Buyer’s Guide

The process of buying a home is part of the natural growth in your life. It can help you achieve your lifestyle goals. We typically recommend starting your home buying process with a Zoom call. Our primary goal is to streamline this process for you, ensuring a smooth transition and a sound financial investment in your next home.

Discover your wants and needs. What type of house do you want to live in? Is the school system important to you? How long do you plan to be in your next home?

Decide your price range with a Pre-Approval Letter from a bank. Particularly in a competitive market, this will be critical to be able to make a quick and serious offer on the home you like most. You will likely be approved for more than you ideally want to spend. Find out the maximum and then work together with your loan officer to back down to a price range where the monthly payment feels comfortable. This will help you to identify the target price range where you are most confident making offers.

Determine your offer price and strategy. We can assist you with a complete analysis of properties that are actively available, under agreement, sold and expired to come up with a fair offer price. Understanding that many homes may have multiple offers, we will show you past buyer behavior to understand the strategy that other buyers may employ. You may receive a counter offer or an invitation to submit a “highest and best offer” to which you may respond.

After the offer is accepted, you have a few things that need to be done before closing.

• If there is a contingency for a home inspection, we will recommend a trusted local inspector.

• You will need to have your loan application submitted to the mortgage lender. This needs to be done before the P&S contract.

• You will next begin the process of getting homeowners insurance and will need to pay one year of the policy to close your mortgage loan.

• After your mortgage application has been approved, the bank will send an appraiser to visit the property to be sure the home is worth the amount that is being borrowed.

• Approximately 10-21 days after the P&S, the bank will issue a commitment letter. If you have a financing contingency in place, this triggers the release of that contingency.

The closing usually requires additional costs (other than the purchase price of the home). Those may include:

• Loan origination/processing fees

• Title insurance (homeowners and lenders policies)

• Adjustments to property taxes

• Prepaid taxes and insurance for the lenders escrow account

The timeline of the entire process, from offer to closing, is typically 30-60 days.

• From offer to home inspection: Up to 7 days

• From offer to P&S: 10-14 days

• From offer to closing: 45-60 days