Ultimate Guide on How to Buy a House for the First Time

Here at Quadwalls.com we love our first time homebuyers. We have helped many first time homebuyers purchase their home. We do this by helping them understand the first steps to buying a house.

We wanted to put together a basic guide to describe the process of buying a house. At Quadwalls.com, we like to say we are the smarter way to real estate. If we educate you about the process you will be more comfortable. So, let’s do that!

This post will cover the steps to buying a house for the first time. What we thought was best in telling you how to go about buying a house we broke this down into 4 phases. We will cover each of these in detail.

Process Of Buying A House: Phase 1 – Your Needs & Your Wants

The first steps to buying a house are all about you determining your housing needs and your wants. You want to buy something that you know will work for you. Also, we need to develop a budget for the home you will be searching for once you start that step.

Here is a list of questions to help you in the early steps of buying a house. These will help you define your needs and wants and direct your budget and home search.

Home Purchase Needs Questions

• How many bedrooms do you need?
• How many bathrooms do you need?
• What kind of a yard size do you need?
• What is the smallest size home that will work for you?
• Do you want a house, condo, or townhouse?
• Do you need to be near something, or require a specific school district, or short commute?
• Don’t forget the pets. Do you need a fenced yard or other features to accommodate the pets?
• How quickly do you need in your new home?

Home Purchase Wants Questions

• Are there any features you would really like to have? Examples are a fireplace, main bedroom bathroom, or walk-in closets.
• What else is important to you?
• What is the highest monthly payment you are willing to pay for a home? Or to say differently, at what monthly payment are you no longer comfortable?

Process Of Buying A House: Phase 2 – Contact The Professionals

In Phase 2 of the first steps of buying a house, it is time to start engaging with professionals. This would be real estate agents and lenders. Let’s look at how each is important and affects your journey in the first time home buying process.

Lenders – The Mortgage People

Contacting a lender is an incredibly important step in the process of buying a house. If you do not need a mortgage skip this step. However, if you are like most of us, you will need a lender.

Where Do I Find A Lender?

To find a lender, you could get a referral from a real estate agent. Here in Northwest Indiana we refer many of our customers to Diamond Residential Mortgage Corp. Time and time again we have found the staff there to be professional, understanding, and down right damn good at what they do.

Also, you could contact your bank. Most banks and credit unions have a mortgage department or can refer you to a company who provides mortgages.

Why Should I Speak With A Lender?

A conversation with your lender is going to give you information and really set up the plan for buying your house. Some of this information is crucial for your real estate agent. These pieces of information include whether you can get approved for a loan, the amount of a loan you can get, and the loan type.

Speaking as a real estate agent, each of these pieces of information is very important to helping you successfully complete the home purchase process. Answers to these questions will help your agent and you search for the right home and a home you can actually purchase.

Additionally, the loan amount you are approved may cause you to jump back to Phase 1. You might re-evaluate whether buying a home is the right thing right now. If the amount you are approved for does not accomodate your needs, waiting to buy might be the best choice for you. Alternatively, you may be approved for and comfortable with a higher monthly payment than you earlier thought. Then, maybe you can add a few things to your wants list.

Contacting a lender is a very important first step to buying a house.

Real Estate Agents – The People Who Get You In The House And Manage The Transaction

Real estate agents assist their customers by helping search for a home, getting answers to property specific questions, writing offers, and managing the transaction to closing. Real estate agents will help you keep your plan of buying a house on track.

How Do I Find A Real Estate Agent?

There are many ways to find a real estate agent. A friend or family member may refer you to an agent. Or, you may see one online or on social media. You could walk into a real estate office. Or, there are some real estate websites which merely pair you with an agent based on that agent paying for a subscription for leads.

At Quadwalls.com we are a team of real estate agents who are all partner agents with the website. None of our agents pay to be featured there. Instead, they were handpicked and vetted by the website’s owner. Learn more about our Quadwalls Connected Agents here.

How To Find The Best Real Estate Agent?

I specifically added this section for a reason. So often, a buyer stops at the first agent who meets you at the first house you see. Or, through referrals. What does not happen enough is a pre-searching meeting.

A bit of advice is this: find the best agent for you. I can promise you those subscription websites do nothing to find an agent that is best for you. Equally, though referrals are remarkably powerful, you want to make sure your agent is a great fit for you. This is all about you, so find the right person to work for you.

Contact a couple of agents and ask them to buy you a cup of coffee. Any agent worth anything would jump at the chance to meet a pre-approved, first time home buyer.

10 Things To Look For In A Great Real Estate Agent

So, we are talking about the first time home buying process. That means you have no experience with buying a home. And that means you are placing immense trust in the real estate agent working for you. When meeting with agents, these are the characteristics you should keep an eye on. And, these are in order of importance.

• Did the agent listen to me?
• Did the agent ask good follow up questions?
• Did the agent make sure I understood the answers to my questions?
• Was the agent more interested in me or in telling me about him or herself?
• Does the agent work with many buyers?
• Was the agent on time for the meeting? Or, if the agent was late, did he or she tell me this ahead of time?
• Did the agent seem distracted?
• Was the agent easy to speak with?
• Did the agent bring with or do what he or she said they would do?
• Overall, how did I feel about this person?
• Bonus Item: How did the agent follow up with me? What did I think of that?

Process Of Buying A House: Phase 3 – It’s A Scavenger Hunt

Alright, we are to Phase 3 in the steps to buying a house for the first time. You’re doing it! See, nothing scary yet. Nothing at all. Alright, now it’s time to find the house!

In this stage of the process of buying a house you and your real estate agent will begin searching for homes. Download the apps, save searches on websites, and regularly visit your favorite website to search for homes.

Many areas of the country are facing an inventory problem. Basically, there are fewer homes for sale than active buyers. This is causing homes to sell very fast. You need a real estate agent who is on it! And, we always appreciate when our customers are equally engaged in the process.

At this stage, you should also be asking questions about properties which have caught your interest. Your real estate agent will get answers to these questions for you.

You will also likely begin touring some homes in person. Home showings are really important. You’ll learn quickly pictures sure can be deceiving at times! But showing homes to a client is a good time. Showings help your agent learn more about you and what you like or don’t like. Home showings are also an opportunity for you to feel like the process is real.

Search, search, and search some more. If you are not getting any results, try making some minor changes to your search filters or your budget. And don’t be afraid to request a showing with your agent. If you are even a little interested in a home, ask to see it.

Process Of Buying A House: Phase 4 – We Found It. Now Buy It.

Oh boy…now you’re in deep! The final phase of how to go about buying a house is making that offer and nudging the transaction to the finish line, aka the closing table. This is where it can get a little stressful, but really, don’t let it.

Your agent and your lender are experienced pros. We do this all the time.

Here, I will briefly break down the steps of the process you will experience in this final stage of the first steps to buying a house for the first time.

Step 1: Making An Offer

With the assistance of your agent, you will make an offer for the home. Your agent will review comparable home prices, remind herself of the best terms to make the purchase easy on you, and make recommendations based on your love for the property vs. current market conditions and the risk of not having your offer accepted.

There may be counter offers, too. Basically, this is just your agent reviewing what the seller said back and continuing to negotiate with the assistance of your agent toward an agreement with the seller.

Step 2: Offer Accepted

Great news, your offer has been accepted! At this time, you will begin meeting your obligations in the purchase agreement and satisfying any contingencies.

Some of these activities include notifying your lender, selecting a title company to oversee the closing, reviewing title work, and having the property inspected. If you did have the property inspected, you might have reserved the right to request repairs from the seller.

Step 3: Loan Approval

Real estate agents are faster than lenders. Okay, if any lenders read this I’ll get all kinds of flack.

What I am trying to say is real estate agents usually get their work done on a transaction long before the loan is approved. Honestly, that is how it is supposed to be. Once you are through the inspections and other obligations of the transaction you will continue to work with your lender towards getting final loan approval.

At this time, you will not hear as much from your real estate agent because her work is complete for the moment.

Step 4: Closing

Once final loan approval is received it is time for your real estate agent to get back into the driver’s seat.

A closing will be scheduled with the title company. Closing will take about an hour and will involve you as the buyer signing about 40 documents. Many of the documents you will have seen before from your lender.

Money transfers to the seller and you get title to the property. You owe the lender money every month, but you get the keys, too.

The house is yours and you are done.

Acceptance of your offer to closing takes about 35 days in most areas.

Conclusion

How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. The first time home buying process is just that, a process. Your professionals will help you break this down into manageable pieces.

The process of buying a house is not that scary. Surround yourself with the right professionals and you will knock out the steps of buying a house for the first time with ease. Remember, we want to see you buy a home because this is how we earn a living. Secondly, we do this every single day. Your professional team is in place to help you, keep the stress to a minimum, and keep you from making mistakes.

I’d like to recommend you start with the list of needs and wants. Also, if you are searching for homes for sale in Northwest Indiana feel free to take a look at our team of Quadwalls Connected Agents. When you are ready to start searching for homes, feel free to start your search with us.

If you have any other questions you can contact us any time. We’re happy to help.