180 closings
Verified transactions over the prior five years, 112 of them buyer side.
A first time home buyer realtor in Albuquerque should do two things: keep you inside the budget you set, and explain each stage as it arrives. Melissa Salazar does both.
She has closed 112 buyer-side transactions over the prior five years. A large share of them were people buying their first house.
There is no cost to talk and no agreement to sign before you do.
The process has about nine stages and most of them are invisible until you reach them. Earnest money, inspection objection deadlines, appraisal gaps, the final walkthrough.
Melissa explains each one when it arrives rather than handing you a packet on day one that you will not read.
Her clients routinely describe being told what was happening and why, including buyers who closed entirely from another state.
Pre-approval tells you what a lender will allow. It does not tell you what you will be comfortable paying in month fourteen.
Melissa sets the second number with you and holds it. Buyers have specifically said she kept them within budget during bidding rather than pushing them past it.
Melissa photographs houses professionally, which means she has spent years looking at what a room actually shows versus what it was staged to show.
On a tour she will tell you which problems are cosmetic and which ones are expensive. Flat roofs, evaporative coolers, stucco, and the age of the systems are the four that matter most in this market.
Verified transactions over the prior five years, 112 of them buyer side.
Total verified sales volume across those transactions, averaging $423,100.
Licensed in New Mexico since 2018, and a professional real estate photographer since 2016.
Less than most first time buyers assume. Conventional loans can start near three percent down, FHA at 3.5 percent, and VA and USDA financing can require nothing down. New Mexico also runs down payment assistance programs through MFA. What matters more than the percentage is your total monthly cost once taxes, insurance and any HOA dues are added.
Get pre-approved rather than pre-qualified. A pre-qualification is an estimate from what you tell a lender. A pre-approval means they have reviewed your income, credit and debts. Sellers in this market will not treat an offer seriously without one.
Not automatically. Offers are won on structure and speed as often as on price. Melissa has closed 112 buyer-side transactions in five years, much of it in Rio Rancho and the Heights where competition is highest.
Yes, and her reviews consistently say so. First time buyers get each stage explained as it arrives rather than a document dump at the start.
Tell Melissa what you are trying to do and when. If the answer is that you should wait, she will say so.