Starting the process of buying our first home, what steps are needed now?

[swbsam]

We looked at this property that we liked that was a bit above our price range but, after two very stressful weeks of negotiating, the price is square in our budget again. It needs some work and we're ok with that, but we're having an inspector look the place over to make sure that there are no major structural issues.

What's next, based on us feeling a bit uneasy with the real estate agency we're using? Not that they've done anything wrong (other than trying to force us to put in an offer $20,000 more than we wanted to, but we didn't back down) - they're just fast talkers and we want to dot the i's and cross the ts properly.

Steps we're doing now:
1- Financing: pre-approval completed, FHA loan FTW!
2- Inspector will be inspecting the house early next week
3- We've secured a lawyer through a family friend, and will be meeting with him asap before we sign anything/pay a binder

Anything else need to be done?

Thanks!

 

[WarhammerUC]

get insurance quotes too

 

[pstylesss]

A good agent will be teaching you every step of the way. Find a new one.

 

[Blieb]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
A good agent will be teaching you every step of the way. Find a new one.

This. But it sounds like it's too late if you have an offer accepted already.

 

[SphinxnihpS]

Back out now before you put up earnest money.

Get a BUYER'S agent who represents YOU. Buying with the help of people who do not 100% represent your interests is asking for it, especially with a purchase this large.

 

[phoenix79]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
A good agent will be teaching you every step of the way. Find a new one.

QFT

We just bought our first house. Our agent was awesome at helping us through every step and made sure we were comfortable with what was going on.

 

[Finalnight]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
A good agent will be teaching you every step of the way. Find a new one.

Not when their fiduciary obligation is to the seller.

 

[D1gger]

Link


Step 1: Decide what kind of home you want and need. Determine your housing needs and wants according to your affordability before you go shopping.

Step 2: Shop for a home. You may choose to work with a real estate agent to help you
more easily find a home that fits your needs and your budget. Take your time, take notes and ask questions and narrow your search by looking carefully at property conditions, neighborhood qualities, and community services.

Step 3: Make an offer. When you finally find a house in your price range and decide what you are willing to pay for it, you will make an offer, or a written purchase proposal. An offer is usually accompanied by earnest money to show your intention to complete the sale.

Step 4: Get a professional home inspection. Once your offer is accepted, hire a professional home inspector to check the structural soundness of your property. If you made your purchase contract contingent on a satisfactory home inspection, you have options to address any problems with the house before you have to live with them. If the inspection shows major problems, you can cancel the sale and get your earnest money back. Or you can ask the seller to either make the repairs or give you a credit for the amount it would cost you to make them.

Step 5: Apply for a mortgage loan. Once you choose a lender and a loan program, you will complete a formal application at the lender?s office. For more information, review Finance Your Home.

Step 6: Obtain insurance and have additional inspections. You will have to shop for and buy homeowner's insurance to protect against losses that result from damage to your home or liability.

Step 7: Close the loan. The final step in the home purchase process is called the closing, or settlement. This is when the closing documents are signed, closing costs are paid, and the house keys are given to the new owner. It?s time to move in!

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: ZeroIQ
A good agent will be teaching you every step of the way. Find a new one.

Truer words have never been spoken. My fiance and I put an offer in on a house in mid-January and the agent has been a blessing. She has called, emailed, and relayed questions back and forth to the seller. We got everything we wanted out of her and the seller with our offer with the exception of the seller's refrigerator (you can't have everything ).

She hooked us up with a good broker, pointed us to the direction of a good insurance company with low rates, and got us a pretty sweet deal with the seller on paying a good part of our closing costs and them renting back from us for the first two months after closing. She even had the rental contract made up for us for the seller (they will be renting back from us for the months of March and April while their new house is completed -- I move in on May 1).

She also found us a lawyer and set that up and helped us setup the home inspection.

We close on February 27. To tell you the truth, this has been a rather easy/pleasant experience. The toughest part was just copying/printing out or W2s/1099, tax returns, and bank statements -- well, that and signing about a hundred pages during the initial loan process.

Everything else has been a breeze.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: D1gger
Link


Step 1: Decide what kind of home you want and need. Determine your housing needs and wants according to your affordability before you go shopping.

Step 2: Shop for a home. You may choose to work with a real estate agent to help you
more easily find a home that fits your needs and your budget. Take your time, take notes and ask questions and narrow your search by looking carefully at property conditions, neighborhood qualities, and community services.

Step 3: Make an offer. When you finally find a house in your price range and decide what you are willing to pay for it, you will make an offer, or a written purchase proposal. An offer is usually accompanied by earnest money to show your intention to complete the sale.

Step 4: Get a professional home inspection. Once your offer is accepted, hire a professional home inspector to check the structural soundness of your property. If you made your purchase contract contingent on a satisfactory home inspection, you have options to address any problems with the house before you have to live with them. If the inspection shows major problems, you can cancel the sale and get your earnest money back. Or you can ask the seller to either make the repairs or give you a credit for the amount it would cost you to make them.

Step 5: Apply for a mortgage loan. Once you choose a lender and a loan program, you will complete a formal application at the lender?s office. For more information, review Finance Your Home.

Step 6: Obtain insurance and have additional inspections. You will have to shop for and buy homeowner's insurance to protect against losses that result from damage to your home or liability.

Step 7: Close the loan. The final step in the home purchase process is called the closing, or settlement. This is when the closing documents are signed, closing costs are paid, and the house keys are given to the new owner. It?s time to move in!

Step 5 should be Step 1.

 

[nakedfrog]

Practice your signature, you'll be doing it a lot on the day you close... for some reason they made me use my middle initial as well, which I just find odd because I never use it anywhere else.

 

[looker001]

Op:Sounds like the agent is NOT duing his fudiciary duty. Is this seller agent that you using, that is acting dual agent or are you using your own buyer agent?


Capt caveman, they should have preapproved loan before starting to search the house, but not the actual mortgage loan as you need the property before you can go ahead and do the loan.

 

[NFS4]

Originally posted by: looker001


Capt caveman, they should have preapproved loan before starting to search the house, but not the actual mortgage loan as you need the property before you can go ahead and do the loan.

Yup, we got pre-approved, then put in an offer.

 

[OCGuy]

You are stuck with that agent if there is already an accepted offer.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: looker001
Op:Sounds like the agent is duing his fudiciary duty. Is this seller agent that you using, that is acting dual agent or are you using your own buyer agent?


Capt caveman, they should have preapproved loan before starting to search the house, but not the actual mortgage loan as you need the property before you can go ahead and do the loan.

No kidding. Like I said, Step 5 should be Step 1.

 

[fishjie]

once the inspection passes, you have depending on the contract, a week to walk away. make sure there are no serious issues. its incredibly important to find a competent inspector who will do stuff like get onto the roof and into the crawlspace so he can look for problems.

after that you the mortgage broker or bank will have the place appraised and finalize all the mortgage paperwork. then, an escrow company will prepare all the necessary documents and have you sign all the papers. you should be good at that point.

and lol at your cruddy agent wanting you to offer 20k more in THIS HORRIBLE HOUSING MARKET

 

[looker001]

Originally posted by: fishjie

and lol at your cruddy agent wanting you to offer 20k more in THIS HORRIBLE HOUSING MARKET

It sounds like op is using seller agent and that agent is working as dual agent. The problem with dual agentcy is fudiciary duty become tricky. Being that agent comission is base on how much the house sells for, the agent is looking out for him/her self in this situation instead of the client(s).

 

[fishjie]

Well technically, does the buyer's agent really rep the buyer? At the end of the day, they get a commission on the sale as well. One could almost argue that a buyer's agent wants the buyer to offer more. Whereas the seller's agent, desperate to get the house to sell, would want the seller to lower their price more often than not.

But whatever, I was pretty happy with my agent. She walked me through the entire process and negotiated the price down to what I wanted, so I can't complain.

 

[looker001]

Originally posted by: fishjie
Well technically, does the buyer's agent really rep the buyer? At the end of the day, they get a commission on the sale as well. One could almost argue that a buyer's agent wants the buyer to offer more. Whereas the seller's agent, desperate to get the house to sell, would want the seller to lower their price more often than not.

But whatever, I was pretty happy with my agent. She walked me through the entire process and negotiated the price down to what I wanted, so I can't complain.

The problem is with fudiciary duty when you're dual agent. What seller tells you, you can't tell the buyer and what buyer tells you, you can't tell the seller.

The buyer agent job is to represent the buyer and put buyer interest above yours. Does this alaways happens? No, but a good agend will do his hardest to get his client the best deal possible. You get your business from word of mouth and happy client=more business.

 

[Noirish]

how does counter-offer work if nothing is wrong with the house except for the overall area has fallen in price?

 

[looker001]

Originally posted by: Noirish
how does counter-offer work if nothing is wrong with the house except for the overall area has fallen in price?

You offer what you think the house is worth and you let the seller decide if they want to counter the offer or just ignore it.

 

[HappyPuppy]

People who can't figure out how to buy a house on their own without getting an attorney or whining on an internet forum should reconcile themselves to living in rentals. I can't believe that so many of you high dollar college grads are too stupid to figure out the system on your own. Is it that you are just too fucking lazy to do the research on your own, or are you really that ignorant, even with your college degrees?

This is just one more example of the 'gimme' generation that is too lazy to do their own homework. I am constantly reminded and amazed at how you need someone to hold your hands and tell you when to inhale and exhale.

Yeah, that's my take on it.

 

[Shortcut]

Well, it is the very first time he's buying the single most expensive item in his life.

The fact that he's asking questions means that he's doing his homework. And this is not a situation where you want to learn from your mistakes if you can learn from errors that others made.

So stop being a dick and cut him some slack.

 

[OCGuy]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
People who can't figure out how to buy a house on their own without getting an attorney or whining on an internet forum should reconcile themselves to living in rentals. I can't believe that so many of you high dollar college grads are too stupid to figure out the system on your own. Is it that you are just too fucking lazy to do the research on your own, or are you really that ignorant, even with your college degrees?

This is just one more example of the 'gimme' generation that is too lazy to do their own homework. I am constantly reminded and amazed at how you need someone to hold your hands and tell you when to inhale and exhale.

Yeah, that's my take on it.

Do we have to get off your lawn?

 

[fishjie]

Originally posted by: HappyPuppy
People who can't figure out how to buy a house on their own without getting an attorney or whining on an internet forum should reconcile themselves to living in rentals. I can't believe that so many of you high dollar college grads are too stupid to figure out the system on your own. Is it that you are just too fucking lazy to do the research on your own, or are you really that ignorant, even with your college degrees?

This is just one more example of the 'gimme' generation that is too lazy to do their own homework. I am constantly reminded and amazed at how you need someone to hold your hands and tell you when to inhale and exhale.

Yeah, that's my take on it.

waaah waah waah

sounds like someone was too stupid to even graduate high school. your logic is equally dumb. you can't learn how to buy a house on your own. you either take a class in it, or ask questions. since they don't teach home buying in school, the obvious alternative is to ask for help. duh.