Buyers
Congratulations on your decision to buy a home. This is an exciting time, however, to ensure you are making wise decisions, you must first educate yourself on the process. Here it is...
Get Pre-Qualified / Pre-approved: If you don't already have a mortgage broker in mind, I can recommend a few for you to check out. They will collect information on your income and credit history. They will then let you know how much their bank will be willing to lend you to purchase your home.
Buying Resources
Establish your criteria:Decide what exactly you want in your home. What's important to you? Separate which items the home absolutely must have and which items you'd prefer but can live without.
Start shopping: Here's the fun part, I will set you up with automatic emails so you'll be notified as soon as a property that meets your criteria hits the market. When you find a property that you're interested in, just let me know and I'll set up a time to go check it out.
Make an offer: Once you've found "The House", I'll help you come up with a good offer price based on current market conditions and property specifics.
Negotiations & counter offers: Many times the seller will come back with a counter offer if your first offer was less than asking price. I help my clients throughout the entire negotiation process.
Make an Earnest Money Deposit: After your offer is accepted, you must give an earnest money deposit. The amount of the deposit may very. You can tell the seller exactly how much you'll be willing to put down as a deposit. Be reasonable!
Schedule an inspection: In your offer, you should have put in a contingency stating that your obligations to purchase the property are contingent upon the outcome of a home inspection. This allows you to back out if you discover that the property has a defect that you're not willing to deal with. Home inspections average around $200-$300 for single family homes.
Order an Appraisal: Prior to making an offer, I let my clients know the market value of the property so they can make an educated decision on an offer price. However, the bank will want their own independent appraisal of the property's market value. This appraisal should cost you $300-$400 for a single family home.
Order homeowner's insurance policy: Prior to closing, you'll have to open a homeowner's insurance policy. This will cover you and your mortgage holder in the event of catastrophic events.
Final Walk-Through: The day of, or a few days prior to closing you'll conduct a final walk-through of the property. This is where you should look for issues that may have not been visible when the seller's furniture was in the house and to ensure that any work that you required the seller to complete was done correctly. If you find a serious issue, address it before you close.
Closing: Bring a few good pens! This is where you'll sign all of the mortgage documents needed to finalize the purchase. At the completion of the closing, YOU'LL OFFICIALLY BE A HOMEOWNER!!