The Home Buying Process

What are the first thoughts that go through your mind when thinking about purchasing a home? Where do I even start? I don’t think I can afford a house right now. That’s a lot of money! It’s just easier to rent.

The home buying process can be daunting at first, but with the help of a Realtor® it can be much easier than you imagined. This is an outline to help you better understand how the process of purchasing a home unfolds, and is intended to help you help yourself by defining a time line and “to-do” list in order to help streamline your home buying process and make it as quick and easy as possible.

• Initial contact with Realtor.
  1. Discuss different financing options.
  2. Determine what housing criteria you desire.
• Meet with lender to discuss financing options
  1. Obtain preapproval
• Second Contact with Realtor.
  1. Review houses Realtor has selected based on your criteria.
  2. Process of elimination to determine which house you wish to view.
• Set appointments to view homes
  1. Showings on the selected homes to determine which one best suits you.
• Offer to Purchase
  1. Met with Realtor to determine what price to offer, and what terms to ask for.
  2. This would be a good time to contact an insurance agent to obtain a quote on the home.
• Negotiations
  1. Seller has three options: Accept; Counter Offer: Reject. Depending on what happens we may have to review a counter offer and decide to accept, reject, or counter back.
• Acceptance
  1. Realtor takes accepted offer to lender, and the loan process begins. This could take anywhere from 30-60 days depending on which loan type you are using.
  2. All you have to do is hurry up and wait at this point. You may be asked to sign a few papers throughout the process.
• Closing
  1. After the loan is approved a close date will be selected (Date asked for in the purchase contract)
• Possession
  1. After the transaction closes, depending upon the terms in the purchase contract, you will get possession either immediately or a set number of days after closing.
  2. Now is the time call all utility companies, (Water Dept., electric company, and Gas Company) to tell them you will be moving in and need utilities switched to your name.

Hopefully this shed some light onto the process, and answered a few questions you might have had. The process is a little more involved that what is depicted above, but for you, the buyer, there is not too much to be done other than view houses and make a decision. The Realtor® and lenders involved are there to do the leg work required sell a home. If you have any questions that I have not covered please feel free to give us a call and ask!

Blog Post Written by Warren J. Straley