Buying a home can be made a lot simpler by simply hiring the right real estate agent. I am a realtor my self and I love guiding my buyers and sellers throughout their purchasing/selling process. Below is eight important steps you need to follow when purchasing a home.
- Start Looking Early- Before anything, do your own home search online. See what's on the market in the area(s) you're interested. This will give you an idea of how much the home you like might be and you can also focus on looking at the homes within your price range while doing your own look-up first.
- Hire The Right Realtor- Hiring the right realtor is always the key. If you know an agent who's actively buying and selling and you see them active on social media then they're the one to hire. Hiring the right realtor makes the buying process so much easier because they're there for you through every step and they know the job inside out so you have a lot of worries off your shoulder because your realtor is beside you. It is important to find the right realtor first because a good realtor will tell you all you need to do and can also refer you to bankers, inspectors, and closers if you don't know any.
- Get Pre-approved For A Loan- Your realtor will advise you to first get pre-approved for a loan, unless you're a cash buyer. The lender can be any bank or mortgage lender you know and if you don't know anyone, your realtor has many of them to refer you to.
- Look at Homes With Your Realtor and Make an Offer on The One You Love- Once you know how much you're pre-qualified for, then your realtor can take you out to see homes within that price range. Once you like a home, your realtor will prepare a purchase agreement for you and send the offer over to the seller. Once a price is agreed upon by both the buyer and the seller, the deal is on.
- Inspect The Home- After the offer acceptance, the buyer has the right to inspect the home incase there are any major issues. If you don't know an inspector, your realtor can provide you with one. Make sure you always have your realtor make the offer contingent upon satisfactory home inspection. If you are unhappy with the inspection, you may leave the home. If you're happy, you move forward with the purchase.
- Have The Home Appraised- Every home that is financed through a loan must be appraised. The appraisal protects the buyer from purchasing the house at the market price. If the house appraised for less than what your offer is, then the purchase price must be reduced to the appraised price.
- Be on Top of The Paperwork- Purchasing a home requires so much paperwork and demands it from the buyer. Your realtor and lender will be having you sign many documents and your lender will be asking for all kinds of documents to get you qualified for the loan. Make sure you're on top of everything asked for from you to close on time and without issues.
- Close on The Home Sale- This is the very last step and it takes place after the loan approval. The buyer(s) and the seller(s) come together and sign the real estate closing documents and the home is sold from one home owner to another on this same day.
