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First Time Homebuyers

Most first time homebuyers start the process anxious, excited, nervous and some are downright terrified. It’s natural. A home is the largest and most expensive purchase that most people will ever make.

Manu has helped number of first time home buyers make their first home purchase,

Phase 1

Initial Consultation

  • Determine needs and wants
  • Buying process overview
  • Agent Services
  • Market conditions
  • Lending qualifications
  • Define Agency Relationship
Loan Pre-Approval

  • Obtain Loan Pre Approval Letter from Lender (not a pre qualification)
Home Shopping

  • Tour Properties that meet the criteria the “ideal” home
  • Utilize Buyer/Seller Toolkit to monitor market inventory
Find Home and Make Offer

  • Review and sign off on available disclosures and reports
  • Discuss appropriate strategies with agent and submit a reasonable offer

Phase 2

Open Escrow

  • Escrow officer will order Preliminary Title Report and send copies to both parties
  • Buyer funds are deposited into escrow account
Submit Home Information to Lender

  • Submit copy of contract to lender for processing and appraisal scheduling
  • Confirm contingency removal date and loan conditions
Insperctions and Property Condition Review

  • Buyer inspection Property, Roof Pest, Etc.
  • 2nd review of seller disclosures
Loan Underwritting and Appraisal

  • Underwritter reviews files
  • Appraisal is ordered by lender
Renegotiate Proce

  • if critical issues are discovered during buyer inspections or seller disclosure review, renegotiate the price!
  • Appraisal is ordered by lender
Home Insurance

  • Select home insurance company and coverage
  • Submit insurance information to escrow
Remove Contingencies

  • After property inspections and confirmation of loan doc approval, contigencies are removed

Phase 3

Final Walkthrough

  • A final walkthrough is a performed in order to confirm repairs if necessary
  • Property conditions should be consistent with the conditions on the date of ratification
Sign Off and Loan Funding

  • Sign loan documents and review closing cost settlements.
  • Lenders sends to the Title Company the funding for ballance
Record/Transfer Title & Close Escrow

  • Deed is recorded by the County Records office
  • Obtain keys to YOUR new home

What Our

Clients Are Saying

We got to know Manu through her advertisement at 92.3 FM. We decided to go for the consultation. On our first meeting she impressed us with her Knowledge, Enthusiasm and clear and open communication. Right there, we knew she is the one.

Manu was extremely helpful during the entire process of our first home purchasing. She is familiar with the market, very responsive and always there for helping and giving constructive and honest suggestions.

Her excellent advice, compassion and straight forward and friendly attitude made the process go as smoothly and stress- free for us as possible. We really enjoyed searching for houses with her. She accompanied us to each and every houses we liked, she never pushed us to put an offer, always provided us expert advice which were spot on. She was very patient in explaining each and every step as many times as I required being a first time home buyer.

She arranged the closing for our house in just 25 days, which was outstanding. What we got to know during this whole process is that she is passionate, focused, understanding and hard working.

We already have recommended her to many of our friends and would definitely recommend her amazing and exceptional service to anyone. You will be in great hands. She is truly a ROCK STAR!

Pranay V

As first time home buyers, the entire house buying process was new to us and so Manu’s expertise helped us a great deal. We had a very positive experience working with Manu Chagotra and would recommend her highly for any prospective buyers specifically for the below reasons.

* A seasoned realtor: Manu is very well versed with the Cupertino, South Sunnyvale and West San Jose markets which were the three markets in which we were looking. She has many years of experience in these markets which clearly showed in our conversations with her

* An excellent communicator and a great negotiator with a persistent personality: We made 3 offers through her and got the 3rd property we bid on. However, in the properties we did not get, Manu showcased great negotiation skills and did her best to get them for us. As an example, the bidding cycle for the 2nd property went until midnight on the day of the bid and Manu went above and beyond her regular waking hours trying to score for us.

We found her to be an excellent communicator who always answered our queries to the point rather than giving long winded responses or beating around the bush – which we always welcomed considering our own busy lifestyles

* Very well connected: We wanted to get a sufficient loan pre-approval to be competitive in the market and Manu gave us some good references for loan agents. We ended up using an agent referred by her and are absolutely delighted with his work.

* Responsive with a quick turn around time: Manu was quick to respond to texts and emails and we could schedule a call with her for anything pretty quickly

We highly recommend Manu and will definitely like to work with her again

Pritam P
San Jose

It’s no news that the bay area is a seller’s market. So, being a first time home buyer, it was very overwhelming. Finding the right person who can help us guide through the entire process was very critical. We came across Manu and set up a meeting. As soon as we met her for our initial consultation, we knew she was the right person for us. We connected instantly. We could tell she is a very positive person and most importantly we could feel that she is very passionate about her work. She understood our needs and explained to us all the procedures. She answered with patience, all our questions – some of them very naive.

Manu is very knowledgeable about the bay area and she does an excellent job to match your interests. Based on her suggestions we started looking around, and within couple of weeks we liked our first house that we decided to put our offer on. This is a very critical time where Manu’s knowledge, ability to communicate and respond super fast helped us put an appropriate offer which got accepted! This was not the end of it. All the real complicated procedure began from here. But with Manu to guide us at every stage, we hardly felt any friction. Everything seemed to happen very fast. It is hard to find someone that you would feel comfortable establishing a mutual trust, especially in such a saturated market. We are glad we found Manu and we highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to buy/sell a property in the bay area

Tejas L
Santa Clara

Manu is an amazing realtor!

She did a great job sitting down with my husband and I, both first time home buyers, when we started working with her and explaining the process as well as answering all our questions.

Over about 2 months, Manu patiently showed us everything we wanted to see. She quickly adapted to our style and personalities, she made the process of looking at houses really fun. She was always available to answer our questions by phone or text message.

She spoke on our behalf convincingly when our sellers were deciding between us and another really good offer and between that and her counseling on what offer to make and listening to us when we told her how aggressive we wanted to be with the offer, we were able to get the house thanks to Manu!

Manu was wonderful to work with during the entire process. We really could not have asked for more. We are happy to say that we have become good friends and Manu is still there for us even today to offer help and advice when we need it.

We would highly recommend Manu for your next real estate transaction.

Shweta G
San Jose

It has been an awesome experience working with Manu towards getting our first home in this country. I heard about Manu from Radio and contacted her. Being the first time home buyer, initially I was very skeptic and full of doubts on how we are going to manage the end to end process successfully. But the moment I called her and had my very first discussion with her, I was assured that my dream is going to beautifully come true, and that’s exactly what happened and that too in less than a couple of months.
Manu is very professional with a personal touch, prompt, very responsive and has a great in-depth knowledge about the local communities. The perspective she gave us while working through the options available in the market proved very beneficial in zero’ing out the best suited property matching our requirement.
I am going to recommend everyone who is reading this and otherwise in my circle to talk to Manu with full confidence about getting their dream come true.

Mayank S

Key resources for schools for first time homebuyers

School Digger is a national website with public school rankings in grades K-12 based on yearly test scores supplied by the Georgia Department of Education. Test Scores included in the rankings are CRCT Reading, CRCT English Language Arts, CRCt Math, CRCT, Science and CRCT Social Studies. In addition to rankings, the site includes school and district boundaries and student/teacher ratios. http://www.schooldigger.com
Great Schools is a non-profit organization that provides a quick look at public, public charter and private schools in grades preK-12 in your area. The ratings are based on test scores and other data including student growth and college readiness. In addition, the site includes more than one million reviews from parents, teachers and students sharing information about the schools. www.greatschools.org
Private School Review is a national website providing detailed profiles of private day schools and their surrounding communities. The site evaluates schools relative to each other and to state-wide private school averages for several key criteria such as teacher to student ratios. http://www.privateschoolreview.com
The National Center for Educational Stats (NCES), is the primary federal entity for collecting and analyzing data related to education. http://www.nces.ed.gov