Beginners Guide to The Home Buying Process

Beginners Guide to The Home Buying Process 

For Real Estate Inquiries, Please Call, Your Journey Team:

Niki Fuller at 502-523-5554 / e: niki@YourJourneyTeam.com

visit our website at www.YourJourneyTeam.com

Congratulations and Welcome to Your New Home! These are the words that we don't get tired of and for the first time buyers, the words that will mark the start of being a first time home owner. The feel good words that will make you feel proud, accomplished, all grown up and finally cross out that 1 very expensive item in your bucket list. 

Buying a home for the first time can be overwhelming and scary at first. The requirements, the negative "what if's", all the packing and the moving. A lot of things can be rushing into your head and start hyperventilating! Just kidding! 

Buying your very first home should be smooth, relaxed and fun, not the other way around. Preparing yourself in purchasing your very first most expensive purchase is the most helpfull tool that can help you from being a mess. Knowing the basics of the home buying process before talking to a realtor will benefit you big time!

Let's go back to basics and familiarize ourselves in the home buying process.

This diagram will help you keep track of where you are in the process. 

The minute that we decide that we are ready to buy a home, we jump right into our computers and search for homes. List all the homes we find appealing, some may even drive around to check out the area. 

The diagram above should be the ideal scenario and not to go straight to a realtor without a pre-approval from your preferred lender. A pre- approval is the mortgage loan process itself. The mortgage lender will use the details the home buyer provides about their credit, income, assets and debts to arrive at an estimate of how much mortgage they can afford. Also, the mortgage lender may charge you certain fees for getting a mortgage with them.

Once you have that pre-approval from your preferred mortgage lender, then talk to a trusted Buyer's Agent or a realtor that specializes in the buying process of a home. Getting a pre-approval first will let you move forward and faster getting your dream home. Any realtor's will advise you to get the pre- approval first before all of you can move forward, not unless you will be paying the property price with cash, then no pre-approval is needed.

You have chosen your home, got the pre-approval and have trusted buyer's agent now it's time to make an offer. You and your realtor should be on the same page to prevent confusion and or any conflicts in both parties. They will write an offer in your behalf and you as a home buyer, must provide the amount that you can provide for a security deposit to the seller to show that you are a serious buyer. This security deposit is also known as the Earnest Money Deposit, non-refundable and credited to the downpayment.

Once an agreement has been reached, you need funds to cover the down payment. Down payment is the amount of money that you will be paying at Settlement/Closing. Since the property is being financed by your preferred mortgage lender, it will state the amount that you are pre-approved for vs. the amount that a buyer would need to cover. 

Document signing will take place, then go through escrow.  The escrow company handles all the documents until the transaction closes.

Hope this article helps all the first time buyers and enjoy your journey towards getting the perfect home. I hope I explained the process in a simple but clear and concise way to help you prevent getting cold feet in purchasing your 1st home.