BUYING A  HOUSE FROM A-Z

The first step in buying a house is to determine your budget. If you’re paying cash for it then you have a fairly good idea of what you want to and can spend.

If you are planning on getting a loan, you’ll need to speak with your bank or a mortgage broker to determine your buying power based on various factors including your income, your debt, your credit score and the amount of your down payment.

Once you know your budget, you can begin the search for a home. These days newly listed homes are at the buyer’s fingertips online through sites like Zillow.com, Redfin.com or Realtor.com. Even though this technology makes the home search much easier, it is not a replacement for a competent buyer’s agent who can help you through the process of finding the right home and guiding you seamlessly from making an offer that is accepted to the day you close escrow and become proud home owners. 

Once you have located the house you want to buy, I will submit an offer on your behalf. The offer consists of the terms of the agreement between you and the seller. The more obvious terms are the price, the length of escrow which is the number of days from when your offer is accepted to when the house is officially yours, and whether you are paying cash or getting a loan and if you’re getting a loan, the amount of your down payment. Other terms in the contract are the contingencies which include the inspection, appraisal, and loan contingency. This means that each of these items is contingent on you either being satisfied with an outcome or able to perform your contractual duty, and has a set number of days within which you can either cancel the contract with no ramifications to you or move forward. The standard contract has 17 days for these contingencies, at which point you would need to remove the contingencies, and no longer be able to back out of the deal or you may cancel the deal.

In a hot seller’s market, buyers will often shorten the length of these contingencies or remove them altogether. I typically do not recommend removing contingencies, however, shortening contingency periods can be a way to increase the likelihood of your offer getting accepted over another offer, without posing any risk to you.

Once your offer is accepted, escrow will be opened. The escrow company is a neutral third party that will handle the transaction. The seller’s agent and I will assist you in submitting the needed documents within the prescribed time periods to escrow to have a smooth and timely closing.

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Module 1: Home buyers Workbook

This module covers steps to get financing, choosing the type of property, a glimpse at the offer process and main components, inspections, disclosures and information on different types of loans.

Module 2: Contracts and disclosures

This module covers the components of the “The Offer” or Residential Purchase Agreement as well as many of the disclosures that you will encounter during the transaction. I will schedule a time with you one-on-one to cover this module once you have been pre-approved by a lender of your choice and have decided on what type of property you would like to purchase and the area you would like to be in.

Module 3: Inspections and Reports

This module covers the main inspections and reports in much more detail. This will also be a one-on-one session which we will schedule immediately after your offer has been accepted. This module will prepare you to understand the inspections and reports on your property as they come in during escrow.