Steps to Buying a Home

1. Define your specific needs.

Deciding to buy is a great choice! Now you need to sit down and figure out what it is you need and want in a piece of property. To find the right place for you, letting your agent know those needs is key to finding the perfect home. Create a list of must-haves and negotiable items.

2. Get yourself pre-approved.

This is the only way you can truly know how much home you can afford. I can refer you to some lenders so that you can find which one is right for you. Getting pre-approved will help you be a more desirable candidate to a seller when it comes down to offers.

3. Looking at Homes

This is the fun part. Getting out there with your agent and looking at the market where you are interested in buying a home. Sometime it can get overwhelming. Let your agent do the initial searches for you and get all of your specific criteria for what you need and want in a home. Then you narrow those down and meet with your agent to look at the homes.

4. Make an Offer

When you have found the right house, the next step is to write up a contract. You and your agent will decide on a price to put into the offer. You will decide what to offer by looking the recent sales of homes similar to the one you are making an offer on. Your agent has that information. The contract is written up by your agent, with your input, that outlines what each party obligation’s are. If the seller changes anything in the agreement, it is not binding until you agree to the changes. This can go back and forth a few times.

5. Negotiations

This is the part where you go back and forth. Sometimes the seller just agrees, but usually there are some negotiating items. This is where your agent is really a crucial art of the process and they will help you negotiate with the seller. Many things that are negotiated on are price, repairs, closing date, closing costs, and even appliances. It always takes compromise from both parties

6. Seal the Deal

After some negotiation usually, you finally get a binding agreement in place. You have a certain amount of time to get an inspection done, get an appraisal for your financing, look into title insurance and a home warranty if not offered by the seller. These things are all needed to be done in a timely manner or they may affect the closing date.

7. The Closing

You have been through a lot of emotional ups and downs by this point. This is the best part of the process. You have just bought a home! This is where the ownership of the home you are purchasing is legally transferred to you. Closings usually happen at an attorney’s office where all of the legal papers will be gone over with you. You will be signing and initialing a lot. Your lender will have sent over a final closing statement for you no more than 24 hours prior. After all of that is complete, you will be handed the keys to your new home.