Here are the first 10 steps to buying a home!!!
Jay Bru 480-466-4917
Understanding how to find and finance the perfect home for you
Buying a house requires a lot of time and effort, but these 10 steps can help make the home buying process manageable and help you make the best decisions possible.
Step 1: Start Your Research Early
As soon as you can, start reading Web sites, newspapers, and magazines that have real estate listings. Make a note of particular homes you are interested in and see how long they stay on the market. Also, note any changes in asking prices. This will give you a sense of the housing trends in specific areas.
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.
But you should make this determination based on your own financial situation. Use this Affordability Calculator to see how much house you can afford.
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 actually 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 bankers, such as your income and the amount of savings and investments you have. Your lender will review this information and tell you how much we can lend you. You can get pre-approved over the phone with a lender, I can suggest some people that know what they’re doing, text me at 480-466-4917
Get Prequalified!!!
Click here to view the PreQualification_Form__0217_ts21410
Step 4: Find the Right Real Estate Agent
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. Go through this agency form on what they do for you including
“A buyers broker has the fiduciary duties of loyalty, obedience, disclosure, confidentiality, and accounting in dealings with the buyer”
Realtors are licensed to look out for your best interests.
Step 5: Get a buyer Broker form signed before viewing homes.
Get it in writing of what you and your realtor’s relationship is about and what’s expected. Realtors are only compensated when they find you a home, and will if everything is discussed ahead of time, the process will be smooth and understanding.
Click here to see the form BuyerBroker_Exclusive_Employment_Agreement__0217_ts74503
Step 6: Narrow down your search as much as possible
Know what you need, what area you want to live and only get those listings sent to you. If you get 200 homes to go through daily, you will waste time and the process will be even more confusing. I can set strict criteria for what you get emailed to ensure you only get homes that fit your lifestyle.
Step 7: Know the value of a home:
There are many tools today but your realtor is your best resource for this, know the value of homes and what you can expect. Don’t look at homes that are out of your reach. We use specialty software, some online websites give you approximate values, but get me to put you on a search of a neighborhood of what has sold in the area and keep track.
Step 8: Get your lease or sale of your home ready.
The transition can be coordinated with your realtor, but make sure you talk to your landlord, your mortgage broker, if you have a house for sale get it on the market asap, and know your dates well in advance, it can take min 2-3 weeks to months for transitions and can be expensive if not done right.
Step 9: Set up a tour with your realtor to start looking at homes.
Usually, you’ve been looking for a while by now and have narrowed it down to a few. Get approximately 5-8 homes together so that you can coordinate with your realtor to view.
Step 10: Sit down face to face with your realtor, lender, inspectors, and title reps before making any decisions!
Meeting at a coffee shop, lunch or even at a pub, sit down and go through different scenario’s and get a game plan so that everyone is clear on what will be taking place. Plus you get a free lunch!!
Let me know if you want to go over your home buying process, I have a team of people that can help you achieve that!
