Step By Step House Shopping Process And Qualifying For Mortgage

This Article Is About Step By Step House Shopping Process And Qualifying For Mortgage

After a home buyer has gone through a solid pre-approval mortgage process it is now to look for a home. Not just window shopping but the real deal. It is time to hire a real estate agent and go shopping for a real home and make the dream of homeownership soon become a true reality.

We will discuss Step By Step House Shopping Process for home buyers. This Step By Step House Shopping Process blog should be very helpful for first-time home buyers. Shopping for a home, especially for first-time home buyers, will be a very memorable experience. Many of those who have just gotten pre-approved for a home loan may already shop for a home. Here are the Step By Step House Shopping Process and the topics we will be covering.

Step By Step House Shopping Process And Shopping Online

Whether you are house shopping for a home by yourself online or are driving around and visiting open houses, you should hire a real estate agent to represent you and work with your realtor. It does not cost you a dime as a home buyer. This is because real estate agents make their commissions from the home seller. The home seller pays out a total of 6% commission. The listing realtor and buyer’s realtors split the 6% real estate commission. We will cover some tips and advice on this blog on step by step house shopping and hope our viewers can get some useful tips after reading this article.

Using The Internet For Inventory Of Homes

Shopping for a home online on real estate websites:

• Zillow.com
• Trulia.com
• Realtor.com
• Redfin.com

Searching for homes online in the comfort of your own home or office is extremely convenient and often fun where the whole family can get involved. Buyers can cover a lot of legwork by doing preliminary shopping online. Make a checklist of all of the homes that interest you and want to physically set up an appointment with a realtor and visit the property. Pictures can be deceiving so scheduling a visit is a must.

Due Diligence With Online Home Shopping

Online home shoppers need to know that all of the information online is no fully correct. If you go online to Zillow’s home price analyzer called Zillow Zestimate, the market value of that market value analyzer can be wrong by more than 15%. It is a good tool to get a ballpark figure of the market value of homes in areas buyers are targeting with their online home shopping.

Online Home Shopping offers great benefits and is extremely helpful in doing buyers’ preliminary research so they can present all this to their real estate agent.

Here are the main benefits of online home shopping:

• Online home shopping will give you home types and market values in certain areas
• Neighborhoods and property taxes and school district information
• You can make a list of properties that interest you and make appointments to see them in person
• Negatives include that not all properties on the MLS are online

Listings that are not on the market or pending listings that are about to hit the market.

Step By Step House Shopping Process Consulting With Real Estate Agent

A real estate agent is a licensed real estate professional who can help you with the following:

• A real estate will interview buyers and their family
• They will take notes on the type of home and neighborhood they want to purchase their home
• Help buyers gather of inventory of homes that may interest them
• Arrange showings of homes that interest them
• Advice buyers on how to make their real estate offer
• Assist homebuyers in getting them to get a sellers concession
• Refer buyers to lenders, attorneys, appraisers, insurance agents, home inspectors, credit repair consultants, and other real estate professionals

Prepare the real estate purchase offer to the listing agent.

Making The Real Estate Purchase Offer

After home buyers have visited multiple homes and found their dream home, it is time to make a real estate purchase offer on the property.

Here is how the real estate agent will structure the home purchase offer:

• The real estate purchase contract consists of conditions
• These conditions are called contingencies

Some contingencies on a typical real estate purchase contract include the following:

• home inspection contingency
• home appraisal contingency
• financing contingency

Contingencies In The Real Estate Purchase Contract

Contingencies are back out clauses of the real estate contract. For example, a home inspection contingency states if the home inspection comes up with flaws, the buyer can back out of the contract. Appraisal contingency states if the property does not appraise out at the offered price, the sellers either have to lower the purchase price to match the appraised value or the buyer can cancel the contract. The financing contingency states that if the borrower cannot get loan approval, the buyer can cancel the contract. Contingencies protect the home buyer and the buyer’s earnest money. A real estate purchase contract is a legally binding contract between home buyers and sellers.

Step By Step House Shopping Process: The Clear To Close And Home Loan Closing

Once buyers are done with the steps of the house shopping process and have the executed real estate purchase contract, they submit that contract to their loan officer. The mortgage process officially begins. A mortgage processor will be assigned to the homebuyer. The mortgage processor will request documents and paperwork. The processor will review the documents and paperwork requested and make sure it is complete, legible, and label it. The file needs to be presentable for the underwriter. If a mortgage underwriter cannot make sense of the documents provided by the processor, the underwriter will kick it back.

The goal of every mortgage processor is to get conditional loan approval with as few conditions as possible the first go around. Once the underwriter issues a conditional loan approval, the mortgage processor will gather all the conditions and submit it for a clear to close. There may be a few go-arounds between submitting conditions between the mortgage underwriter and the processor. The mortgage underwriter is the person that issues a clear to close. A clear to close is when the lender is ready to prepare the closing docs and fund the loan.

Once the mortgage underwriter issues a clear to close, the mortgage company’s closing department and mortgage processor coordinate the closing with the title company. Closing docs are sent to the title company. After the closing docs have been signed by all parties, the lender will wire the funds. Once the funds are dispersed, keys are transferred and so is ownership.