How to Buy a House

Home Buying Process

How to Buy a House

July 12, 2020

Buying a house can be stressful, if you don not understand the process. My goal is to create an atmosphere of education before, during, and after the transaction. I want you to understand the home buying process, so you will know what is next and what you need to do. I want to be your guide in the process.

The Process

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The first step in buying a house is to get Pre-Approved for either a loan or get a proof of funds letter, if you are paying cash. This will help gage the budget of what you can actually buy. This is first, because it is our job to make sure someone is: A) qualified to buy and B) Doesn’t get their heart broken by finding a house, falling in love and then not being able to buy it. This step is as easy as calling a lender and submitting the documents they need to get started. To learn more about being loan ready Click Here

Once you are Pre-Approved, we can get together (Virtually or in-person) and discuss your wishlist for the property and setup the initial paperwork and email notifications on the property search. We can quickly check the inventory list and depending on the timing, inventory may be VERY low. That makes the buying side more competitive. If we can see that on the frontend we can properly prepare for battle and not be caught off guard. Are you ready to get started? Click Here to begin the process

This is when we truly begin. Once we have narrowed down the initial search, I setup the appointments and we caravan around town and look at actual houses. Sometimes we find the right house on the first trip, sometimes it takes a year. The wishlist and budget, more than anything, control the timeline. When inventory is low, there are a lot of buyers out there looking for the same thing, that is almost guaranteed. As we search, you will see why being ready to go with a lender or proof of funds letter, is so important.

When you find the right house, you will need to act quick, in a seller's market we are seeing more and more multiple offer situations.

In those situations, it can be discouraging when you lose out, but it is always my recommendation to offer what your highest and best would be that if you paid more you would not be happy with the house. In that case if you were to lose it to someone else, you dodged a bullet and can sleep easy. This can be the most time consuming part.

This is the step in the process that is a lot of hurry up and wait. Once we find the right house for you, we will gather all the information needed and fill out the paperwork to submit an offer and the Seller Property Disclosure (this is the document that the Seller fills out about the property), ideally we can have a copy to look at and sign with the original offer but it doesn’t always happen, and then once all the documents are signed (electronically or in person) the offer is submitted to the listing agent to review with the seller. This process typically lasts until the next day either noon or 5pm, usually. There are some exceptions to this, but usually that is what I am seeing for now.

Once we have an accepted offer, you have 10 days to schedule and complete the property inspection, sooner the better. Once the inspection is complete, we submit the Inspection Repair and Survey Addendum (IRSA), this is the form that has the requested repair items or says no repairs requested. This also has to be done within the 10 days. I will give you a form that

As you can tell… Once we get an accepted offer the clock starts clicking. You have 5 days to finalize the loan application with the lender. This is really easy, I will send the lender the contract and you just get them the documents they request and sign the documents that send you. The more prepared you are on the front-end the easier this step is.

The second negotiation point in a transaction is the IRSA (the form from the Property Inspection Step). The seller can come back and say they accept and will make the repairs, they will not make some or all of the repairs, or they will give you money in leu of repairs. There can be some back and forth on this step. The goal is to get the major issues fixed and not cosmetic issues (wallpaper, paint, etc).

This is probably the easiest step. Make a few phone calls and find the best rate for your insurance. The first call is your current provider and then if you wish to see what other peoples rates are call them. I would be happy to refer you a few of my favorites or you can check my Vendor Directory.

This is the third potential time for negotiations in the transaction timeline. If the appraisal comes back under contract price, we can dispute the appraisal with the lender, ask the seller to come down to the appraised value, or pay above in cash. The ideal situation is that the deal appraises for contract price or higher. Our job is to guide you to the best offer within the comparable properties price range to try to avoid any issues, but they do arise occasionally. If it doesn’t appraise, you can also decide to walk away and find another property if the seller is not willing to meet the appraised value. This is more of a topic of more details in a specific situation.

This is the light at the end of the tunnel step! The lender has said that the loan has made it through under writing and we are CLEAR to CLOSE! This means you have been approved and ready to close.

The Final Walk-Through is just as it sounds. We walk through to make sure they didn’t damage anything when they moved out and that they completed everything they needed to.

IT’S CLOSING TIME! This is the final step of the transaction that you go to the title company and sign all the documents and probably get a few hand cramps, but you have arrived and can start to move into your new home once you are done!

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Arkansas Raised

I grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player until the 6th grade. Then I decided to retire, so I could go on the lake more. When I got to Har-Ber High School, I got placed in an Intro to Film and Video class. I wanted out the first week and then I fell in love with it. After high school, I went to SAU Tech and got an Associates in Multimedia with an emphasis in Film and Video and a Technical Certificate in Graphic Design. These skills I have developed for more than a decade now help marketing properties.