First time home buyer looking for guidance and advice...?

Question

I've spotted something I'm interested in, but don't know the ins and outs of buying a home. I do understand amortization, loans, interest rates and tax impact (as I am an accountant), but nothing really about the offer and buying process itself.

I'm looking for resources, whether online, recommended books or personal insight.

My main objective - to not get caught with the wool over my eyes.

Thanks!!

Answer 1

You need to start with getting yourself a good real estate agent. This directory is full of great ones: http://www.idxbroker.com/news/256_IDX,_Inc._Introduces.php
Just click on your state...hopefully that helps ;)

Answer 2

Hello,

Congratulations on deciding on a long-term decision right at the outset of your getting together.

By deciding to buy your home, you will do the following:

1. Stop paying someone else's mortgage.
2. Build your own equity.
3. Since both of you put together have a high income, you will book the tax benefits.
4. Fix your monthly payment on living in a home for your lifetime (based on your mortgage).

The Process:
1. Check your credit by yourself. Try to work on any cleanup that you might need to do (like some irregularities in payments or any other incorrect reporting regarding your credit history. A good Mortgage agent should be a great help and be able to do everything for you. But some mortgage agents might use this for a rip-off.
2. See if you can identify your objectives, needs and wants. Like, if you want to live close to downtown, a new home, a nice neighborhood, commute, lifestyle etc.
3. Find a good Realtor who will help you understand your objectives, needs and wants and put them in perspective so that he will help you identify the home you will want to live in.
4. A good Realtor should be able to take care of the entire process. You have to zone into your dream home out of the Millions of properties available out there. You will also have to identify your constraints in terms of finances, having a Realtor will give you all these ideas.
5. It is very important that you pin your requirements, it will make the process of selection very easy.
6. The process itself.
a. Find a Realtor.
b. Find a Mortgage Agent.
c. Find a house.
d. Once selected, make an offer.
e. If the offer is accepted
Order inspections, title reports, HOA docs if it is a PUD / Townhome.
Finalize Mortgage.
Remove Contingencies based on investigations.
Get ready for sign-off.
Sign-off
Do a walkthrough inspection
Fund your mortgage
Get your Keys

You may want to browse on the internet for some more preliminary understanding.

Disclosure: I am a Licensed Realtor with Century 21 in San Jose, CA.

Answer 3

OK. First things first. Make sure that your credit score is 580 or above (fico score) You can get your copy of your credit report for free through annual credit report. Contact a bank or mortgage company find the company or bank that wil give you the best interest rate and program. Get prequalified from the mortgage company or bank this will determine what amount you will qualify for to purchase the home. Get the prequalification letter with the amount you qualify for from your loan officer. Contact a Real-Estate Agent from a good real estate company. Also obtain an Attorney. Let the agent know what you qualified for and what house your interested in purchasing the agent will take you around to find the house of your choosing. Remember this is an important investment that you need to be happy with make sure you are happy with the home. After the home is picked out the agent will assist you in drawing up the contract to give the seller your offer. Your Attorney will be forwarded the contract to look it offer. If the offer is accepted you will be required to put down ernest money to hold the house while your loan is being processed. Please get a home inspection to determine if the home has issues a home inspection costs about 200 to 300 bucks beleive me its worth it in the long run. Your bank or lender will do an appraisal to determine if the home is worth what your paying for it. Your loan officer will be in constant contact with you asking for different documents and explaination to get the loan approved your complete cooperation is needed to complete the process. The Attorney for you and the seller will work out all legal issues related to your purchase make sure you are in constant contact with your attorney its very important. Once the appraisal of the home is completed the title is clear on the home and your loan is approved You are clear to close. Good luck I hope your buying experience is a good one. Ive purchased three homes and it only gets better. Good luck

Answer 4

Best thing to do....is go to your local library or community college and read through the books that are there that have to do with Real Estate. It will most likely be in the Law area. You can learn what you need to know about owning a home in your state. You should read a book on it. You have to ask your realtors certain questions that you need to know before getting into the sell of the house. You would need to know about the ownership of the home? is the seller the only person who has interest in the house? is there any encumbrances? what are your future plans for the house? because of zoning. Stuff like that. After if you want to buy the house, you would hire a title agency to run the title of the home, inspection company to make sure the value of the house is what it is, etc.

Answer 5

I would highly rec commend a real estate broker. They are an agent that works on your behalf. They can answer any questions you have about the home buying process. They cost you no money at all. They take their fee from the commission on the sale of the house. They will help you write up an offer. When the offer is accepted they will help you get the inspections and things needed to help finalize the sale. Some can also help you get financing. It also helps to get preapproved before house shopping. Sellers like to see buyers preapproved and are more likely to consider your offer.

Answer 6

Never offer asking price unless you are in a serious seller's market. Ask them to make all the repairs, updates, whatever that you want done. Don't be afraid to ask for something. What are they going to do, say no? Who cares! Then you counter offer. Use your own agent, not theirs. They are making money off of you, not the sellers, so they will work for you. Find out how long the home has been on the market. That will give you a good idea how desperate they are to sell and how much you can knock off and not expect them to just laugh at you. Like I said, don't be afraid to ask for anything, and getting closing costs paid by the seller is a great way to avoid that upfront cost and basically build it into your financing.

Answer 7

Put down 20% or more to avoid having to pay PMI, if at all possible. PMI is private mortgage insurance and if you put down more than 20%, you don't have to pay it. Otherwise, it's an additional hole in your pocket each month. My PMI was just under $150 before we got rid of it during a refinance.

There are home buyer's seminars that are targeted at first time home buyers. They promise to teach you everthing that there is to know about buying a home and answer all of your questions. Often, there is a real estate agent, a mortgage broker, and an attorney present at these to answer your questions. They want you to become familiar with them and then use them for your purchase. Don't do it. They are all in bed with eachother. We took this route as rookies and they got a home inspector to inspect the house and he overlooked quite a few things that ended up being headaches for us later on. Try to get an independent attorney, independent agent, independent mortgage broker. Don't let them 'recommend somebody' for you.

Take your time in investigating homes. This is a buyers market so don't let them try to rush you buy telling you they have another person coming to look at a house. If you lose a home because you are trying to figure things out, so be it. There are plenty on the market right now.

Think about the long term. Do you want to have kids? What kind of school are you comfortable with your kids going to? Do you want the best in school test scores or is an average school okay for you? Investigate schools!! See what the graduation rates are, ratio of students to teachers, how the classes compare to the rest of the state in terms of test scores. Even if these things aren't important to you right now, they may help sell the house for you later if somebody wants to move in with kids.

Think about the resale potential of the home. Is the average person going to find this house appealing in the case that you had to move for one reason or another?

Good luck.

Answer 8

You want to use an agent. there's not cost to using an agent on the buying side of the transaction. The seller has already commited to paying a commission to the selling agent, and a buying agent. The will protect you legally, handle the property inspection to assure you don't buy a lemon, and help negotiate the price. Let meknow if I can help. More info available at www.getAreturn.com. Feel free to email me for more info. What type of property, and is it a For Sale By Owner would be my questions. I'd be happy to reccommend a top agent in your area.

Answer 9

I just recently purchased my house as well. The tax benefits and home ownership is great. I listed a source below that has some excellent budget worksheets, mortgage calculators, lenders and really good articles on what to expect when buying your new home. I listed the article I liked best below but there are a lot of other fantastic resources on this website as well.

Answer 10

If you are not using an agent, you can go to your local HUD, Housing Urban Development, office in your area. They will give you info to educate you on, especially when it comes to purchasing a home.

I am a Mortgage Broker, and when clients purchase a home, I have to give them booklets like Home Owner's Guide.

You could also ask family, friends, neighbors and co-workers if they have an agent that they trust and that you could either work with or ask a couple questions. You could also contact an attorney who deals with real estate issues for advice and they might have more info.

Answer 11

Hi,
I am a realtor in Connecticut. Your best move would be to find a Realtor that represents a buyers. The best way to do this is to go to the national assoc. of Realtors web page. You want to go to a professional for your real estate dealings.....you wouldn't want a doctor doing your taxes, or an accountant doing your medical procedure?