Buying a Home

If you are a first-time home buyer, or even if you’ve bought a home before but it has been a while or it wasn’t in Texas, then you might benefit from this general overview of the process:

  • Start the search – online searches are great for the early stages. Ask about a personalized website so you can view details, maps, pictures & virtual tours. You’ll also be notified of homes meeting your criteria as soon as they go on the market.
  • Start looking into financing – most sellers will only accept offers that come in with a pre-approval (or pre-qualification) letter from a lender.
  • Narrow your search – often you’ll need to drive around various neighborhoods in order to narrow your search.
  • Find a home – often it takes visiting quite a few houses before you find the perfect one. Even the perfect home may need some enhancement from you after the purchase.
  • Make an offer – I will prepare the offer, go through it with you and get your signatures soon after seeing that perfect home. We want to make the offer before someone else does!
  • Provide earnest and option money – the earnest money assures the sellers you are serious and is normally 1% of the sales price. The option money gives you a window of time in which you can back out of the contract for any reason and is normally $100-$300 depending on the length of the option.
  • Negotiate the offer – most sellers will make a “counter-offer” to your offer and change either the price or terms of the contract. You decide whether or not to move forward and accept the counter-offer or make a counter-offer of your own.
  • Hire a home inspector – a complete home inspection can cost anywhere from $300-$600 depending on the size of the home and whether or not you add on extra inspections such as a pool or sprinkler inspection, or a wood destroying insect inspection. The inspector will point out any repair items, and most take pictures and provide detailed reports.
  • Negotiate Repairs – after the inspection, you have the option to request that the seller make some repairs. All repairs are negotiable.
  • Finalize loan – once all parties agree to move forward, you will have a strict timeframe for obtaining your loan. The lender will likely need additional paperwork from you during this time.
  • Prepare for the move – you will typically have a 30-day period of time to pack, line up home insurance, contact the utility providers and otherwise prepare for moving to your new home! I’ll send you reminders for everything you need to do, along with contact information for the utilities.
  • Close the deal – typically all parties will meet at the title company and will sign the paperwork. The title company’s Escrow Officer goes through the paperwork with all parties, and I attend to insure all your questions are answered and everything goes smoothly.
  • Fund the deal – it takes a few hours for the lender to transfer the money to the title company, and then the title company to transfer the money to the sellers. Once the title company disburses the money, you are entitled to take possession of the home.

This is a simplified version of what happens. My job is to make sure everything does happen smoothly. When you are in the process of moving, its easy to overlook a step, so I’m always here to remind you of what needs to be done! Call me, and let me help you through the process!