Home Buyer's Checklist

Whether you are a first time home buyer, moving up to a larger home, downsizing or simply relocating there are some basic steps you’ll want to take to keep things on track.

1. Get Pre-approved- find out how much you can comfortably borrow (if you are getting a loan).

2. Start your online search (zillow, trulia, realtor.com, agent sites, mls sites, yahoo and so on).

3. Get a buyer’s agent to search for you as well.

4. Have your buyer’s agent schedule appointments and gather additional info.

5. Go look! This is the fun part!!!

6. Make an offer- you determine the price you are willing to pay and your agent assists with the negotiations and paperwork- put down some Earnest money with the offer.

7. Contract accepted and Earnest money is held in a trust or escrow account, obtain a copy of the contract for yourself, your agent should disburse copies to your lender, the title company and the other party’s agent and take care of getting things moving on those ends.

8. Find inspectors and plan your home inspections and termite inspections as quickly as possible- if there is a scary issue and you want to back out you need to do it during the inspection period to get your earnest money back.

9. Notify lender that you’re sticking with it and get on that appraisal as soon as possible (sometimes you may have already ordered it – talk it over with your lender and agent).

10. If you required repairs of the seller, or if your appraisal required repairs, check on them as early as possible.Allow time in advance of closing for the seller to correct issues with those repairs.DON’T wait until the day before closing to see if they fixed that problem!!

11. Do a final walk through 2-3 days before closing- ensure that the home is in the condition it was in when you made the offer/performed inspections.

12. Order utilities in your name- ask your agent for any possible referrals on cable or internet or those utilities…they might be able to get you a discount.

13. Go to closing!!Sign papers…..

14. MOVE IN and enjoy!!!!

This is a generic list…it may have additional things depending on the type of sale (short sale, REO/foreclosure, HUD home, relocation) or the type or your loan or some other special circumstance.It’s meant as a guide to get you on a basic timeline.If you’re working with an agent they should be able to guide you through all the steps needed to make this happen.Probably the one thing that I’ve seen people do out of order most is …they start searching and even start LOOKING at houses before they have talked with a lender and have no idea what they can afford.The WORST most depressing thing you can do is fall in love with a house then find out that it is just out of your price range.Don’t look until you know your price range.