Real Estate Tips

Our first step in finding a house was to find a Realtor. You don’t have to get a Realtor but it’s free for you (both the buyer and sellers Realtors are paid out of the purchase price of the home) and your Realtor has a lot of expertise that you probably don’t have. As someone going through the process without any real estate or contract knowledge, I can say that doing this without a Realtor would be way too hard and time consuming.

Go online to national websites like Zillow.com, Trulia.com or local communities like liveatchurchillfarms.com to start looking for houses. Your realtor can help you find homes if you like, but Tag and I preferred to find ones we like online and send a list to our realtor so he could set up the showings.

Once you’ve found a house you like and are thinking about making an offer, it’s a good idea to get pre-approved for financing. This will help you understand if you can realistically get a loan for the home, and it also shows the seller that you are serious and have the means to buy his or her house. You don’t have to do this, but it makes your offer look stronger.

Talk to your Realtor have him pull some information on recently sold homes in the area and come up with a good offer. If you think the house is worth $200k, go in with an offer that is lower than that but not so low that the seller doesn’t take you seriously. Remember that your Realtor’s commission is based on the sale price of the house, so a higher sale price means a bigger commission for him or her. Listen to your Realtor’s advice, but it’s your money and ultimately your decision on how much to offer.

We were actually really surprised when they took it.

If there is anything wrong with the property that wasn’t in the seller’s disclosure, consider asking for additional money off the sale price.

Once the inspection is done and you are ready to buy the house, you need to talk to a bank and start the financing process. Shop around for rates and keep in mind that closing costs are expensive. You’ll either need to pay cash at closing or have the bank increase your interest rate in exchange for paying some or all of your closing costs.

The approval process for getting a home loan is very long and extensive, but one of the biggest hurdles is the appraisal. A bank isn’t going to lend someone $200k for a house if they believe it’s only worth $190k. In my case the bank hired the appraisal company and set up the appointment while I paid for it (which is part of the closing costs). My appraisal came in right at $200k, so now there’s just one more (huge) step.

At this point there’s just one more hurdle to jump (this is where Tag and I sit today): have the bank approve the loan. They need to make sure you have enough money to pay for the down payment and closing costs, that your income is high enough to support the monthly payments, that you’ve been at your job long enough to consider your income stable. They check your credit score, credit history, and do a bunch of other stuff. It takes a long time, but that makes sense. If you were going to lend someone over a hundred thousand dollars I hope you’d take the time to review their creditworthiness too!

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