Eight Tips for Buying a Home Virtually Before Your PCS to Hawaii
PCS’ing to Hawaii? If you’ve recently received PCS orders to Hawaii, we’re sure you’re feeling overwhelmed about buying a home.
First…take a breath… we got you!
Photo by: Natalya Zaritskaya Unsplash
How can you really know a space if you’re not in it, if you don’t see the closets, look at the bedrooms, or walk through the yard? We’ve been helping military members and families for years utilizing our virtual services that include:
- Buyer’s Virtual Consult
- High quality video walk through
- Extra photos for areas not shown
- Live video with you while on site
- Measuring rooms sizes
- Electronic signing
8 Tips for Virtual Home Buying
- Connect with a military friendly and experienced Realtor
- Virtual consult
- Research neighborhoods
- Setup a custom home search
- Know your wishlist
- Understand your budget
- Learn about the military VA loan
- Close on your home and get the keys!
Continue reading more info on 8 tips.
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1. Connect with a military friendly and experienced Realtor
We are a team of veterans and spouses serving our military clients as Realtors. Essentially – your boots on the ground to assist you in finding a home! Being a certified Military Relocation Professional ensures we know the military process, VA financing options, and help members in buying or selling a home. Our area expertise also helps you understand the local markets near military bases. Connect with us HERE.
2. Virtual Consult
How can we get to know you being in different time zones, and PCSing from all over? Our Zoom virtual consults are a tool we use to assist with answering questions, sharing local information, understanding your needs in a home, but most importantly – getting to know you! There is so much to do and know, and we are glad to go over those items. Schedule your Free Consultation HERE.
3. Research Neighborhoods
Are you looking for beachside vibes, fast paced city life to be in the action, suburban communities, or proximity to military bases? Finding the right neighborhood is essential to your individual needs. Finding the right neighborhood for your families’ needs is essential. Check out our neighborhood guide to learn more about Oahu’s different communities. Oh, and we can’t forget to mention — if you have kiddos, you’ll want to research schools too. Read more on schools at GreatSchools.org and Hawaii Dept of Education. This School Finder allows you to input an address to find a school.
Photo by: Brian Teal
4. Research Homes Online
When looking to purchase a home in Hawaii, you have to understand one important thing. Hawaii homes are different from the mainland in price, size, and expectations. You may have to downsize before arriving and have measurements taken for a home you are interested in.
Our Zoom Buyer consults help for a realistic expectation and help identify the home type that will fit your needs. Setting up a custom home search will also help you research homes and areas that might work for you. Once you start learning about areas, we will be glad to provide virtual tours and get our eyes on the property for you. You can view Current Listings, but we are glad to set up a custom search for you - Contact Us for a FREE consultation!
5. Fine Tune Your Wish List
Now that you’ve researched homes on Oahu, you’ll have an idea of what you actually want in a house. Looking for a big yard? Need multiple bedrooms? Want proximity to the beach? Come up with your dream wish list and let your agent know. We will get as close to the list as possible!
6. Know Your Budget
We highly recommend getting a solid pre-approval. This is really important, whether you’re buying a home in person or remotely. Why? You don’t want to find your dream home and find out that it’s completely out of your budget. Here’s a video by Major Singleton, Mortgage Broker that dives into this topic more. We are committed to working with lenders and vendors that provide the military community top notch service. In this market - rates matter! Connect with us and we’ll introduce you to lenders so that you can choose what service is best for you!
7. Get Your VA Loan in Order
If you’re planning on using a VA loan to buy your new home, there are some things you’ll need to prepare. Not only will you need to be pre-approved for a loan, you’ll need to confirm eligibility and know your credit score. Check out our VA Loan FAQs and VA Home Loan Guide for everything you need to know to get started.
8. Close Remotely
Closing time! Once everything is sorted — you’ve been pre-approved for your VA loan, you have been accepted and under contract, you’ll even be able to close remotely. If you arrive on island while in escrow, you can sign for the documents in Hawaii. If you are still at the previous duty station, a mobile notary can be sent to you.
Closing on your home remotely will add peace of mind before you move. Need an airport pickup? We’ll meet you there, give you a lift and give you keys to your new home! Reach out to learn more - we are glad to be a part of your home buying experience!
Photo by: Brian Teal