8 Important Steps to Buying a New Home

1. LOCATE AN EXCLUSIVE BUYER'S AGENT



Locate an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent to work for you. You are well on your way because you are reading this. Learn what sets us apart from traditional agents and how we get paid for our services.

2. ASSESS YOUR GOALS



We will assess your wants, needs and “would like to haves” in a home and develop a plan to find a property that fits as many of these criteria as possible.  This can be accomplished initially with an interview and/or questionnaire and then with a follow-up face to face meeting.

3. GET YOUR MORTGAGE PRE-APPROVED



White Oak Mortgage LLC will get your financing pre-approved with the lender. This pre-approval is generally good for 90 days unless there’s been a dramatic change in your financial situation. Sometimes, it may take longer than 90 days to find a home that is a “perfect fit.” In these cases, we will get your pre-approval reviewed and extended with the lender.

This is such an important step in the process that we have made a company decision to only represent you as an Exclusive Buyer’s Agent if this has been completed. If you have already received pre-approved from a different mortgage company, we are fine with that. We will need to review the paperwork given to you by that mortgage company.

By getting pre-approved, we put you in a position of power when it comes time to write the offer to purchase on a new property.

4. FIND YOUR NEW HOME



We will begin the home search based on our discussions with you and on the parameters we’ve all developed.  Our initial search is a master search of all homes on the market which meet as many of your specifications as possible. We follow this up with daily searches for properties that are new to the market or have taken a price reduction.  You now have an efficient and effective, tried and true process working for you.

5. MARKET ANALYSIS



When you find a home you’d like to write an offer on, we extensively research and review the home for you and prepare a Comparative Market Analysis (CMA) of the value. This approach allows you to buy a home based on information – not emotion. It also protects you from overpaying for that property. This becomes especially important when it’s time to finish getting your mortgage because the lender will require you to make up the difference in the accepted price between you and the seller and the appraised value that their appraiser comes up with.

6. NEGOTIATION



We will negotiate the offer to purchase and the acceptance of it on your terms, always putting what is in your best interests before anyone else’s.

7. INSPECTION



Help you locate a licensed home inspector of your choice. We have several recommendations that we’ll make at this time, depending on your individual situation and the property involved.

8. CLOSING



Our goal is to get you to the closing table so that you can begin enjoying your new home. This is an exciting time and we strive to make it an experience you’ll always want to remember! There are still many things that need to happen- the biggest being your mortgage- and we do everything to help insure your financing is approved and the closing occurs in an orderly and timely manner. We have enjoyed a 100% success rate when we work together at Your Home Buying Agency LLC and White Oak Mortgage LLC.

If you have a home to sell before buying, you can find more information in our selling section.