Buying Your First Home? Know These 3 Things

We love working with first-time home buyers. Helping you find your first home, learn the home buying process, and guiding you from house-hunting to move-in day gives us the warm fuzzies. Here are three things you should know before you start looking.

1. Work with one awesome team of Realtors-hint hint-- us! It’s best to have us in your corner to assist you with your search. We are dedicated to finding you the right property, and then negotiating on all the terms of your transaction on your behalf. We will get to know you and your family’s needs and preferences vs. you having to start over with someone new each time you go look at a house. Keep in mind that the agent who shows you a home is, ethically, the one who should continue the transaction. Also, when you call an agent from a yard sign or advertisement, you are dealing with the Seller’s agent. While most real estate professionals are adept at handling both sides of a transaction professionally, it makes more sense to deal with someone you have already taken time to get to know and who has your best interests at heart as the buyer. You aren’t paying us a commission; unless otherwise stated, we are paid by the seller upon closing. Still, you are hiring someone to work for you, so feel free to interview multiple agents and pick the one that you feel fits you best.

2. You need to be pre-approved for financing. Unless you are paying cash for your home, you do need to talk to a lender before you start looking at houses. One reason is that it helps you set an accurate price range for house hunting. Looking at homes that you can’t afford to make an offer on just leads to frustration. A mortgage lender will not only tell you what amount you can borrow, but also your projected monthly payment, your closing costs, and what you should or shouldn’t do with your finances to maintain your eligibility throughout the lending process. Another reason for having an up-to-date pre-approval in hand is so you don’t lose out to another buyer. If you find the perfect house, you will want to get an offer in before someone else gets it, and that pre-approval letter must accompany your offer.  We are happy to provide you with our trusted mortgage lender in our area who have provided excellent service to our clients.

3. There are some up-front costs. When you find the right house, and you and the seller have agreed on the price and terms and have signed the contract, you will first need to make your earnest money deposit, or “good faith” deposit. This is money you are risking if you back out of the deal for reasons not protected in the contract. Usually it is between 1% and 5% of the sales price but can be more or less depending on what you and the seller agree to in the contract. We will help you with this during negotiations. The escrow deposit counts towards the sales price.

4. Next, you should have an inspection of the property done by a ASHI (American Society of Home Inspectors) certified home inspector. This cost varies depending on the size, condition, age, price and features of the home, the types of inspections you ask for (Radon, Termite, Gas, HVAC, Sewer Lateral/Septic are just a few) and can range from $500-$2,000. You will need to pay for these at the time of service. You may elect to pay for other inspections based on the results of the initial inspection. You want to get as much information during your inspection period as you need to confidently move forward with the purchase.

5. An appraisal (ordered by the lender) and a survey of the property (we highly recommend this!) will be ordered, but these are usually added to your closing costs.

We will guide you through all of these steps throughout your home buying journey. Ready to get started? Give us a call and let’s set up a time to meet for a Buyer’s Consultation!