Thank you for choosing Forbes & Associates to assist you in your next real estate transaction. We know you have a choice when selecting a real estate agent or company to work with during your search, and we deeply appreciate your business and consider our clients to be a blessing and privilege to serve.   

We will make your journey fun, exciting and as efficient and painless as possible, this is easy because we enjoy our careers in real estate, meeting new people and showing off Humboldt's endless variety of homes, architecture, lifestyles, climates and locations.  So no matter where you are in the home buying process, or what type of buyer you are: first-time home buyer, or a seasoned professional looking to upgrade homes or on a longer quest for an oceanfront dream home, we are here to help.  

Forbes & Associates - Sarah Corliss provides buyer representation and real estate services to qualified home buyers.  That includes those relocating and moving to Humboldt for the first time or residents trying to become obtain home-ownership for the first time or upgrading their current home, looking for a vacation home, investment property or business location.  

The Buyers Page of our website has two sections, outlined here:

The Buyers Guide to Living in Humboldt County:  This part goes over what to expect living in Humboldt County.   It's easy to brag about Humboldt County, but keep in mind this list is far from comprehensive, as you'd be able to write a whole book on what you can find here. We list many of the bigger ticket items that make Humboldt County so magnificent and unique, from our unique location and immense natural beauty, resources and our unlimited outdoor recreation opportunities to our varied culture, arts and different lifestyles.  It also contains lots of facts and figures about the real estate market, demographics, crime, K-12 school information, extended education campuses at Cal Poly University - in Arcata and the College of the Redwoods in Eureka.  We also go over local economics, cost-of-living and employment opportunities and a little historical perspective as well. Jump to the Guide

Real Estate Services, and Buyer Representation - The section explains  what you can expect from us in regards to our attitude, ethics, experience and buyer-side real estate service that we provide, such as showing you homes in person, setting up our software to help you find out about new homes before everyone else does.  We also outline and explain the Buyer Representation Agreement that is signed so that we are allowed to get started.  

FORBES & ASSOCIATES - SARAH CORLISS

40+ YEARS REAL ESTATE EXPERIENCE

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Welcome to all buyers and home searchers, whether you're relocating to Humboldt or already live here, and thank you for considering Forbes & Associates - Sarah Corliss to assist you with your real estate needs. We know that you have a choice when selecting a realtor and agency to work with, and we consider it a blessing and a privilege to work all of our clients. We are always excited to get the chance to meet new residents relocating to the area, and working with current Humboldt residents looking to purchasing their first home or upgrade from an existing one. We also help with homes or on the way towards an investment property or vacation home. Let's start touring some properties that you are interested in soon! We are excited to help you accomplish your real estate goals and be part of your journey by making the process painless and efficient.

Our Team that has the experience and patience you want when making one of the most important decisions of your life.

Signing a Buyers agreement with us, basically hires you a team that will be by your side, working with you from the beginning to end, taking the time to explain every part of the contract until you feel comfortable.  We'll make sure you have lending setup ahead of time by referring you to local and reputable lenders, obtaining your pre-qualification letter to unlock the doors to hundreds of homes currently for sale.

Real Estate Email Alerts will be programmed to send you new properties to review that meet your requirements.

We program our website to send you alerts the moment new properties that are in the location(s) you are interested in as long as the home price is within your budget and has all the requirements you need for your new home. Anything from number of bedrooms, to must haves, like "ocean view" or "river front" or more basic things like "3 bedrooms" - our software is very versatile, giving you a competitive edge over other home seekers.   

We won't waste your time with properties not in your budget, will program them to stay within your budget.  When you find one you like, we'll tour it and make offers, negotiate and inspect them until you sign on closing day and the keys are firmly in your hands.

reasonable offers until we get one accepted. homes until you find the right one.  After that we help you draft your offer and negotiate any counter-offers that go back-and-forth.  Once you have an accepted offer, we'll kick it into high gear and begin scheduling all the necessary inspections to make sure you are not buying a house that has major issues. We will be there with you until the ink dries on closing day and the keys to your new home are firmly in your hands. 

As long-time locals, some of us born and raised here, we know the communities and towns in our areas of coverage exceptionally well and are able to clue you in on things that would take years of living here to find  out on your own, from nuances between different neighborhoods, to the different lifestyles and feelings about different topics in each of Humboldt County's many diverse towns and communities. Humboldt County is so big that it has two distinctly different climates, too. We know the school districts where families with children want to live to attend top-rated schools and we explain the available amenities, or lack of amenities, each town offers. We cover and are constantly on the look out for any red-flags that we see on properties we visit and alert you if we see something out of the norm that requires further investigation. 

We strive to create a painless, enjoyable and exciting real estate experience for our clients, especially for first time home buyers.  We always go the extra mile for our newest Humboldt County residents! This section cover exactly what we are providing for you as real estate agents and what our buyers agreement says.  In a nutshell, most of your job will be to relax and look at homes, which is one of our favorite activities here! We try to make it fun while you get ready to make one of the most exciting decisions of your life. We are excited to meet you!  Please reach out with any questions at (707) 677-1600 and speak with any of us, or alternatively, you can use our contact form.

To get started on your journey with us, you can either call the main office at (707) 677-1600, or call an agent directly. To learn more about individual agents, these links will take you to their individual profiles: Sarah Corliss, Claire Patton, Crystal Bigham and Monica Brock. Alternatively you can fill out our contact form, if you go this route please leave as much information about your needs as possible so we can be more informed when we call.

Forbes & Associates realtors are all licensed to practice real estate in the state of California by the California Department of Real Estate and can be verified by looking up the individual's DRE# on their website.  Our company and agents are also members of both the Humboldt Association of Realtors and the National Association of Realtors.

Buyers Agreement: The buyers agreement is a contract between Forbes & Associates - Sarah Corliss and you, the potential buyers. We are transparent about all of our business services and operations.  Feel free to ask us questions about any part of our business.  When you select us, to work for you, you are hiring a team that will work tirelessly for you, helping you ultimate purchase of the property you've been dreaming about. 

The buyers agreement is a standard legal arrangement between our company and the potential purchaser of real estate. We use a standard contract that comes directly from the California Association of Realtors.  To read about it, we suggest the article and explanation on the official CAR website: CAR Buyer Representation Agreement, it gives you a more legal description of the form there. It approaches it from a more legal perspective. If you have any additional questions, drop us a note here: contact form, or simply give us a call.

The buyers package includes a dedicated agent to represent you, be present at property showings, guide you through contracts, negotiations and organize all the logistics that go into ordering inspections, researching and ultimately purchasing your home.

We will direct you to trusted lenders and mortgage brokers to get pre-qualification letters which are often required to visit properties, especially more expensive ones in person.  Real estate showings typically require that you are accompanied and represented by a licensed real estate agent that is present with you when you visit the properties in person.

Before each showing, we gather parcel maps, surveys, additional information and directions that are pertinent to the property. We can drive together or you can follow us if its more comfortable on the way to the subject property. We will unlock the property and do a visual inspection of things while you look around.  This is helpful because buyers tend to be positive, while we keep our critical minds alert, looking for cracks, water damage and other things that tell us to be cautious of and followed up on if you decided you are interested in that particular home or property.

We help you decide on what your offer might look like, write up the offers in an official "offer" for the seller, handle all the negotiations, counter-offers you might receive, schedule inspections, walk-throughs, etc. until closing days and they keys are finally handed over to you.

How long will the process take? Your home search can last a few days, or in some cases if you're looking for something special over a year. So how long your search may be can vary wildly. You may tour many houses before you find "the one" and even then sometimes inspections will lead you to decide not to purchase a particular home.

How come we need an agreement? There are lots of costs that go along with providing these types of services, the primary cost being time, but also fuel, inspections for different houses. However we only order inspections when you have an accepted offer. The inspection period begins, and you can back out of the contract if you do not like the results of any inspection. When we are serving you, we are not serving anyone else, so that is time we are investing in you. We could, and often write multiple contracts, or "offers to buy" which are either turned down, countered, then turned down, or never materialize because of what inspections turn up. Time is spent on qualifying and obtaining loans as well. Inspections cover a range of things, the structure, water systems, septic or sewage, appliances, and on the coast - if its waterfront or an ocean property, we typically recommend a qualified geologist examine the slope and make sure that you don't buy something that will one day end up in the water.

Occasionally but not often we invest lots of time (sometimes over a year) and then the client switches realtors halfway through the search and we lose all of our investment into our client and we are never compensated. The agreement is designed to also protects us from this and gives us a time period where in the case you end up buying a house that we showed you through another real estate agent, that we are still owed a commission. This time-frame is clearly documented in the agreement.

How long is the duration of the buyers agreement? This is flexible and we will work with you on the duration of the agreement, typically they are six months. However they can be canceled without any hassle, just what we stated above, if you purchasing real estate that we showed you within the stated time period after the agreement was canceled, we are still legally entitled to receive our commission.  This rarely happens, but there have been cases of being shown a property and the client tries to subvert the agent, offering a slightly better price if they can remove the real estate agent from the deal.

Another reason for buyer representation for clients purchasing real estate, especially first-time buyers is that real estate purchases, contracts and transaction when buying your home can seem overwhelming and there is typically a lot of money on the table. It can be overwhelming for you when you just want to buy a house. That is why we offer Real Estate Services, including showing you multiple properties and represent you throughout the entire transaction, explain the contracts, and inform you as we go through the homes you are interested in and the ins-and-outs of Humboldt County's variety of communities. We are a diverse county with many different lifestyles and locations varying drastically from one another. Not just culturally, but we also have two distinct climates. With a real estate agent and team, you can rest assured knowing that our goal is to promote and protect your best interests. We will work tirelessly to ensure you have all the information and resources needed to make sound and knowledgeable decisions regarding one of the biggest investments of your lifetime.

Any major purchase requires research, careful analysis, consideration, and thought and a home is one of the most intense purchases most people deal with. Determining the right location, the number of bedrooms or bathrooms needed, and outdoor space are the easy things. However, there are many other factors to think about in your home search. From your initial search to the moment you get the keys to your new home, we will be there, guiding you through the processes required.

Please do not hesitate to contact us today to learn more about the services available to you, we look forward to hearing from you. Call us anytime at (707) 677-1600 or use our contact form to connect and get started on this new chapter in your life.

Our website has some good tricks built-in. After signing up, you can save searches and get alerted via email the moment any market conditions change. For example, if you are searching for homes in Trinidad, a popular seaside town in northern Humboldt, you could do a search where you typed in "Trinidad" and it would pull those results for you.

Research a neighborhood?   -  Try this: Create a custom market report, where you can specify date-range, location, price ranges, etc. and have the market reports mailed to you on a regular basis.  This makes it easy to see what's going on in terms of sales, current listings and other useful historic data.

What is your Budget for your Home?  Use our Mortgage Calculator to help:

The real fun part is searching for you dream home, but the first step is figuring out what you can afford to spend. Our easy to use mortgage calculator can help you get a rough idea of what you might be able to afford on your specific budget. While you may think you can afford a specific amount, lenders have certain parameters that need to be met, specifically your DTI. The debt-to-income ratio is a critical factor for home buyers seeking lending options. Lenders assess this ratio to determine the borrower's ability to manage mortgage payments, with lower ratios generally indicating a stronger financial position and higher chances of loan approval. Typically no more than 36% or less. Basically - how much money goes out to your bills each month, compared to how much income you have coming in.

While this tool is pretty handy, please make sure to independently verify any results from this calculator with a trained professional before any purchase, and do not rely on this mortgage calculator to base your decisions off of. If you need mortgage and lending referrals, please call the office. Don't worry if you're a current client or not, we're happy to help and we appreciate clients who are pre-prepared with financial qualification letters. Most upscale homes will not allow the scheduling of tours without a pre-qualification letter, or proof of funding from your bank.

EXPERIENCE: Our local knowledge of communities and neighborhoods is unmatched. If we don't know the answer immediately, we'll find it.  We have an exclusive network of the most informed and highest quality professionals and service providers in Humboldt County that has been developed and fine-tuned over four decades.  Save money and time by utilizing our resources and work. 

PERSONABLE: 

FINALLY: We represent both buyers and sellers.  In today's ever-changing  world and real estate market, you would be making a mistake to go un-represented.  We would be proud to represent you, discover what your real estate plans are - whether it's your first home, a vacation home, ocean property or a commercial investment, we are excited to be a part of it. 

Call us today at (707) 677-1600 if you want to skip the contact form, and we'll call you back as soon as possible.  Remember to let us know as much as you can about your real estate plans, like timeframes, locations you are interested in, or need to be near.  That information helps us prepare for our first call, and it also helps match you to our best agent for your scenario.

If you just have basic questions, we'll answer you accurately and efficiently.  If we don't have the answer, we'll research it and get back to you shortly.  We'd be happy to earn your business.