What to Do to Buy Your First House

What to Do to Buy Your First House

You and your spouse have had it with apartment living. You are tired of noisy neighbors, heavy footsteps above your ceiling, the inability to play your music loud, and pouring rent money down the drain. You saved enough money for the down payment on a house and the extras such ah purchase might entail. Now you want to know what to do to buy your first house.

Here are 10 Tips for First Time Home Buyers.

1. Before house hunting, get pre-qualified – talking to different lenders and seeing not only who offers the best rates and terms, but also manageable fees and costs. Lender fees can vary quite a bit from one to the next. The mortgage industry has three main types of lenders: big banks and credit unions, mortgage bankers and mortgage brokers. The big banks have checking and savings accounts and car loans and home loans and just about anything you might need for your financial needs. Mortgage bankers focus on home loans and they use their own funds to make loans. Mortgage brokers contract with banks, mortgage bankers and private lenders to arrange for home loans. Pre-qualification gives you great information about how much house you can afford and allows you to move quickly if you find the right house.
2. Pre-qualified is not the same as pre-approved – With pre-approval, you will receive a conditional commitment in writing for an exact loan amount, allowing you to look for a home at or below that price level. Obviously, this puts you at an advantage when dealing with a potential seller, as he or she will know you’re one step closer to obtaining an actual mortgage.
3. Get professional help – Find a realtor you can trust. Yes, you have unprecedented internet access to sellers’ information, but a realtor has years of experience that can help you with everything from the area, the appraising of a dwelling, the paperwork, the comparisons, and negotiation on price. If you need help finding a qualified agent, Val Buys Houses LLC knows many agents we can refer you to for your first home purchase. Keep in mind that we can also help you find your dream home. Sometimes we allow buyers to choose finishes in the house before we have finished the rehab, that way you can customize the home to your liking.
4. Did you check out the schools – What is the reputation? Can the kids walk to school? Is there an alternative school available, like a charter school or parochial school if the public school doesn’t work out?
5. Walk the neighborhood – Look at the houses in the neighborhood. Are the homes well maintained? Are the lawns mowed and edged? Where are cars parked? Talk with your neighbors. Are they friendly? Do they have kids? Do they have anything good or bad to say about your house of interest?
6. Make an Offer – Your real estate agent will help you decide how much money you want to offer for the house along with any conditions you want to ask for, like having the buyer pay for your closing costs. Your agent will then present the offer to the seller’s agent; the seller will either reject, accept your offer, or issue a counter-offer. You can then accept, or continue to go back and forth until you either reach a deal or decide to call it quits. If you reach an agreement, you’ll make a good-faith deposit and the process then transitions intoescrow. Escrow is a short period of time (often about 30 days) where the seller takes the house off the market with the contractual expectation that you will buy the house – provided you don’t find any serious problems with it when you inspect it.
7. Always hire a home inspector – “You should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.”
8. Beware of sleeper costs – Comparing the monthly mortgage payments to paying rent is only part of the story. The bank may require property taxes and insurance to be part of the monthly mortgage payment. Then there’s the unexpected. When a couple I know first moved into their house, the front, cement porch collapsed costing them $1.500 to repair.
9. Perform regular maintenance– With the large amount of money you’re putting into your home, you’ll want to make sure to take excellent care of it. Regular maintenance can decrease your repair costs by allowing problems to be fixed when they are small and manageable.
10. Only a fool signs papers without reading them. Read the papers. Make sure you understand your obligations. If you feel insecure, hire a real estate attorney. This is the biggest purchase you may ever make. Do it the right way.

Val Buys Houses LLC specializes in helping homeowners out of just about any situation, no matter what! Suppose you find that for some reason you don’t qualify for a home loan. Did you know that Val Buys Houses offers owner financing?

We care about our community in Cobb county and Atlanta. At Val Buys Houses LLC we take a lot of pride in providing excellent customer service. We have come across all scenarios, we are not here to judge; only to help.

Give us a call today at 404-844-8845 and let us see if we can help YOU!