Ready to Buy a Home? First Steps to Buying

Think you are ready to start looking for a new house? Not sure where to start other than just searching for homes online and dreaming of the day you’ll be in one of those houses? Dreams can become reality in these first steps to buying a home.

Contact a Realtor

Meet with them and have a Buyer’s Consultation. This enables you to discuss your wants and needs. Your Realtor should talk about what to expect in the process, go over the purchase contract in detail (it’s important to know what you are signing before you have to sign it!), what a property disclosure is and why you want to see one before signing that offer. Your Realtor should go over any other important information you need to know like; a home inspection and appraisal are costs that will be incurred outside of your down payment and closing costs.

Pre-approval

This most likely is being done around the same time as the buyers consultation. We won’t know what price range we can be searching in until this has been completed. Your Realtor will have a list of lenders he or she has had a good experience with in the past.  Lenders should have had a good track record of getting to closing on time and having good communication throughout the process. I suggest telling your lender want to know what the potential monthly mortgage payment will be, what the estimated dollar amount that will be needed at closing. We don’t want any surprises with costs and potentially not having the money to close!

Home Search

Once we know how much you are pre-approved for the search can start! Your Realtor should take your must haves you discussed during your Buyers Consultation and enter those details into a search that will notify us all as soon as a home becomes listed on the MLS. We then discuss if you think the house is worth looking at based on the pictures that are, hopefully, included in the listing. If it is a timeframe that everyone would be able to be at the house is decided on. The Realtor will request a showing appointment time. Those are typically 15-30 minute long appointment times. Once we are confirmed for a showing time the Realtor will let you know everything is good to meet at that time.

Contact me if you want more information! My email address is Carrie.Gamble@cbrealty.com