The Buying Process

I always recommend to contact a lender and get a mortgage pre approval letter before looking at houses. This way you know what you can afford and you can also start ironing out any financial issues you may have early on. I can provide several excellent mortgage brokers that can help you with this process.

You may already know where you would like to live but if you don’t, make sure you do your research. Check schools, transportation, distance to work, house prices, cost of living etc. Talk to friends or people in the area, walk the neighborhood or talk to me for additional information.

This is important. Most likely this will be your biggest purchase in your life yet, so there are a few things you want to make sure when choosing a real estate agent to represent you. First of all make sure your agent is experienced and not fresh out of real estate school. With more deals under the belt comes knowledge on how to tackle different problems and finding solutions.
Make sure your agent works full time. You don’t want a part time agent who does this on the side of their “real” job. If someone is a full time agent and can support themselves doing so, they are usually a good choice.
The agent you choose should be local. In other words, he or she should know the area, schools, communities, etc. You also want to make sure your agent is well connected within the local real estate community.
I also strongly recommend that the agent you should focus on continuously further educate themselves weather it is within their brokerage, or through their local board of Realtors.

Make sure your agent know what you are looking for. I like to ask my buyers to down a list of “must haves” and “would like to haves”. I would also set up an automatic email search so houses that meet a buyer’s criteria are emailed to them as soon as they hit the market. Many of the public sites such as Zillow and Truila unfortunately have very incorrect and dated information so make sure you check with your local Multiple Listing System (MLS) to verify what you see online.

Time to make an offer! Your agent will write up an offer with important information such as price, closing date, mortgage amount, contingencies, inclusions, exclusions etc. Your pre approval will also be submitted along with the signed offer. In some areas that are very competitive, I also have my buyers write a personal letter to the seller that is enclosed in the offer.

Most likely the seller will give you a counter offer on your initial offer and the negotiation phase starts. Although price is the most important factor in the negotiation, other things such as closing date, finance and contingencies can also be of importance and negotiated. Once both parties have agreed on the terms an updated offer/contract is signed and sent to the attorneys.

Although you are not obligated to get an attorney to represent you, most buyers do. The attorney will review your contract and suggest changes with your best interest in mind. This period is called Attorney Review and usually last for about 3 days. During Attorney Review it is important to know that both parties, the seller or the buyer, have the right to cancel the deal at any point without any repercussions.

Once the Attorney Review process has been concluded you are formally “under contract”. You are now legally obligated to follow through with the purchase except for a few contingencies. If your mortgage is denied or if something serious is detected during the inspection, and the seller is unwilling to address it, you may have the right to walk away.

No house is perfect. This is which is why it is important to hire a professional home inspector to inspect the house you are buying so you know if there are any major issues. The inspectors can, besides the general home inspection, also do a camera inspection of the chimney, inspect for lead paint, inspect for termites, inspect septic tanks etc. There are many different inspections available. Check with the inspection company on what your options are.
Once the inspections are done and you have received the reports, your attorney will send the seller’s attorney a list of issues you would like addressed. The seller can choose to either give you a credit at closing, or have a licensed contractor make the repairs. Please understand that the inspection issues are negotiated. The seller can agree on some things but not others, or not agree to anything at all.

By now your mortgage appraisal has been done and your final commitment letter should be available (there is a date in the contract by which you must comply and provide the mortgage commitment). Your attorney will then order the survey, and do a title search. Don’t forget to sign up for a home insurance that starts the day of closing.

We will do a final walk through of the property at the day of closing. This is to make sure everything looks the way it did when we saw the house previously, that the movers have not damaged any walls or floors, that the house is completely empty, that the repairs that were agreed upon has been made etc.
Once the walk through is completed we head to the closing table where you sign all the necessary documents and where you are given the key to your new house! Congratulations!