Home Buying Checklist

Professional Help for the First Time Home Buyer

Commit to the Home Buying Process

• Have you made the actual decision to buy, and committed yourself to the home-buying process.
• Write down the reasons you you want a house in both the most general and detailed way possible.
• Based on how long you want to live in the new house, does buying make good financial sense?
• Can you afford a house that will meet your requirements? (Generally, this would mean that the payments do not exceed one-third of your net monthly income.

Select a Professional Realtor to Assist You

• A professional realtor will meet with you at no cost, to discuss your reasons to buy a house and your plans for the future.

  This has a bearing on the practicality of your home purchase, and the type of financial arrangements you will need to consider.

• Discuss neighborhoods, schools, economic factors and other details that may affect the market today and in the near future.

  Any professional realtor should be experts on the local market concerning these important issues. They should provide reports and information sources to validate neighborhood and school statistics and demographics.

• Your professional realtor will assist you in pre-qualifying for a mortgage loan.

  Pre-qualification is a written statement from a loan officer indicating that you will be approved for a mortgage loan up to a certain amount. Such pre-qualifition is helpful when negotiating the deal for your home.

Begin Your Home Search

• After your initial meeting, your realtor should search all their resources for houses on the market that fit your criteria.

  Look for realtors who are part of the RELO network of independent brokers with access to a huge database of homes (or other national multiple listings).

• Your realtor should eliminate home that don't match your needs, then schedule appointments at times convenient to your schedule.

• As you tour homes with your realtor, they should point out both positive features and negative features, according to your discussions.

  Your tours will undoubtedly bring up new likes and dislikes, and your home search criteria and tour appointments should be amended accordingly throughout the process.

Local Market Knowledge is a Must

• Your realtor must be an expert regarding the local home buying market.

  You must know when the market in a particular neighborhood is hot and requires immediate action or when the market is cool and provides more time to consider the deal. Your realtor uses this knowledge, as well as what houses in various neighborhoods have been selling for so that they know when an asking price has negotiating room and when the house is priced to sell.

• Keep a step ahead of the house hunting competition.

  In a seller's market, you will often see multiple offers for a home, full-price offers and even above-price offers. Conversely, during a buyer's market there are more houses for sale than buyers, and your offer should reflect the nature of this market that is to your advantage as a home buyer.

Make the Offer on Your Dream Home

• Once you find the home closest to the one you've looked for, it's time for your realtor to help you prepare a purchase offer tailored for your financial needs.

  This includes such contingencies as obtaining financing, favorable home inspection, clear title, etc.

• Your home purchase offer is normally presented with earnest money.

  Earnest money is a cash deposit made to a home seller (applied to closing costs) to secure an offer to buy the property. If the seller accepts the offer, generally closing is held 30 to 60 days from the offer date (generally dependent on the turn around time of your mortgage financing).

Counter Offers - Negotiating the Deal

• Counter offer are often made by the home seller after your initial purchase offer is made. Your realtor should discuss this with you and help you decide whether or not to accept the counter offer, submit our own counter offer, or reject the counter offer and look elsewhere.
• Your realtor will help keep your decision objective.

  Market conditions play a role (as discussed above) in how aggressively to negotiate a deal. Your realtor will work within your limits, helping you avoid making an emotional home buying decision that could lead to buyer's remorse. It is better to set limits prior to negotiating an offer and stick to them.

Get a Home Mortgage Loan

• Your realtor should assist you during the closing period as you work with your mortgage lender to close the home loan.
• Because you pre-qualified for the loan before starting your home search, you should be much closer to the end of the home buying process.
• Your realtor should provide any property information your lender may need to close the loan.

Close the Deal

• You will receive a Good Faith Estimate of closing costs at the time the loan application is submitted to the lender.

  This estimate is based on the loan officer's past experience and may not include all the closing costs.

Your realtor should review this estimate with you, answering questions and highlighting missing costs and estimates I believe to be low.

You've Bought Your Home - Time to Move In!

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