Many of you reading this are:
- Thinking about buying a new home,
- Ready to buy a new home, or
- Curious about buying a new home in the future.
The goal of this article is to give you a simple explanation of the home-buying process. Though there are complicated portions of homebuying, understanding the steps will help you to navigate the obstacles to successfully buying a new home.
Let’s get started…
Searching for a new home is so easy. There are hundreds of sites and apps focused on feeding you houses from all over the world. This is an amazing way to be a looky-loo. You can find a dream home in the mountains because you love to ski. Or find one on the water, because you love the beach. While this is a great search tool, this too can be overwhelming when you truly focus on beginning your home search.
Why, am I overwhelmed, I love houses.
Though you may love houses, only having a guestimate of how much house you can afford can put your search on the wrong track. How we get you back on track is we turn the funnel upside down, to narrow your focus a bit. The way we narrow that focus is we bring in our first homebuying step, which is to get you pre-approved.
As real estate agents, though we may have a set of preferred lenders (ask me about my preferred lenders), due to my history of working with them in previous transactions, it is your decision who you choose. Our ultimate goal is to find you the right person who can explain how the money portion of buying a house works for you. This step refines your search for houses within your price range.
Though you may not know what town you want to be in, your price range may guide that decision. There are towns, or areas of every state that have lower-priced homes, as well as those with higher-priced homes, thus depending on your pre-approval, you may find greater value in particular areas.
Getting from the House you can Afford, to the House you buy!
As the pre-approval focuses your global search, it broadens your local search. So now we work to focus the search on the house you can buy.
This step is us getting aligned with your likes and dislikes in a home. Some of the things to familiarize yourself with are:
- Square Footage – Take notice of the size and square footage of the homes you like. The pictures don’t lie, but they can make a small room feel big.
- Home styles – How does a Colonial differ from a Cape Cod? What is a raised ranch versus a high ranch? Your real estate agent should help with this as well.
- What your pre-approval can afford you in a home? You may not get an Ensuite Master bedroom (a master bedroom with a bathroom in it), in the $150,000 range in Connecticut, but then again you may. (Ask me about those programs)
After we have done that, we are ready to pinpoint the house you buy, because we have determined your ideal price range, identified the ideal area, based on your price range, and figured out your likes and dislikes in a home.
You are now ready to flip the funnel and buy your next or first home with the Ideal Solutions Team! Contact Us Today!
