10 step Guide to Purchasing a Home
- Find a Realtor (me)
- Setting a Budget
- Determining your desired areas – “location, location, location”
- Wants vs Needs- current situation vs desired situation
- Home Buyers Guide- what to expect so its not unexpected
- Search Begins!- what to expect at showings
- The Contract…
- Inspections-The Who, What and Where.
- Firming up the contract and what to have in place prior to possession
- Keys!
Find a Realtor
Have you ever had to work with someone that just wasn’t on your same wavelength? Working with someone that you get along with, understands your current, desired and future living situation is very important. As your Realtor my job is to listen, search, preview, schedule, tour, research and verify all our findings. I will represent and advise you through the process of negotiations with clear communication ending with you finding a great house to call home.
Setting a Budget
Before we go and look at properties physically- we need to make sure you can afford them financially. Not only will this make our time more efficient together, but it will set realistic expectations as to what you are looking for. My goal as your agent is to take the stress out of this situation for you, placing you in a house you can not comfortably afford to live in is not in your best interest. Contacting a mortgage broker is going to put you in the best position because not only will you have a clear picture as to what you can afford but also you will now have 3 months to shop around with your ‘pre approved’ rate.
If you’re interested in seeing what you could afford for a mortgage contact me and I can put you in contact with a mortgage broker.
Determining your Desired location
It’s all based off of the age old saying “location, location, location”. The location of where you live can be determined by many things: proximity to work, schools, bus routes, amenities, parks, and family members. If you’re new to a certain area, I recommend going for a drive around at different times of the day, going for a walk, checking out the local parks and shops to get a true sense of the community you’re interested in. You can change many things about the house you buy, you can’t unfortunately change your neighbours (unless they want to sell their house then call me)
Wants vs Needs
We’ve all watched HGTV and I’m sure lots of us have Pinterest accounts and hey, I’m not here to shut down dreams, but when it comes to what you’re searching for in a property narrowing down what you truly need in a home is essential. Take some time to think about this, what do you love about your current living situation and what would you change? How long are you planning on living at your next home? If you’re planning on moving in 3 years we need to think about re-sale value. Are you planning on starting a family and raising kids here? If you are you’re going to want a site line to the backyard from the house, that means the kitchen should be off of the back of the house opposed to the front. Lots of small details I will help point out in all homes to help give you a better understanding to the space and what your true desires are in a new space.
Home Buyers Guide
So we have a down payment, we have a pre approval from a mortgage broker, we have an idea on what area we want to live, we’ve discussed what your must haves (and HGTV fantasies are) and now we’re ready to start the hunt- but wait.. lets slow down a bit. When I first bought a property I had no idea what I was signing when it came to the contracts, and not only did I look for two years but at this point I had officially found my first ‘dream home’. My anxiety was at an all time high, my palms were sweaty, I felt like I was going to be sick my realtor at the time said a little something comparable to ‘trust me I got this’ thankfully he did truly have a grasp of what was going on but me- the person writing this huge cheque, The person putting their name on a mortgage, shouldn’t they have an idea of what they’re signing? I use this motivation to help guide you in all your questions in regards to the purchase of sale. We go over a fake offer, talk about the deposit cheque, and down payment, the balance of close at cash, all of the conditions and terms you have to be satisfied with before going forward with the transaction and if we do find hiccups with the property along the way how we handle those going forward. Not only do we talk about the transaction itself but we talk about legal fees, register transfer and interest fees, insurance as well as any miscellaneous fees. My goal is that you have a full understanding of the process and what exactly to expect going forward this way when your emotions are running high when you found the house that feels like home- you can think back to this time and hopefully remember some of what we’ve discussed. As always there is no stupid questions, so ask them I’m here to answer them!
Search Begins
Now the real fun begins! We’re going to set you up in the MLS portal that sends you listings that match your search criteria as soon as they hit the market! You’ve found a couple houses you want to go take a look at I will set up the appointments at a time that is convenient with the sellers as well as yourself. I will send you a confirmed schedule of our house tour and time slots. On the day of I will meet you at each property, open up the houses, tour you through and we will discuss the pits and peaks of the property and how it would work for your current and future needs. Each home will have things that you like and dislike my job is to help you determine at the end of the day what is more important to you- there is no perfect home.
The Contract
So you’ve found the house you want to make home, so that means it’s time to put pen to paper. All of the documents we’ve been over before are now going to have your name and your desired property address on it. Exciting! If you have an email address you have access to I will send you all the documents to sign electronically, if not I will meet up with you to sign the contracts! After the contracts have been signed and sent off to the listing agent there is three things that could happen.
- They accept the offer
- The Counter the offer- which means a combination of our original offer and their counter offer will form one document.
- They reject our offer
If we don’t like what is written on their counter offer, we can either write a new offer (you can’t counter a counter) or walk away from the property entirely.
Inspections
So we’ve come to an accepted offer on price terms and conditions and now it’s time to start our inspections. Whether you have a preferred group of inspectors or you have no idea where to start I will help you through it all. I have a lot of inspectors I can put you in contact with and set up for you.
If you find something in your Home Inspection that you don’t anticipate you can either go back to the seller and see if they will work with you on either price or will fix whatever defect found.
Firming up the contract
At this point we have two options:
- Remove conditions- we are accepting everything we have found through inspections, whether we need an amendment for price or alterations you want this property. After you remove conditions your deposit is no longer held in trust so if you do walk away from the property after this point you run the risk of forfeiting your deposit so make sure that this is the house for you!
- NOT remove conditions- you’ve found something throughout inspections you aren’t comfortable taking on as a new buyer, not a problem. We will fill out a notice to not remove conditions and your deposit is either returned to you in full or held in Realty Executives Trust Account to be transferred to another property once we the next one.
Keys
So today is the day, its possession day! You’ve been to the lawyers, got insurance on your property, set up your utilities and internet and you’re ready to finally call this house home. Once keys are releasable I will give you a call and meet you at your new home. Today is the first day of a new chapter and I’m so happy that you chose me to help you through this transition.