Buying a home for the first time can be quite the daunting challenge. However, knowing the steps to purchasing a home can make everything easier. It can help you form a plan, alleviating your stress and making sure you remain on track when buying a house, rather than getting stuck in the process.
So, if you need help with purchasing a home, here a list explaining each step of the process!
1. Pre-Plan.
The first of our steps to purchasing a home involves getting everything together. Check your credit score to find out how big of a loan you may be able to take out. If you have a poorer score than anticipated, your options could be more limited. Conversely, if you have a higher score, you can take a decent-sized loan. Although, you don’t want to take out the biggest loan possible. Instead, come up with a budget, and figure out what the most affordable monthly mortgage for your situation is.
Consider what you need from you new home, too. How many bedrooms? How many baths? Do you want a big yard? You should also consider what neighborhoods you’d like to live in as well.
2. Get Things in Motion.
Now we can start really taking the steps to purchasing a home forward. Shop around at a few places for mortgage lender. If you can secure pre-approval, do so. This will make the process much faster. Also, find a real estate agent. They’ll be your guides through the often times tedious and confusing steps to purchasing a home. They’ll also help find suitable homes for you, and broker good deals.
3. Make an Offer.
We’re now getting to the last few steps to purchasing a home. After finally finding the right home, you’ll need to make an offer on it. Most sellers put a higher price on their home, anticipating some haggling. A good first offer is at about five percent below their asking price. The sellers will either accept or offer a counter proposal, and you can go back and forth until deciding either to move on or coming to an agreement. Once you come to an agreement, you’ll have to make a good faith deposit.
4. Seal the Deal.
Before finalizing, take some extra steps to purchasing a home, and have it inspected. There may have been a few details about the home that seller didn’t disclose. An inspection can bring these to light, and could determine whether you should actually buy the house or not. Should things go South, you can get the deposit back. If everything comes back great, then you and your real estate agent should close the deal.
Purchasing a new home doesn’t have to induce panic attacks nor nervous break downs. Knowing the steps to purchasing a home can really help keep you calm, cool, collected, focused and efficient. If you any questions about the steps to purchasing a home, feel free to ask in the comments. Get more on this here.
