Congrats! Your decision to buy the home is timely, you can never think of any other better time than now. I know many who plan to buy the home without any clarity of procedures to adopt. This is simply waste, you will end up with big confusion, dilemma and lose of your hard earned money. I will outline here seven step by step procedures for buying your home.
1. Well defined needs: It is imperative to have your needs to be concreted before going for hunting new home. Make a your wish list, facilities you require, neighborhood you look for, the style and structure of the home suits you, and many such items about your desire on the new home. Let the wish list detail even minor details that will help you for better search. Share you the ideas with the real estate agent. Also please prioritize your requirements as primary and secondary. It will help the agent to search the most suitable one.
2. Get your loans pre-qualified or pre-approved: You need to be very confirming in assessing what you can afford. Take necessary steps for a prequalification or pre-approval for the home loan, your agents can get you in touch with a mortgage broker or evaluation to start the process. I have seen that sellers prefer pre-approved buyers, as there are no issues later in getting loans.
3. Search for the house with determination: It is better to leave with your agent to have a prioritized list of homes available, based on your clear cut wish list. Let the agent make a note against each home, what are all items of the wish list are satisfies, and what not is satisfies. Also make very clearly the total cost including tax and documentation. Once if you go through this filtered list, you can go for home tours and see these homes and make decisions. Be patient and concentrated on efforts. You need to check with neighborhood associations, advertisements in real estate periodicals and local chamber of commerce about the home you like to visit before making decisions. Give your cell phone number and email address to the agent so that you can receive home alerts as and when it comes up.
4. Make your offer: The most important step is to make an offer. This is the step in which you can get maximum savings. You can have a previous understanding of the local rates, based on recent sales history and market value. You can get your agents services as well as some of the neighbors and friends or associations. You can make the offer to the seller and if he agrees you can make a legal contact binding to both the parties. Make sure that all conditions and clauses are included in this document. If you are not clear with some terms, better clarify before signing. A patient reading and clarifications of the doubts are very important and necessary.
5. Striking deal: If seller accepts your offer, you are lucky. Usually the seller puts counter offers. Here the negotiation process and the experience of the real estate agent play a major role. You can make every thing negotiable at your leverage. Do not forget to negotiate the items such as Price and financing, Date to release the property, Closing costs, Appliances and accessories, Landscaping of the plot, painting and also status of repairs.
6. Closing preparation: As a buyer you have to take up some activities after the binding agreement is signed. You can inspect the home to assess the status of the conditions put in the agreement (painting, repair, landscaping etc). Securing title insurance, get home warranty and arranging finance after getting the appraisal of the home are two important actions to be completed before closing.
7. Closing of the deal: This is the greatest moment for you as a buyer. You have become the owner of a beautiful nice home as per your wish. By closing, the ownership will be transferred to your name. Document signing, disbursement of price and other underwriting process will be completed with closing, may be held in company’s office or with a lawyer. It is common that a final closing statement is offered to you, three four days back, to review everything and get satisfied that everything is fine. Your real estate agent will support you in reviewing it and also help you to collect other necessary documents.
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