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Steps to Home Buying |
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| Buying a home can be both a fun and frightening experience. Preparation and the best Buyer’s Agent you can find can make the experience more fun and less frightening. Just as knowing what’s behind scary movie special effects can take the fright out of them, knowing what to expect throughout the process of finding and purchasing your new home will make the experience less frightening for you. Step 1 - Choosing a Realtor Choosing the person who will guide and advise you through the purchase of a home is one of the most important choices you can make. Choosing a Buyer’s Agent who works exclusively with buyers will ensure that your needs will be the exclusive focus of your representative. In your working relationship with your agent you will be confiding both financial and personal information---choose someone who is both knowledgeable and experienced. Ask for references. And when you find someone with whom you have established rapport, ask him to sign an agreement to work with you as your exclusive Buyer’s Agent. Click on the link to read about The Benefits of Using Osborne & Company as Your Buyer’s Agent. Step 2 - The Initial Home Buyer’s Consultation You will need to let Jim know what you are looking for in a home (how many bedrooms, baths, square footage, etc), neighborhood, schools and recreation facilities, price range, financing needs and time frame to move in date. Keep in mind that you will need 30 to 45 days from the time you sign the contract to the closing. Tell us when and how often you are available to look at properties and when, how often, and how, you prefer to communicate (e-mail, phone). We will provide you with a list of lenders and discuss financing options and various loan programs with you. In addition you should receive copies of all the documents you will be signing throughout the purchase process. We will discuss Buyer Brokerage vs. Seller’s Representation and sign a Buyer Broker Agreement. Read more about Buyer's Agent vs. Seller's Agent. Step 3 - Choosing a Lender It is usually best to choose a lender that has been recommended personally by Osborne & Company or someone who has recently had a successful transaction at that institution; ask for the same loan officer. Choose a lender who specializes in a special need area if that is important to you, i.e. loans for self-employed buyers, borrowers with marginal credit or low down payments. Ask Jim to help you choose a lender that can help you if you have a special situation. Check out Buyer’s Tips #3 for more information about choosing a lender. Step 4 - Getting Loan Pre-Approval Meet with your lender as soon as possible after the initial consultation with Osborne & Company and get a clear explanation of the loan application and approval process. Get pre-approved for a mortgage loan and you will be in a better position to make an offer on your ideal home when you find it. Sellers will be more willing to deal with a buyer who has financing in place, minimizing the risk that the deal will fall through due to loan problems. Find out what documentation you will need to get to the lender and when. Make sure you know what your monthly mortgage expenses will be based on the loan pre-approval amount and get an estimate of how much cash you will need at closing. Then remind yourself to add a thousand dollars or so to that figure to cover any contingencies. (See my article about Low Stress Home Buying for other tips on keeping down your frustration level throughout the purchase process.) That gets a lot of the frightening stuff out of the way so you can… Step 5 - Go Home Shopping! Make a checklist of what you are looking for in a new home. Take notes to go with the digital photos we will take along the way so you will be able to remember one house from another at the end of the day. Evaluate and compare the properties you see each time you go looking and narrow down to your favorite one or two. Don’t try to see too many properties in one day as they will all run together. Do choose Osborne & Company as your Buyer’s Agent. We will provide you with photos of the properties you like most so that you can remind yourself of features you liked/disliked when reviewing your notes. As you go along on your shopping trip let us know what you do and don’t like about the properties you are being shown. You may need a “window shopping” trip to get a good idea of what you are really looking for in a new home. Osborne & Company will research any interesting properties that you see advertised. Osborne & Company should contact For Sale by Owner properties to determine if the seller is motivated, interested in terms, and willing to pay our fee. Visit new home communities with your Osborne & Company Buyer's Agent---they may be unwilling to pay our fee if you visit them alone and then return with your Osborne & Company Buyer's Agent. (Check out Buyer’s Tips #1 and 5 to see how we can help you choose a new home.) And now, have fun looking at properties! Step 6 - Choosing a Home Once you have honed your list of new homes to a few properties that you most like, we will help you gather additional information to assist you to make your decision. Information about schools or future area construction plans may help you decide between two favorite properties. We will then provide you with a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA), sales and listing history on the property, and any other important facts to help you decide how much to offer for the property based on the fair market value. Step 7 - Offer and Negotiation Armed with the CMA and information about the fair market value you will need to decide the most you are willing to pay and the terms you want. Then you have to decide the amount of your initial offer, how much of a deposit you will offer, if you want any furniture or personal property, when you want to close and what inspections you require. Read Low Stress Home Buying for more information about the process of making an offer and negotiating an agreement. There may be several counter offers before an agreement is reached. Keep in mind what is most important to you and be willing to give on issues that are not essential. Your Osborne & Company Buyer's Agent will be your best guide from structuring your initial offer to handling counter offers and shaping the final agreement. Step 8 - Home Inspections and Other Contingencies Osborne & Company will make sure that all contingencies of the offer are satisfied in a timely manner. Final loan approval, home inspections, disclosure information from condo or homeowner associations and the sale of your existing home to provide funds for the purchase of your new home are all contingencies which may have been written into the contract and which will have to be satisfied in order for the purchase transaction to close. Step 9 - Choosing an Attorney or Title Company Your lender may choose the attorney to represent the transaction, or you may use a title company or your own attorney to handle the escrow. If the choice is yours, your Osborne & Company Buyer's Agent will be able to make recommendations. The attorney/title company is responsible to make sure all the terms of the contract have been met. They will handle the survey, title search and title insurance and prepare all the documents you will need to sign. If either party to the transaction requires representation on any issue they must hire their own attorney. Step 10 - Moving Preparations Now that your offer has been accepted, you have financing, contingencies are being handled and your contract has gone into escrow you will have about a few weeks to plan for a smooth move into your new home. Get bids from several moving companies if you will be moving furniture and personal belongings, Contact the utility companies at both your current and new home to make arrangements to cut off and or start up service. Send address changes to banks and creditors and follow-up to verify changes have been made. We will provide you with phone numbers of utilities. Your new home will need to be insured against such perils as fire, flood, windstorms and liability. Osborne & Company can provide you with sources for these policies. If your new home will be a vacation place you may need to contact an interior designer to help you furnish and decorate. Ask Jim for a list of interior designers and furniture stores. If remodeling is contemplated we can give you a list of contractors and architects that we have had good luck with in the past to guide you through this process---including consulting with you during any "due diligence" period to help decide if remodeling a property makes sense. Step 11 - Final Walk-through Generally, before closing the buyer will have the right to a final inspection. With the assistance of your Osborne & Company Buyer's Agent, carefully review the contract and verify that agreed upon repairs have been made and that all systems (electrical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning and appliances are in working order. Defects can be remedied by the seller prior to closing or the seller can credit you the cost of making the repairs or the seller may agree to make the repairs and put the cost of those repairs into escrow in the event repairs are not made before closing. When purchasing a new home the builder will do a walk-through with you a week or two before closing and will come up with a punch list of items to be completed before settlement. In the contract the builder will reasonable period of time to complete minor items after closing. We attend all such walk-throughs with our clients, and with our substantial construction background can assist in pointing out problem areas. Step 12 - Closing Before you can relax on your new lanai or in your new back yard you will need to turn over a cashier’s check for the down payment and closing costs and sign the many loan documents. The attorney or title company will explain everything to you. Make sure you understand what you are signing and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Prior to settlement you should request blank copies of the documents you will be signing so that you can review them at your own pace. Step 13 - Moving In If you started planning and preparing to move into your new home as soon as your offer was accepted your moving day will go more smoothly. Once the movers leave you will be able to unpack a few glasses and settle down with a cool drink to begin the fun part of buying a new home – living there! |
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Osborne & Company, Inc.
- R E A L T O R S 800-480-2122 • Direct: 239-450-5887 • Office: 239-566-1212 • Fax: 239-566-1411 Email: info@osborneco.com • 801 Laurel Oak Drive #625 • Naples, FL 34103 |
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