close date, inspection period, appraisal treatment, seller concessions. Each has real cash value to a seller.
Certainty often beats top dollar
A clean offer $10k under can beat a shaky offer at ask. Sellers weigh certainty as heavily as price.
Only offer on homes you’d write tonight
If a home isn’t worth an offer today, it won’t be tomorrow. Confidence in the home is the prerequisite to a strong offer.
Speed on the counter matters
When a seller counters, you have hours, not days. We pre-decide your ceiling before we submit so you never negotiate in a panic.
Watch out for
Waiving inspection to win a bidding war is the #1 buyer regret. Save $500 today, lose $20k on undisclosed issues later.
07
Under contract → close
The 30-day marathon. Here’s what happens, in order.
Earnest money delivery
Within 1–2 business days of a ratified contract, your earnest money (typically 1% of purchase price) gets wired or cashier-check delivered to escrow. This is your good-faith deposit — refundable if you cancel within contract terms.
Inspections — including sewer
General inspection is standard. We ALWAYS recommend a sewer inspection too — camera scope down the line to verify a clean connection to the public sewer. A $150 test can save you $5–15k in repairs.
Appraised vs. market vs. Zestimate
Appraised = the bank’s licensed valuation for lending. Market = what a buyer will actually pay right now. Zestimate = Zillow’s automated guess (often 5–20% off). We plan around the appraisal, negotiate on market value, and ignore Zillow.
Sign, wire, keys
Final walkthrough 24–48 hrs before close. Then you sign, funds wire, title records, and I hand you keys. In that order.
Watch out for
Do not buy a car, open a credit card, change jobs, or move money in unexplained ways between contract and close. Any of it can retrigger underwriting and blow up the deal in the final week.
08
Phoenix Metro specifics
What out-of-state buyers don’t know about buying HERE.
The A/C is the heart of the home
A 10-year-old unit is a real expense in the next 3–5 years. Ask when it was replaced. Inspect separately if the disclosure is vague.
Roofs age in the sun
Tile roofs last, but the underlayment doesn’t. Foam and shingle roofs have shorter horizons. A dedicated roof inspection is worth every dollar.
Pools are honest-math
Beautiful in July, real money year-round. Ask for two years of pool service invoices. If there aren’t any, ask why not.
Monsoon claim history (CLUE report)
Past water intrusion, wind damage, or leaks follow the property in the CLUE report and affect your insurance for years. Get any past claims disclosed.
Watch out for
The AZ Residential Purchase Contract has strict timelines. Miss a deadline and you can lose your earnest money. My job is to make sure that never happens.
09
After the close
A good relationship doesn’t end at keys. Here’s what stays on.
Preferred vendor list — download
Live-synced from my BNI AZ East Collaboration chapter — plumber, HVAC, electrician, roofer, cleaner, landscaper, pool, pest, and more. Grab the CSV and import to your contacts in one shot.
Annual home value (Homebot)
Auto-updated equity report. Check what your home is worth any time — no "just checking in" texts required. Full widget embedded below.
Fast follow-up, always
Same standard as day one: if you text or call, I get back to you same day. Whether it’s three months in or three years in.
Write a review
If the experience was worth it, a review is the most helpful thing you can do. If it wasn’t, tell me — that’s how I get better.
Vendor list · Live CSV
Download Dakota’s preferred vendors.
Auto-synced from my BNI AZ East Collaboration chapter. Names, companies, categories, and phones — always current. Import to your phone in one shot and you’ll never scramble for a plumber at 8 PM again.
Home value · live tool
Check your home’s value right now.
Free, no sign-up needed to preview. Enter your address to see the estimated value, then opt in for monthly equity updates.
Was it worth it?
Leave a review.
A quick review is the most helpful thing you can do — it’s how future buyers find me. Google, Zillow, Facebook — wherever’s easiest.