Buying A New Home?

The home buying process can be a very big undertaking, especially for first time home buyers, but it’s definitely worth it. There are many people and processes involved in any one real estate transaction. My job as a Realtor with Exit Real Estate Gallery, is to make the process as simple and successful as possible. I help my customers come up with a strategic plan for their real estate goals to help make things go as smooth as possible through the home buying process.

Here’s a brief step by step process for how the home buying process should be in most cases:

#1// Getting a home loan, or paying cash?
Most real estate transactions involve financing. The most important step to get started is to choose a lender and tell them you would like to find out your financing options. You will need to ask them to provide you with a pre-approval letter.
If you’re paying cash for a home, you will need to obtain “proof of funds” in the form of a bank statement or letter from your banker.

#2// House Hunting
Once you have a pre-approval letter, you’re ready to begin your house search. It’s best to start your search on the internet, and let me know what questions you may have about certain areas or homes in particular. When you find homes of interest, it’s a good idea to do an initial drive by of the area to see if you like the actual neighborhood and surrounding areas before taking the time to schedule individual appointments.

#3// Making an offer
Once you’ve been pre-approved and found the house that you want to make your home, you’re ready to make an offer. We will look at the surrounding market activity to make sure you’re making a good offer and I will work to negotiate the best deal possible with the Seller or their Agent. When making an offer, it’s good to decide up front what’s most important to you, “winning the deal, or winning the house”. That will make an impact on the type of offer you should consider making. With every offered price, you will include an offered Binder Deposit to “bind” the contract. This deposit goes towards your down payment or closing costs at closing.

#4// Home Inspection
Once a contract is agreed upon, your first step will be to have an inspection performed by a licensed Home Inspector. This is so that you can get a professional eye on the home you’re interested to buy. We’ll write your contract to be contingent upon this home inspection, so that if it reveals problems and costs that you are not willing or able to incur, you can get out of the contract without risking your binder deposit.

#5// Appraisal
If you’re getting a home loan, your Lender will require you to pay for an appraisal. If the appraisal value comes back lower than your purchase price, your Lender will most likely not approve of lending on the home. At this point, we would work to negotiate with the Seller to taking the lesser, appraised value as the purchase price if you were still interested. Otherwise, you would be able to get out of the contract without risk to losing your binder deposit.

#6// Home Owner’s Insurance
You will need to obtain home owner’s insurance and provide your lender with all of the details so that they can include the necessary insurance info in their underwriting process.

#7// Closing
Before closing, hopefully at least 24 to 48 hours before, the Title Company will provide the final HUD statement which will show your final numbers for what you need to bring at closing. We will do a final walkthrough of the property so that you can make sure that it is in the same condition as agreed upon in the contract. The closing will usually take place at the office of the Title Company hired by the Seller. After giving the funds for your closing costs, and after the buying and selling side sign all necessary closing documents, you’re ready for your keys!

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