Following a Buyer: Lauren, Part 1

Neel Midha • October 6, 2026

The List Meets the First Tour

I'm following a second purchase from start to finish, with the buyer's blessing. Suvir and Pragya found their house in two evenings. Lauren's search is a different kind of search, and it's her second time around with me: I helped her buy her condo.

The first three steps

I helped Lauren buy her condo, so when she started thinking about her next place, she came back to me. That's step one: contact an agent.

Step two is a lender. I introduced her to my preferred lender, a mortgage broker with access to lots of different types of loan products, and she had her pre-qualification before we met.

Step three is the buyer consultation. Agent, lender, consultation: that's the order. It means the consultation is about real numbers, and it means nobody falls for a home before knowing what it costs each month.

The consultation

We met on a Sunday morning, September 27, at a very cool coworking space, and spent about fifty minutes on three things.

The costs. I walk every buyer through these before they see a single home, because none of them should arrive as a surprise:

Earnest money: typically 1–2% of the purchase price, held by the closing attorney.
Home inspection: about $850.
Sewer scope: $300 to $500.
Survey, if the home needs one: $1,000 or more.
Closing costs: roughly 3–6% of the price, covering attorney fees, the title search and lender fees. Sometimes the seller can be negotiated into paying part of them.

These are the figures for Lauren's price range. Some of them rise with the size of the home: more square footage to inspect and more land to survey means the inspection and the survey cost more.

The financing questions went to her lender, which is where they belong. Her homework was to ask for a loan sheet showing the estimated monthly payment, the rate, the APR, taxes and closing costs, so that every home gets measured against a payment and not just a price. (As a buyer, you're always free to choose your own lender.)

The list. Lauren knows what she wants, and that makes my job easier:

A townhome, condo or loft. No single-family homes.
At least two bedrooms, one of which will be an office, and one and a half to two bathrooms.
Laundry in the unit.
Plenty of natural light.
Private outdoor space: a patio or a balcony.
Quiet. Not backing onto a highway, and not next to the dumpsters.
Updated appliances.

The dumpster line is my favourite. It's the kind of thing that never shows up in listing photos, and you only find out by going.

How we'll search

Two MLSs. I search both FMLS and Georgia MLS, because not every listing is in both.

Twice a week, not daily. Lauren asked for her reports on Wednesday and Friday mornings so she isn't buried. Daily alerts suit some buyers and wear others out. Pick the schedule you can live with.

A map, drawn by her. Her other piece of homework is to mark up a map with where she'd live and where she wouldn't. A drawn boundary beats a list of place names every time.

A tour app with GPS directions and private notes for each home, so that by home five she can still remember home one.

My cards. If she walks into an open house without me, she hands one over and everyone knows she's represented.

The first tour

Before we toured anything, Lauren signed a buyer brokerage agreement. It puts our working relationship in writing, including how I'm paid, and it happens before the first door opens, for every buyer.

That afternoon we went to see condos and townhomes, several of them brand new. I went with her to the new builds. The sales consultant on site is helpful and knows the product, and works for the builder.

New is new, and it shows: nothing to fix and everything under warranty. But the afternoon also showed the trade-offs. You get smaller rooms for the money. Some had more flights of stairs than anyone wants to carry groceries up. The homes sit close together, and parking was tight.

And every new build we saw was offering seller concessions. Builders need to sell the homes they've finished, because that money pays for the next ones, and their material costs have gone up, so they'd rather offer incentives than cut the price. One thing to know: a builder's incentive usually comes tied to the builder's preferred lender. Before it counts as a saving, it goes to her own lender to look at next to an outside quote.

Where things stand

Lauren is drawing her map. The searches go live as soon as I have it. There's no offer and no rush.

What I'd take from this

Agent, lender, consultation, in that order. Then you tour.
Shop on the payment, not the price.
Write the list, including the things photos can't show. Noise, light, stairs, parking.
Choose an alert schedule you can live with. Twice a week is allowed.
Take your agent with you the first time you visit new construction.
A concession isn't a saving until your own lender has looked at it.