Home Buying 101: The Process

Home Buying 101: The Process

Now that you’ve decided to buy a home, what you can expect from the buying process itself? This can be chaotic time with looking at homes, submitting offers, potential counteroffers or multiple offers. With my experience, you can be prepared for the process. 

Here is the basic progression you can expect:

The first, and most important step is to consider your financing options and secure financing!  First-time homebuyers have a wide variety of options to help them get into a home, including federally backed loans and loans for those who don’t have the standard 20% down payment. States also have programs for first-time homebuyers but there are also many other options for homeowners of any stage! The mortgage interest rate will also have a major impact on the total price you pay for your home. Your credit scores will have a direct impact on your interest rate so we will shop around, it can pay off. 

I recently sat down with my trusted lender partner, Dori Wilkinson to discuss the down payment and the role of credit when obtaining mortgage financing.

The next step- and often the most fun- is to find your home! I will help you take advantage of all the available options for finding homes on the market, including searching for listings online and driving around the neighborhoods that interest you searching for for-sale signs. We can also put feelers out with your friends, family and business contacts. You never know where a good reference or lead on a home might come from.

As soon as we find “the right one”, its time to make an offer!  I will help you decide how much money you want to offer for a house along with any conditions you may want to ask for, such as having the seller pay for your closing costs. I will then present the offer to the seller’s agent; the seller will either accept your offer or make a counter-offer. We can then accept, or continue to go back and forth until we reach a deal or decide to call it quits. If we reach an agreement we will be “Under Contract,” make an earnest money deposit, and then the process transitions into escrow. Escrow is a short period of time, (often about 30 days) where the seller takes the house off the market and supplies us with “Disclosures” about the property. This is done with contractual expectation that you will buy the home – provided we don’t find any serious problems.

 Inspect! Inspect! Inspect! As part of our “Due Dilligence,” even if the home you plan to purchase appears to be flawless, we will need to have a trained professional inspect the home for quality, safety and overall condition. If the home inspection reveals serious defects that the seller did not disclose, we will be able to cancel your offer and get your deposit back. Negotiating to have the seller make the repairs or discount the selling price are options if we find ourselves in this situation. 

The day you’ve been waiting for!!! Closing or Settlement!  If we are able to work out the deal with the seller you should get ready to close. Closing basically involves signing paperwork with the title company. Things you’ll be dealing with and paying for in the final stages of the purchase may include the home appraisal, doing a title search to make sure that no one other than the seller has a claim to the property and obtaining mortgage insurance if your down payment is less than 20%. These are termed “Closing Costs.”

Get the keys!  Lastly, once the transaction has funded and has been recorded with the county, you get the keys to your new home.

Congratulations, you are a new home owner!