This post is the first formal post in my “Buying A Home” series, but is actually somewhat of a prelude to the entire series. For more information and tips about beginning your search for a new home please see my post “Not Sure What You Are Looking For?”
This series is written to help serve as a guide for all buyers; especially for first-time homebuyers and those who haven’t made a purchase in a long time. I hear too often now from potential buyers that they don’t know what the steps are to buy a new home, and it seems like a daunting task, especially when they Google the steps or check out a book store for a guide to buying a home. The massive number of articles online, and thick books in bookstores can easily make purchasing a home seem like an extremely complicated process.
Purchasing a home can be quite easy though, and over the course of this blog series, I will break the process into a number of simple steps that will make the steps clearer, and more navigable for any buyer.
The absolute first step to buying a new house is to make sure that you qualify for a mortgage, and which type of mortgage is best for your budget. Purchasing a house is one of the biggest investments of your life, and will almost always include you getting a mortgage to help with your purchase. An easy way to find a reliable mortgage officer is to ask family and friends. Chances are that someone you know worked with a mortgage officer that they found very easy to work with. Put together a list of mortgage officers recommended by friends and family, and call them to ask about their interest rates, and any specials they might be able to offer you, and share with them your plans so they can speak to your needs.
Once you have spoken to a few mortgage officers and feel comfortable working with one, you will want to ask to be pre-approved for a mortgage. In order to be pre-approved you will need to provide important personal and financial information so your pre-approval can be as accurate as possible. Each lender has their own pre-approval process, so the details and requirements will vary.
As a part of your pre-approval, the mortgage officer may approve you for the maximum amount possible by default, but you should focus on the monthly payment amount. To ensure that you are comfortable with the monthly mortgage payment you will want to discuss your ideal payment with the mortgage officer so he or she can find the price range of houses that best match your budget.
In my experience, there is nothing worse than seeing houses at the top of your price range only to find out that you aren’t comfortable with the associated monthly payment, and having to begin your house search all over again in a lower price range. Likewise, you want to make sure that you aren’t being so conservative with your monthly payment that it will make it nearly impossible to find a home that matches what you are looking for.
Once you receive your pre-approval letter from the mortgage officer send it to your Realtor and let them know that you are ready to start setting showings to kick-off your search for a new home.