A Step-by-Step Guide to Buying a Home
We know the home buying experience can be fraught with mystery. Our experienced agents will leverage expertise, local market knowledge, and key industry partnerships to ease you through the process of finding your dream home. We’ve been down this road before, so we’ll first ask the necessary questions and gather the important data we need to kick off journey to home ownership. Let’s get started!
At this stage, our job is to maneuver all the financial pieces to ensure you’re on strong financial footing when that dream home becomes available. Our recommended network of lenders and financial experts will help tighten up your credit, determine exactly how much you can afford for both a home and a down payment, and make sure you’re formally pre-approved for a loan, all with the goal of solidifying your position as a serious market contender.
Now for the fun part! We’ll help you draw up a “wish list” of everything you’re looking for in not just your new home, but your new community as well. We’ll match your must-haves with your budget and then draw on our local expertise and network of industry colleagues to help you find a place that’s everything you wished for. Shopping for a home is exciting, so just have fun with it!
You’ve found “the one” and you’re ready to make an offer! We’ll help you formulate a fair, data-driven purchase offer based on in-depth market analysis, and draw up the purchase agreements. Then, we’ll leverage smart negotiating skills to guide you through contingencies and ensure you don’t spend any more than you need to. And, should things not work out with one offer, we’ll be ready with a game plan for the next.
Once your offer is selected, you can elect to inspect the property. If you do this, we’ll send an independent licensed inspector to fully check a home’s condition. Because it detects issues that aren’t apparent on a walk-through, a home inspection is a powerful negotiating tool and the best insurance you can ever get on a property. If issues arise, we’ll work with you to develop strategies on how best to proceed. You’re getting close, and you don’t want to set yourself up for a houseful of headaches.
This part can get complicated, but we know from experience how to keep the crucial final stages of loan approval from becoming overwhelming. We’ll regularly monitor the progress of your transaction and keep you fully aware of unexpected funds that might be expected from you. We’ll also work with your lender to make sure all the necessary paperwork is complete as we move closer to a smooth closing.
Making it through escrow can seem like a mountain of details but the view from the top is worth it. Expect to sign a ton of paperwork before you get there, and we’ll hold your hand through every step of the process. A few days before closing, we’ll conduct a final walk-through, and then, once both parties sign closing statements, the keys are yours and we’ll celebrate your new home and your new life!