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The 10 Step Home Buying Process Made Simple.
Look into the area or neighborhoods you would like to be in. Google the neighborhood statistics. It is your job to look into the area you want to be in and figure out schools, crime rate, and look into any other demographics that might be important to you. A real estate agent by law can not talk about what a neighborhood "is like" or steer you into certain neighborhoods.
Find a real estate agent that you like and get along with. Someone who will pay attention to your search criteria. Start to plan the area you want to be in, and maybe drive by or look up things to do (restaurants, shopping, schools, parks, etc) in the area to become a little more familiar. FYI: All agents that are apart of their board have access to the same MLS with the exact same information...I get a lot of calls from buyers saying, "Well what do you have for sale?" It's not what I have, It's what do you want? If it's on the market I can search anywhere for type of property depending on your criteria.
Step 3) Getting Pre-Approved
You will need to be pre-approved for a mortgage if you are not buying your home ALL cash. This is very important as most agents will not take you around to look for homes until both you and they know what your comfortable price range.
Step 4) Communicate With Your Agent
Let your agent know what you are looking for in a property. Let your agent send you a list of properties straight from the MLS that match your search criteria. The MLS is the most accurate way to find listings that are currently on the market and is up to date. After you have gone through the list you may find some homes you want to see right away and if not have your search criteria updated. For an agent this is no problem and they should be glad to help.
You can do online searches on your own but when it comes time for you to get really specific about whether there is an HOA or searching homes with only a pool or parking requirements you will need the help of an agent to look up the details in the MLS.
Step 4) Begin Looking at Houses (This is the fun part! YAY!)
You now have an idea of what is on the market and which neighborhood or neighborhoods you would like to be in. Go out and view the properties and make a checklist of the ones you like most. These should be your top 2 or 3. If you have more than 3 then you really need to narrow it down to what you really want because after all you are just buying one property (for now)!
Now that you have your top favorites, weigh out the pros and cons and figure out which home you want to make an offer on.
The market here in South Florida moves very quickly! I can not stress this enough! If you found a home that you love then make a good offer quickly as it will go quickly and often times you may run into a multiple offer situation. If this is the case don't be scared your agent is used to this and will know how to handle the situation and give you options.
Step 7) Your Offer is Picked! Now what?
Now that your offer was picked you have to do certain due diligence in a timely manner. You need to put your deposit for the home into an escrow account. This is usually done within 2-3 days. Your mortgage broker will start working on your loan commitment. If you are buying a condo or townhome you will most likely need to apply with the HOA.
Step 8) Inspection Period
This is your chance to see if there is anything wrong with the property. If there are minor things that can be fixed then you are good to go. If there are major issues then you need to address them and see if it's something you can have fixed or see if the seller is willing to fix these issues or give you a credit toward these issues. If neither party can come to an agreement and you feel that the home has too many issues then you can back out of the contract as long as you are within the inspection period.
Step 9) Land Survey and Appraisal if need be
Step 10) Close On Your Property!
The title company has been handling a lot of things behind the scenes, such as title search and lien search etc. Most of the time you will never meet all of the people involved in the work of the title company but you will most likely meet with the closing agent to sign all the docs. Once your docs are signed and you have made the final deposit into escrow usually done a day or 2 before closing, then the keys are handed off to you and you are ready to embark on a new journey in your new home!