First Time Home Buyers

If you’ve never purchased a home, there can be a lot of questions about how the process works. To answer some of the questions, I’ve written a Home Buying Series. Each page will provide valuable insight into how the process works and what you can expect. This is the first of the series and provides an overview of what we will be discussing as we move forward.

An overview of the home buying steps:

• Determine your budget: Before you start looking at homes, you need to figure out how much you can afford to spend. This will help you narrow down your search and focus on homes that are within your price range.
• Get pre-approved for a mortgage: Once you know your budget, you should get pre-approved for a mortgage. This will give you an idea of how much you can borrow and what your monthly payments will be.
• Start searching for homes: With your budget and pre-approval in hand, you can start looking for homes that meet your needs and preferences. You can search online, work with a real estate agent, or attend open houses.
• Make an offer: When you find a home you like, you'll need to make an offer. Your real estate agent can help you with this process.
• Get a home inspection: Before you finalize the sale, you should have a home inspection done to identify any potential issues with the property.
• Close the sale: If everything checks out, you'll move forward with closing the sale. This involves signing all the necessary paperwork and paying any closing costs.
• Move in: Once the sale is complete, you can move into your new home!

Those are the high level, basic steps of buying a home. I’ll break them down into more details next.