First Time Home Buyer Tips

Are you wanting to dip your toes in home ownership but don’t know where to start? We understand that buying a home can feel daunting and overwhelming. In this post we have laid out some steps that can help you prepare for homeownership and make the experience less stressful. While we will not cover every question that will come up we hope this will help you start your journey of owning Real Estate. If there are further questions please contact one of our Real Estate Experts for more information.

Mortgage Pre-approval

One of the most important steps is meeting with a mortgage loan officer and getting pre-approved. This will help you figure out exactly what you can afford and lay out what you will need to be approved for a mortgage. Some items that you will need for this are the following: W-2s, pay stubs, income tax returns for the last 2-3 years, bank statements, retirement and investment accounts, gift letter(if receiving a gift for down payment), credit verification and other items depending on your mortgage loan officer.

If you have these main items ready when you meet with your loan officer the approval process will be quick and you can move towards home ownership quickly. During the pre-approval process feel free to shop multiple mortgage companies to find which one will work best for your situation. When pulling your credit there is a grace period of 30 days for you to shop for a mortgage. During this time you can have your credit pulled multiple times without penalty.

Working with a Real Estate Agent

In today’s world it is easy to find multiple homes for sale with apps like Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia and more. You may wonder why you need to have a Real Estate Agent in the first place when you have access to homes on the market. Having a buyers agent, Real Estate Agent that represents you, has a lot of advantages. The real estate agent will handle all communication and negotiation for showings and the sale. This lifts a lot of stress off of your shoulders.

Your real estate agent will also handle all of the paper work, inspections, appraisal, and anything else that may come up during the transaction. They will ensure that everything is done with your best interest at heart. Your real estate agent is also a source of knowledge for you. Your real estate agent knows that this can be an overwhelming process and will do all they can to ensure a smooth process. Find all of our real estate agents here. You can’t go wrong with anyone at Columbia Real Estate. We pride ourselves on our 5 Star Google Rating and our customer service.

Choosing a Home

There is a lot that goes into choosing a home. For every person there are different factors that go into this. This is something that you need to figure out for your self and use your Real Estate Agent as a resource for real estate questions. Some things to consider are listed in this post. Are you wanting this home as a forever home? Do you want the home as potential income property? Are you wanting an affordable home that you could renovate and flip later? Are you needing a home with more space than what you are currently in? Are you planning on being in the home for more than 5 years or just for a year or two? What is the most important feature of a home that you must have? Is location more important than the home itself? Does the home need to be in a certain school district?

Whatever your motivations or goals for your real estate endeavors are, make sure you are communicating this with your real estate agent. They want to make sure that they find what you are wanting and the more honest you are the better they can help you.

We hope that this helps you at the start of your Real Estate Journey. Let’s get started with your search today. Click here to begin searching for your future home.