Home buying process
Once you have selected the agent you’d like to work with. You will need to take with you a loan approval letter or a statement that shows proof of funds for the purchase you desire to make. in most instances I would ask the agent that you selected who they use for financing that agent has very good leverage with this mortgage people and can assist in many ways. if you’re from out of state and you have a trusted lender where you live many people want to use that lender, most cases that’s a bad idea. Then you need to make the initial information gathering appointment to go over and outline the parameters of the homes and community that you would like to live in. Once tour agent has a good knowledge of what it is you’re actually looking for they can apply what they’ve heard and learned, show you actual listings during that meeting with the computer and see what might interest you.
When researching communities to live in the best way to start would be to get input from an agent that you are comfortable working with. In most cases the best thing to do would be to narrow down with that person th ceommunities that could interest you. Then get the general location of that community. On your own time you should drive out and see what that location has to offer you in the surrounding area if it’s something that would actually appeal to you going forward. Whenever you’re out driving around if you see something that interests you write down the address and any questions you might have. Then when you get with your real estate agent they will be able to better assist you to narrow down the community which you’d like to live. It’s fairly easy to help someone when they actually have an idea of the community they would like to live in or possibly two or three communities at most that they’d like to live in. Then when you go out and look you’re not covering all the ends of town. There are approximately 20 Senior Communities if you looked at three houses and every community that would be 60 houses then you have to get to them narrow down to the one you wanted to see within a community which that could be another 5 or even 15.
During the efforts of driving around you may come across an open house. you are right there in the community and may have a genuine interest in seeing that property. Usually the open house is held by people who represent the seller on that property however occasionally it will be an agent who was just interested in doing the open house and it asked the listing agent if they could do an open house in their listing. What you should do is go in and look at that property but as you go into the property you will come in contact with the realtor doing the open house. The conversation needs to be that you have an agent you are working with but you were in the area and would love to just walk through the house and see if it’s something you’d be interested in. In about every case you’ll be invited in to go look at the house at your leisure and probably not get bothered by all the questions that would go with a normal open house viewing. That way you go to see the house in the community that you’re considering moving to and you’re already there.
In that scenario the agent who is doing the open house is doing their job by allowing someone who would consider that property to view it. you’ve already selected your aging so that doesn’t need to change and if you really have interest that your agent would like to come back and do a finer closer look at the property prior to making an offer. When viewing a home this way you should move through rather rapidly as Not to cause any disturbance among people who they are trying to create as clients. Then when you come back with your agent that is when you look at all the details.
The One cases that scenarios not to be done is when you are going by a new home community.
Do Not Just Stop & Go in as you do so they’re going to register you at the desk at that point your agent can no longer help you. The discussions go when you’re describing what she would like to see in the way of properties and communities your agent will already know that if you’re looking at a new home community maybe you’re getting the car right then and go out and drive through those communities. Then they can register you at the new home community and once they’ve done that you can go back all you want to review the property look at floor plans get ideas and see what changes you need to do prior to making any Time decisions and doing that it is best to have your agent know what interests you in that community and let them work on getting the best pricing for you.
When you feel good about a community set up an appointment to go look at properties in that community if you’ve driven by a few that you like be sure and tell your agent about those properties. it’s been my experience over the years the one you looked at more than about six properties in windy one viewing the properties tend to run together. sometimes you remember a certain bathroom fixtures and kitchen fixtures and backyard and sometimes you got to homes Remembered at the same property. the best way to avoid this is to make notes on the MLS sheets that the agent will provide you when you’re out looking at property. you should write down things will help you remember the house.
once in that community and looking at these are the price point or the square footage points that you’re looking at typically there’s not more than about 10 properties that really fit what you’re looking for. we would suggest that you schedule approximately 6 houses of what you consider to be probably the very best properties that fit your needs. then go look at those properties. it is always best to try and figure out which one of those six properties he’s the number one property and then possibly a number two. usually after a break you’d want to get back together and make sure if there’s any other houses you want to go see to do them on the next showing.
Very often you’ll realize there’s one house that fits the needs the best and it’s the number one property. After all my years and selling real estate my best suggestion would be that if a price makes sense for you to make an offer or you feel very comfortable you probably should make that offer before you walk away that day. too many times people have procrastinated on doing something and by the time they get back to writing her off or they’ve totally missed out. let’s face its agents know how to do their job and find good homes for you to view. when one stands out as a good value in a good property you are not the only one that thinks so. most of the time just about everybody else’s house viewing property comes to the same decision. so if you wait too long you’ll be in a bidding war on that property in a lot of cases.
If you make that offer and they actually accept the offer you have a home in escrow. and there is a. Of time where you get to do your due diligence on the property and investigate at the property is in good condition that’s where home inspector is needed. Home Inspections cost around $200 or $ 400 and it is money well spent. at that point you review the property and the inspection report and see what it takes to put the home proper condition and you can even make a list and have the seller correct all the issues with the property has. At that point if the home is not something you really feel good about at that point you can cancel out and get your earnest money back total cost to you the cost of the inspection report. in that scenario you have the opportunity to actually get the house that was first on your list prior to anybody else. and just about every case you will be glad that you did.
In fact you would get your earnest money back in a full refund to the point of your due diligence days being over and that homeowners resale package you have 5 days to approve the information. There is also time that can be allowed for appraisals and Loan approvals if those are part of the sale.
Typically closing escrows are around 30 to 45 days however I have closed one where I sold it on a Monday and closed it on a Friday. and in another scenario we had a property that was occupied by a tenant and we closed the property after the lease was over almost 6 months later during that time again I need to go for a walk We are working on the repair list coming from the inspection report and asking the seller to correct the items that need to be fixed in the property. the seller will then make a responses to what they’ll repair and if that’s satisfactory it’s approved and that work gets done prior to closing. Is also possible that they may offer the buyer a sum of money or escrow money to do the repairs after close of escrow accept the home as is.
do loan approvals nowadays need to be completed entirely almost a week prior to closing so that we can get out the CDs disclosure of expenses the buyer needs to pay. it only applies to sales with mortgages cash sales don’t need to have this waiting period. When you’re getting an estimate as to what funds are going to need to close your real estate agent has a good idea of a lot of the cost. the mortgage companies are respire required to give you the disclosure as to what their costs are are foremost Realtors won’t provide you the buyer an estimate of closing costs because they don’t know what the costs are for the lender you’ve selected.
there will be prorations for all prepaid items that the seller has as an expense on the property such as property taxes sewer garbage homeowner’s fees those things need to get prorated to the close of escrow and we do not seller has paid their fees fees. hopefully the seller hasn’t paid them too far in advance.