Our Process

Most people only buy a home a few times in their lives. When you work with Greater Portland Real Estate, our agents take the time and care to make sure your home-buying experience is an excellent one.

We follow four essential steps to help you complete your purchase.

Step 1—The Search: At the beginning, we sit down and learn about what you’re looking for and build a strategy to get there. As a member of RMLS, we have access to every listing for sale on the open market. We will also search “for-sale-by-owner” properties on your behalf and provide representation in those transactions.

Some buyers rely completely on their agents to send them listings, while others search everything online on their own. Most clients do both to make sure no homes fall through the cracks. (Every once in a while, a buyer will end up buying a house that doesn’t align with his or her original target list. This usually comes from casual Internet surfing or drive-by viewing.)

Step 2—Offer/Negotiations: After we find the home you love, we work with you to create the offer. We help you understand the fine print so that you can make informed decisions. We also make sure you pay a fair price for the property. The contract itself about 10 pages long, not including disclosures and other miscellaneous forms. In many cases, the first house for which a buyer writes an offer isn’t the one they ultimately buy.

Step 3—Inspections/Negotiations: After the offer is accepted, the inspection period begins. We organize a professional inspection, sewer scope, oil tank sweep, environmental tests, permit record search, etc. As your real estate agent, it’s our responsibility to review all of the inspection details and negotiate on your behalf for the seller to do repairs and/or adjust the price.

Step 4—Escrow: After the inspection is complete, the price is set and any repairs are underway, we enter the final couple of weeks of escrow. During this period your real estate broker makes
sure your loan is on track and that title reports, deeds and balance sheets are in order. We are persistent in keeping everyone on the transaction team focused to help ensure a timely closing.