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Buying Your 1st Home? Make Sure You Choose
An Experienced Real Estate Professional.
You might be a bit afraid or intimidated by the whole process of buying your first home. Buying your first home can be scary, but if you follow these tips you will be just fine. It´s our job as experienced real estate experts to guide you, from beginning to end. We will take the time to go through each and every step of the buying process so that you are comfortable. There are no dumb questions!
The first thing you should do is figure out how much you can afford. Talk to at least one mortgage broker. Look at the various loan programs that are offered, and choose the program that best fits your needs. Once you figure out how much you can qualify for, then you are ready to start looking at homes within your price range.
Look at as many homes as possible to get a better feel for the ones in your price range. Keep track of what you like and dislike about each home that you visit by printing and using our Home Visits Worksheet.
Consider the market value of the home, any special circumstances surrounding the sale of the home, how much you can afford to pay for the home, and the condition of the home when determining whether the home is right for you.
When you find a home in your price range and want to buy it, go back and visit the neighborhood at various times in the day to get a more complete understanding of the area. Talk with prospective neighbors about what the area is like. Pick a day and commute to work from the property to see what the commute is like. Then look again at the home more critically, you may discover flaws that you didn´t notice during your first visit.
Also, consider the financing that will be structured to purchase the home. For example, the seller may help pay closing costs such as transfer taxes or points on a mortgage. If this is the case, you may be more willing to accept the sellers´ asking price. Your realtor should offer you some assistance regarding how much you should offer, but the final choice is yours.
The next step is to write a purchase agreement with your realtor and have it presented to the sellers with a deposit check from you and your pre-approval letter. At this point the sellers can either counter, accept or reject the offer. Once they accept the offer, escrow is opened and you begin the inspection process.
The inspection process typically consists of receiving a termite report, and home inspection report, as well as doing a personal walk through with your real estate agent. Other inspections that you may want to obtain might be a roof inspection, chimney inspection, soil study, radon gas, and mold, etc.
During this time, the bank funding your loan will be performing an appraisal on the subject property and obtaining approvals from the bank underwriters.
Finally, when escrow closes, you will sit down with your realtor and the escrow agent to look over the closing documents. Make sure everything is correct and sign where appropriate. Your loan is funded. The keys to the home are given to you.
Congratulations! You are now a Homeowner!
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