If you are out there looking for the perfect home, then you will want to educate yourself about the steps it takes make the purchase of it, especially if it is your first. To start, you may want to get pre-qualified for a home loan. Once you know how much you can spend, you can start shopping.
The second and most important part of buying a home is knowing how to make an offer. Making an offer on a house seems straightforward, but there are some things you can do to make sure you are paying the right price.
First of all, if you can, it is helpful to find out why a seller is selling. The listing agent may or may not tell you, but you can make the attempt. Second, determine whether the market is hot, cold or neutral at the moment you decide to make an offer. Is it a buyer's market or sellers? Are there more people selling homes that buying, how quickly are people buying? If it is a buyer's market, there will be less competition and you can make a lower of fer. If it is a seller's market, sellers may not consider any offer but list price.
Find out how much the seller paid for their home, especially if it was within the past few years. Knowing the market has not appreciated a great amount, the asking price can be close to the seller's purchase price. Also take into consideration that the seller may have remodeling improvement costs tied into the house.
Determine the seller's mortgage balance if possible. A seller is unlikely to accept an offer for less than the mortgage plus closing costs if they owe a lot. Does the seller have a low balance, if so, they have more room to negotiate?
Look at other comparable property sales in the area and find out what other people have paid for homes. Look only within the past six months, not past that.
Find out what trends are for the last six months as well on homes in regards to what they sold for compared to what they were listed for. What is the gap? Are homes selling over list price or under? If so, at what percentage?
Analyze the cost of homes being sold by the square foot. Smaller homes are priced higher by the square foot than larger homes but by analyzing square foot costs, you can get an idea of trends in your area.
Ask agents how long the home was listed or if it was an expired listing that was later relisted. If a home has been on the market longer than 30 days, the sellers might be more motivated to reduce the price.
Now that you have an idea of what you want to offer, you will make an 'offer to purchase'. The offer can be accepted, there could be a counter offer or it could be rejected. If your offer is accepted the agent will ask for an earnest deposit, which is non-refundable. This shows your commitment to buying the home. Next, you can start making arrangements for moving. Get change of address forms from the post office and let friends know when you are moving. An inspection will follow your offer and if there are major areas in the home that need repaired, you can ask request to have repairs made before you move in.
Shop around for homeowners insurance and getting quotes on your new home is another step. Arrange for utilities to be hooked up such as phone, water and power. You will most likely have a closing date, which is the date the seller has to be out and you can move in - this will be the date you can request utilities be put into your name.
Make sure you do your final walk through before closing on the home to see if everything is as it was when you made the offer. And last, you will close your loan, signing off on all documents.
You are now ready to move into your new home.
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