Be the Solution with Maria Quattrone

Financial Readiness: The Missing Key to Successful Home Buying

• Maria Quattrone • Season 1 • Episode 312

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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

Speaker 1:

If you are a potential buyer this year, do this to get ready now. Hi, it's Maria Quattrone. And if you are a potential buyer this year, do this to get ready now. I see and talk to a lot of buyers who want to buy and I hear often oh I'm fine, to get pre-approved, it's not a problem. You know, I have money in the bank, my credit's good, and they don't get pre-approved right away's not a problem. You know, I have money in the bank, my credit's good, and they don't get pre-approved right away and they want to see houses and unfortunately that's a bad, bad idea.

Speaker 1:

Number one you need to know how much you want to spend and you need to know what your monthly budget is going to be in and if that is affordable for you based on the sales price that you're in. That's really important. And you have to also take into consideration the taxes. In some areas in the Philadelphia metro market, taxes are much more than in other areas and where you think you can afford a particular property and then you see that the taxes are twice of what you're already paying. That has to be considered when you're looking for the new home. The other thing that happens is this Buyers go, they see the house and then they're scrambling to get the pre-approval because it doesn't happen in one second. You have to submit all your documents your W-2s, your pay stubs. You have to submit three months of bank statements. You have to show where the money is coming from. And if you don't have that all handy and easy to send out to a mortgage professional, then that's something you have to get organized. When you see that house that you like, you immediately have to put the offer in. You can't wait a day or two or three because somebody else is already going to have bought that house. Then you're going to be disappointed and you're going to be super annoyed with the whole process, kicking yourself in the butt for not getting the act together in advance of that. So it's really super important that you know where their money's coming from. You have the money liquid If you have to pull it out of stocks, bonds, ira or whatever, because once you go under contract you need to submit your deposit. You can't wait two weeks.

Speaker 1:

I have people saying, well, I have to move the money and it's this and it has to clear that. And no bad idea again, which leads to a bad consumer experience. So having everything buttoned up, your pre-approval conditioned only on appraisal and final work verification, which they do right before closing to make sure you're still employed. So you want to have that pre-approval in hand, fully pre-approved, not a pre-qualification, a fully pre-approved approval for the purchase price, how much you're putting down, know around about what the interest rate is going to be, what your monthly payment is going to be, and we can assist you with this all upfront, before we even go to see homes. And then you also are going to want 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 and with the walk and talk the inspector will go through in an hour time and give all the information on the property without writing up a formal report, and usually this is enough to satisfy buyers in today's environment.

Speaker 1:

You know, I looked at the numbers just a little bit ago and inventory is down about 15% year over year. This time last year and last year it was down. So there's still less homes available to buy. So in order to be able to get that home that you want, you really need to have everything buttoned up and there's more than even this what I'm saying. That goes into it and it's a longer conversation than I have to do a video on it, but I wanted to give you a couple things that this afternoon that you need to do in order to have yourself financially, in order to be able to get that home this year and I do believe it's going to be a strong year. I think there's going to be. There's buyers that have been waiting to buy, their sellers that have been waiting to sell. I think there will be some more inventory that is coming onto the market. I would say looking now before more people flood in is really important, because come March there'll be an April there'll be more and more buyers.

Speaker 1:

We're actually prepping people's sellers properties now to go in the market early so we can take advantage of the lower inventory that's out there right now. So there's lots of strategy that's involved in this and I customize the strategy based on each individual client, so there is not a cookie cutter way. I do have certain things that I do include when prepping for properties and working with the sellers include when prepping for properties and working with the sellers, but when working with the buyers, we have a certain process as well, but I'm customizing it for each family and their needs. That's what's really important, whether you're working with buyers or sellers, is to actually listen to what the people are saying. You need to listen to what they're saying to you and what's most important to them, and why selling this home right now is important, why buying this home right now is super important, and what happens if it doesn't sell or what happens if you don't buy.

Speaker 1:

So those are things that you need to know. You need to understand motivation. You need to understand like the little nitty gritty details that will make a client experience much better by knowing them. So you really need to do a deep dive, each client individually and really treat them like a human 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 in a rush, rush, rush Just want to get the property on the market. But if you don't understand all the details in that family's life, it could have like not the best experience, and we always want to give it best experience at MQA. So I hope this message was helpful this evening. Make a comment, you know, share this with somebody who you think needs it.

Speaker 1:

Please help me grow my audience so I can bring you more great content and more great people on my podcast. Had a great podcast on Saturday live Q&A with Mo Rashudi from River Wards Development Group, president of BIA. He's also involved with the Accelerator Fund and the Turn the Key program. Key program was one of the best podcasts I've had with the information he provided, because I was super excited about what this these groups are doing here in the Philadelphia metro market, so that's something that really warmed my heart and we spoke for a full hour. So that'll be coming out on Friday. You can hear the replay. I'm excited to share that with you in. In the meantime, have a great rest of the weekend and I'll see you tomorrow for MQ's daily update. Have a good one.