House Buying

Sterl72410

Anyone here a seasoned pro (or just owns a home) that would like to give some suggestions/tips on how/where to start? DH and I are first time home-buyers. 

DH and I are looking to move to an area 3-40 minutes away from where we live. We plan on purchasing a home there. We have a pretty good lock on what we are looking for and how much we want to spend.

Now what? Do we find a realtor here? There?  (They are separate metropolitan areas, so most places here don't have listings there and vice versa.) 

Suggestions for things to definenately do or not do? 

EastCoastBride

Based on my own lessons learned, find a realtor in the area you are moving.  They'll know it better - tha tcould help you out in your search. 

laptopprancer

Look at a lot of houses.

Get a THOROUGH inspection, maybe more than one, and if you have a friend who is handy/a builder/plumber/electrician etc. bring them along to translate and point at stuff.  Inspectors don't see everything.

Steel yourself, it's not for the weak or faint of heart.

 

annieu613

Do you know what neighborhoods you want to look in?  Where you want to avoid?

Before you get a realtor/when you get one you're going to need to get pre-approved for a loan.  It's free and you can do it on the phone with a mortgage company in about 15 minutes.  Most realtors require that you're pre approved before you start looking.  You don't have to get the loan at the same place you're pre-approved with.

I would get a realtor in the city you're looking in.  They'll have a better idea of the local market and areas. 

We started out by looking at open houses, and that's where we found our realtor.  Spring/summer are the best time for open houses, so I would check the papers.  They're usually scheduled on Sundays.  We used to just drive around the areas we liked on Sunday afternoon and hit up some open houses as we passed them. 

Good luck!

one.sweet.world

As a realtor, I say get yourselves a good buyer's agent (they are free - weeeee!) in the area in which you want to live. I suggest gettting someone who works specifically as a buyer's agent - they are usually working on a real estate team. They don't need years and years as an agent but 3 years is a good start. Don't get a noobie fresh out of real estate school.

Get pre-qualified by a mortgage broker so you know what you can afford.  Don't sign anything until you read the fine print including on a buyer's customer service agreement.  Research on your own as well. Drive the city and see where you want to be...talk to people in those areas. Look at the school ratings. Know the property taxes in the area. Always get a home inspection.

I have to run now....PM if you need any other help!

lust2hart

We just closed on our first house April 23.

I would get a realtor in the area you'd like to live. Take your time finding one whose style you like. Make sure once you've "hired" a realtor, that if you go to any open houses you let the showing realtor know that you already have a buyer's agent.

One thing we were adamant about was to not see houses out of our price range. Even if they could have been negotiated into our price range, I wasn't interested in seeing them because I didn't want to get my heart set on something I couldn't afford.

When we found our house, DH and I went through it first, and then we saw it a second time and brought out a friend who is contractor and had him look at the house through his contractor's eyes. That was awesome, because it was almost like a mini-inspection before we even put in an offer. It allowed us to make a more educated offer, being take into consideration some of the issues he found. If you have anyone in your life like that, I highly recommend having them walk through the house you're planning to make an offer on.

There's some good advice on the "Buying a Home" board on here, but the board is also full of "worst-case-scenario-ers." I hung out there quite a bit when we were just starting to look at houses and was pretty terrified that it was going to be this awful process, when in reality it was a cinch with not a single hiccup. So just be aware of that if you go over there.

Good Luck and Have Fun!

poppyseed1017

Find a realtor in the area you are looking to live in.  Get pre-approved if you haven't already and lock in a good rate so you know what your budget is and how much you can spend, that way you don't look at homes out of your price range.

Look at a lot of homes.  It gets boring after a while but it's worth it. 

Always get an inspection.  A good one done by a professional, not a family member or someone like that.  You won't regret it.

One thing our realtor told us when we first started looking a couple of years ago is this: Be prepared, and don't be afraid, to walk away if necessary.

+RBL+

For us, actually finding a realtor was the hard part.  I had no idea where to start.  I found it awkward to just call realtors and speak with them for me.  It didn't give me an idea of who they were or how they worked.  The realtors recommended to us by family were out of work due to medical issues at the time.  So we ended up visiting a lot of open houses on our own. 

We ended up meeting our realtor at an open house.  We did not like the house she was showing, but we got to talking to her a bit.  I was comfortable with her and liked what she had to say about the house she was showing.  We ended up calling and asking her to show us other houses.  We never signed any kind of contract or anything with her until we made an offer on a house.  We looked for a good 6 months before we made a single offer.  I liked that she was honest about her own opinions on the houses we were looking at and willing to point thinks out that made her uncomfortable.

One thing I later learned that I think is important to know.  If you go to an open house and write that you are not working with a specific realtor on their sign in sheet and later make an offer on that house, you have to use the selling realtor as your buying realtor.

Good luck!

Sterl72410

Thanks so much ladies! This helps a lot!