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Step 3. Call Ken Harris and Associates Realty!
...Here's the rest. Enjoy!
10 Steps to Buying a Home
Step 1: Find the Right Real Estate Agent or Broker
Real estate agents are important partners when you’re buying or selling a home. Real estate agents can provide you with helpful information on homes and neighborhoods that isn’t easily accessible to the public. Their knowledge of the home buying process, negotiating skills, and familiarity with the area you want to live in can be extremely valuable. And best of all, it doesn’t cost you anything to use an agent – they’re compensated from the commission paid by the seller of the house.
All that for free!
Step 2: Determine How Much House You Can Afford
Lenders generally recommend that people look for homes that cost no more than three to five times their annual household income if the home buyers plan to make a 20% down payment and have a moderate amount of other debt. Your Broker can recommend a couple of Mortgage Brokers to get you started. You may also consult with your local bank or credit union. Insider tip - it has been my experience that the banks don’t usually close as scheduled or promised.
Step 3: Get Prequalified and Preapproved for credit for Your Mortgage
Before you start looking for a home, you will need to know how much you can spend. The best way to do that is to get prequalified for a mortgage. To get prequalified, you just need to provide some financial information to your mortgage broker, such as your income and the amount of savings and investments you have. Your lender will review this information and tell you how much they can lend you. This will tell you the price range of the homes you should be looking at. Later, you can get preapproved for credit, which involves providing your financial documents (W-2 statements, paycheck stubs, bank account statements, etc.) so your lender can verify your financial status and credit.
Step 4: Start Your Research Early
As soon as you can, visit your Broker’s web site, and look at real estate listings. Make a note of particular homes you are interested in. (This is the fun part!)
Step 5: Shop for Your Home and Make an Offer
Have your real estate professional schedule a tour of properties as soon as possible. It might be helpful to take notes (using this helpful checklist) on all the homes you visit. You will see a lot of houses! It can be hard to remember everything about them, so you might want to use your cell phone to take pictures to help remember features of each home.
Make sure to check out the little details of each house. For example:
Location to amenities, safety for children, comfortable commute to work. Does home fit your family’s needs and lifestyle?
Step 6: Get a Home Inspection
Typically, purchase offers are contingent on a home inspection of the property to check for signs of structural damage or things that may need fixing. Your real estate agent usually will help you arrange to have this inspection conducted within a few days of your offer being accepted by the seller. This contingency protects you by giving you a chance to renegotiate your offer or withdraw it without penalty if the inspection reveals significant material damage.
Step 7: Work with your Mortgage Banker to complete Your Loan
Every home buyer has their own priorities when choosing a mortgage. Some are interested in keeping their monthly payments as low as possible. Others are interested in making sure that their monthly payments never increase. And still others pick a loan based on the knowledge they will be moving again in just a few years. It’s important to get required documentation to lender as required. Delays in delivering could delay the closing of your new home.
Step 8: Have the Home Appraised
Lenders will arrange for an appraiser to provide an independent estimate of the value of the house you are buying. The appraiser is a member of a third-party company and is not directly associated with the lender. The appraisal will let all the parties involved know that you are paying a fair price for the home.
Step 9: Coordinate the Paperwork
As you can imagine, there is a lot of paperwork involved in buying a house. Your agent or broker will arrange for a closing attorney or title company to handle all of the paperwork and make sure that the seller is the rightful owner of the house you are buying.
Step 10: Close the Sale
At closing, you will sign the paperwork required to complete the purchase, including your loan documents.
CONGRATULATIONS! You are living the American Dream.
