5 Steps for Buying Your First Home

Posted by Shanna on Dec 16, 2010 in Blog, Buying Real Estate, Commons Questions | 0 comments

Buying a home can be an emotional and overwhelming experience.  The important thing is to have someone you can trust helping you through the process and to know what to expect throughout.  Here are the most important home buying steps explained:

1. Finding a Buyer’s Agent  Real estate agents help to advise you through the process before, during and after buying a home.  In Columbus, the Seller pays the Buyer’s Agent, so it costs you as the Buyer nothing to have representation.  A Buyer’s agent will help you research loans, send you the latest listings that fit your criteria, help you make and negotiate an offer, and then help you once you are in contract on a home through closing.  It is so important to find someone who will work for you and have your best interests at heart.

2. Getting a loan pre-approval  This is going to tell you, number one, how much you can get a loan for, and number two how much of a house you are comfortable buying.  There is often a big difference in what people can afford on paper, when compared to what they are comfortable paying for a mortgage each month.  In addition, when you go to make an offer on a home it helps to send along the pre-approval with your offer.

3. Finding a Home  Most buyers have a pretty good idea what they are looking for by the time I talk to them because of the online research they are going through ahead of time.  The National Association of Realtors estimates that Buyers are looking on average 6 to 8 weeks online.  My job is to help cement the area(s) where you want to live, and help you decide what you want out of a house.  I can then find homes that match as many of the attributes as possible you’ve identified to me. Then the fun part of viewing homes starts.

4. Negotiating an Offer  Before making an offer on a house I will run comparable sales and help decide what the house is worth.  We will then decide what is the highest price you are willing to pay and make an offer based on those two variables.

5. Inspections  Once you are in contract on a home it is important to conduct a home inspection.  Generally, home inspections are a contingency in a purchase contract and if any major problems are found, the Buyer has the right to walk away from the deal.  Sellers are not required to make repairs, but most often a seller will make concessions or repairs to keep the deal alive versus having a Buyer walk away from their house.

The longest part of buying a home is waiting for the loan to go through underwriting and approval.  Once you are finished with inspections, the rest of the time will generally be waiting for the bank to give you the money to buy your new home.  Then, it is on to closing to sign your paperwork and become a homeowner.

Shanna Lafontaine is a Realtor with RE/MAX Affiliates who works the Dublin, Hilliard, Powell, Worthington, Westerville, Delaware and surrounding Columbus areas helping both Buyers and Sellers.