Seven steps to buying your home!

1- Define your needs. Define your needs, you may want to divide your lists into wants and needs, must have and not must items, neighborhood, Is a garage important? 1 or 2 car garage? 1 story or 2 story preferred? Are you wanting a pool? Narrow down by age of the home?

2- Get pre-approved. You need to find out what you can afford. Choosing the right lender and obtaining pre-approval or pre-qualification is absolutely the most important step in the purchase process!

3- Find your dream home. This is the fun part! You can take all the time you need to find the right home for you and your family.  

4- Make an offer. Once we find the best home, we’ll will work together to write up an offer! We’ll need to provide an earnest money check with the offer.  This is our “good faith” deposit that tells the seller you are serious about the offer.  It’s important to note that if the seller changes any aspect of the offer, it is not a binding agreement until the buyer agrees to the seller’s changes.

5- Inspection phase. This is the phase where we try to learn everything about the house that we might object to and didn’t know when we made the offer. You will want to hire a professional home inspector.  This is the best $250-350 you can spend!  The inspector will go through the house from top to bottom looking at all major systems.

6- Prepare for the closing. If you are getting a loan to purchase the house, the lender will order an appraisal, in the same time the lender finalizes your financing.  You will be required to obtain Home Owner’s Insurance in order to close on your new home, and Shop for home warranty. Remember, the real estate agent will be there to support you during this step.

7- Close the deal. This is the meeting at which all documents will be signed and home ownership is legally transferred from the seller to the buyer.. This process usually takes approximately 1 ½ hours. possession of the property is turned over to the buyers on the day of closing. Congratulations! you are home owner now!