The Process of Buying A Home in The Northwest Valley Explained
Buying a home can seem fairly intimidating if you’ve never done it before, but it doesn’t have to be all that difficult. Yes, there are some complex financial issues involved and some even more confusing legal matters. Still, the process of buying a home in Northwest Valley can be quite manageable if you understand the process beforehand and if you tackle it step by step. So here’s a brief explanation of the standard home-buying process. 28% of your monthly gross income will go toward your house… But there’s more.
You also have to make sure you have enough cash reserves left over after making the down payment to cover any unexpected expenses or repairs. Then you still have to figure in property taxes and insurance. And don’t forget that you have utility bills to be paid monthly.
Determine the Best Mortgage and Get Pre-Approved
This step in the process of buying a home in the Northwest Valley is so important. First, you need to figure out what you can really afford. Not just the purchase price, but your total monthly home expenses. Taxes, insurance, HOA fees, utilities, etc. all of these factor into what you can really afford. Therefore, you need to talk to a lender. The lender will go over option with you and help you determine the best mortgage for your situations. Make sure you get pre-approved, not just pre-qualified. Pre-qualified means that you started the process. Pre-approved means that the lender has verified the information you’ve provided, and that the lender will finance. Having a pre-approval may make the difference in a competitive market.
Determine Your Must-Have Features
You’ve likely talked about and thought about what it is you want in a home. But the reality is that you rarely find exactly what you want, that has everything you wanted. The next step in the process of buying a home in the Northwest Valley is deciding what your must have features are.
Before you start looking at houses, you need to know what features you have to have and are not negotiable. For instance, your must have list could look something like this: 4 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, specific school district, big yard. Next, you want to focus on the features that would be nice to have such as a pool or in a cul-de-sac or a corner lot. This will simplify your house hunting significantly.
Start Shopping
Now comes the fun part. These days, most people start their home search online using resources like Zillow. Then after finding a few potential homes, you can hop in your car and start looking. Unfortunately, this may not be the best option for you since that information isn’t always up to date. You can waste precious time looking at homes that are no longer available. An agent can be a huge asset – helping you find homes with your must have list in the areas you want.
Make an Offer
Once you have found a home that meets all your must haves, especially price and features. It’s time to get down to the nitty gritty and make an offer. This is where you need some negotiating skill, so you don’t end up with the short end of the stick.
You should have a pretty good idea of what similar homes in the immediate area have sold for recently. Both you and your agent will do research on this. This will give you a reasonable price range for making an offer. At this point some things need to be taken into consideration. What is the absorption rate? This tells you how long the house will likely take to sell. A longer absorption rate may warrant a lower offer. If the house in a hot market and is likely to sell almost immediately, you’re going to want to come in with a very strong offer.
A significant part of the value added by real estate agents is their ability to effectively negotiate and influence the other side to agree to acceptable terms.This is where having a good agent makes a difference. We are certified negotiation experts or MCNE. Less than 5% of all real estate agents have taken professional negotiation training to better serve their clients.
Go Over the Contract and Submit Mortgage Application
Next in the process of buying a home in the Northwest Valley is going over the contract, especially the contingency clauses, to make sure everything is satisfactory. Don’t worry, we go over this line by line and explain in easy to understand terms. If everything in the contract meets your approval and the home has passed inspection, then you move on to submitting the mortgage application. And then all you have to do is close.
Close
The final step in the process of buying a home in the Northwest Valley is, of course, closing. But before you sign those papers, be sure to do a walk-through to make sure nothing has changed since the inspection. This typically happens 3 days before close. This is also the time that we are looking to make sure any repair requests have been completed. After that, if everything is satisfactory, you can sign the dotted line, then we wait until it gets recorded with the county and then you are officially a homeowner and you will get the keys to your new home.
Do you want to learn more about the process of buying a home in Northwest Valley? We can help! Send us a message or give us a call today! (602) 806-8834
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