1. Define Your Goals, Research Your Options, Make Your Plans
Given that buying a home is such a big step, it’s all the more important for you to educate and prepare yourself as much as possible in advance. This means clearly determining why you’re buying and what kind of home you’re looking for. And because buying and financing a home are so closely related, it also means examining your current financial situation and projecting how much you can afford.
Once you’ve answered these questions even tentatively you’ll be in a better position to research your housing and mortgaging options, as well as create an action plan and timelines for moving forward. You may want to do this yourself, but you may also benefit by consulting with us from the start.
2. Contact Our Team!
Buying real estate is a complex matter at the best of times, given that there are so many factors to consider and no two homes or transactions are alike. However, with all the unique opportunities and potential pitfalls of the current market, it’s
even more important for you to contact us once you’ve definitely decided to buy. We will guide you through the property search, financing, negotiation and transaction processes.
3. Get Pre-Approved For A Loan
Generally, it is recommended that you get pre-qualified for a loan before you start viewing homes with the serious intention of buying. The pre-approval process involves meeting with a lender and authorizing them to examine your current financial situation and credit history. On the basis of this examination the lender will provide you with a document that details how much you can borrow to buy a home. You can speak with your local bank or connect with us for a recommendation.
4. View Homes
Simply put, key to the home search process is knowing what you’re looking for. Among other things, that means distinguishing between “must-haves” and “like-to-haves”. We’ve shown thousands of homes, and know what to watch out for. Our experience and expertise allows us to provide you with a unique perspective on homes. We help you look beyond the surface.
5. Make An Offer And Negotiate With The Seller
Now that we’ve found the home you’d like to buy, it’s time to make an offer. Ask any agent or seller and they’ll tell you that every offer is not created equal. We work hard for your offer. How your offer is written and presented matters. Sometimes the little details can be the difference between a buyer getting a house or not. We have the tools to give you the best shot possible at a home. Once your offer is written, we will present it to the seller and the seller’s representative. At that point, the process – given that a home’s eventual sale price is subject to supply and demand – will depend on the current state of the market. Generally though, the seller can accept your offer, reject it, or counter it to initiate the negotiation process.
Successive counter-offers, with deadlines for responding and meeting conditions, will be exchanged between you and the seller until a mutually-satisfactory pending agreement is reached or the negotiations collapse.
6. Secure Your Financing
Once you have a pending agreement with the seller, it’s time to go back to your chosen lender to finalize your mortgage details so you can close the deal. This means finalizing your down payment, interest rate, regular payment schedule and
any other financial conditions associated with the closing. As noted in the section on loan pre-approval, if you’ve already been qualified with a lender for a certain loan and home purchase, this phase of buying your new home should be a relatively straightforward matter that centers around finalizing the loan details and signing the mortgage papers.
7. Investigating The Home
Your purchase contract is contingent upon a few things; one of them being a right to investigate the property. We highly recommend our buyers pay to have a professional home inspection done on the home during “escrow”. The inspector will go through the home with a fine tooth comb, looking for any current or potential issues. Sellers will provide buyers with written disclosures that will communicate various information about the property. These disclosures will give you a better understanding of the history of the home.
8. Recording
Once all investigations are completed and the loan has funded, the sale will record with the county. After confirmation of recording is received, its time to hand over keys!
