What is the home buying process?

Want to know how to start the buying process for a home?

There are a whole bunch of little parts that need a lot of explaining so here is a small break down of what happens.

Well first we would need to see if you would qualify to purchase a home which you would go to a mortgage officer or a bank to find out. I would recommend a mortgage officer, they are a bit quicker than a bank. The mortgage officer or bank will check your credit as well as your yearly income to see what you qualify for and what your interest rate will be but this is not all they check for. They will check for other things like debt to income ratio and other variables to determine if and how much you qualify for.

Once you are approved then you can start searching for homes around the price range that you were given by the person who approved you, some banks or mortgage officers might give more than others. The home searching stage can be quick or not depending on what exactly you are looking but once you find a home that you like then you can place an offer on the home. Once you get an offer accepted then you have a contract and move onto attorney review.

Attorney review is when an attorney for the buyer and an attorney for the seller go over the terms of the contract until there is an agreement between all parties. After attorney review is concluded then you move onto having a home inspection, where you hire a professional inspector to come out and check the house for any problems. When the inspector finishes then he will send a report a few days later and you will send it to the attorney so you can discuss everything you want fixed so he can speak to the other party and attorney about what you would like to be fixed. Everyone has to come to an agreement about what to do with the repairs.

Then you would schedule for an appraisal, which is when the bank comes out and comes check the property as well. The bank wants to make sure that the house is worth what you offered so they can approve your loan to purchase the home. When the appraisal comes in higher than the price you offered then that means you paid for it cheaper than its worth and the bank will give you the loan, same as when it is at the right price, but if you offered to high then there has to be some renegotiation about the price offered since the bank will not give you the money.

Once everything is squared away then you will get your commitment stating that you are approved to buy this house which is when the attorney will order a title search. This is to just check no one and the house has any liens are judgments against them. When that is completed then you can get the clear to close, go to the attorney's office and sign some papers, and then be on your way to your new house. That process usually takes about a month, not including the time it takes to search for a home.