The house buying process can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be if you divide it into six simple steps. If you’re looking for property to purchase, you need to know the six steps of the real estate purchase process.
STEP 1 – FIND THE RIGHT PROPERTY
There are so many things to consider in the purchase of a property. Quite a few things – cost, location, and features – are things that you can decide. After you’ve narrowed your search down to a house that you think could be the perfect one, it gets a lot more complicated. If you aren’t a real estate professional yourself, it would certainly be better for you to hire one rather than try to navigate the process on your own. Before anything else, you need to get pre-approved on a mortgage with a mortgage lender and hire a realtor.
After you’ve found the right property, your realtor will help you submit an offer. During the process, be sure to look into the Real Property Report and ensure that the home is all that it’s cracked up to be. This would also be the right time to hire a real estate lawyer.
STEP 2 – BEGIN THE BUYING PROCESS
After you’ve put together a little team with your realtor and lawyer, it’s time to send a copy of the offer or the purchase contract to your lawyer. This gives you the assurance that everything will be handled professionally and your representatives will be working in your best interest.
Your real estate lawyer will be responsible for handling all the finances and documents for the transaction throughout the entire process. To prevent a conflict of interest, it’s best that the seller and buyer both have their own lawyers, and one lawyer cannot represent both parties.
STEP 3 – DO A TITLE SEARCH
At this point, your lawyer will do a title search to take a look at any legal record or document that refers to the property. This is to make sure there are no title defects, liens, or other issues that you may have not known about beforehand and that may affect your decision to buy. If the search yields nothing suspicious, you can proceed to step 4.
STEP 4 – HAVE THE PROPERTY INSPECTED
At step 4, it gets a lot more serious. You’ll need to have a professional home inspector and pest inspector look over the home thoroughly to ensure that you are getting a home that is in the condition that you wanted it. This protects you from having to pay unforeseen costs to repair or make changes to the home after the title has been passed to you.
Be sure to hire your own independent inspector. Again, to prevent a conflict of interest, you don’t want anyone affiliated with the seller. Anyone who has a stake in the sale may not be acting in your best interest.
STEP 5 – PREPARE THE CLOSING DOCUMENTS
After your lawyer and realtor have helped you negotiate your contract and you and the seller have come to an agreement, your lawyers will start to prepare closing documents that will transfer the title of the land.
It’s important that you keep track of all the documents you’ve accumulated throughout the process because they will be useful during this step. This includes mortgage documents, sales contract, proof of title search, proof of homeowner’s insurance, and perhaps a few more things. You’ll also need to produce a photo and your full legal name.
STEP 6 – DO THE FINAL WALK-THROUGH
As you make progress on the closing documents, it’s time for the final walk-through. Go through the entire house thoroughly with your real estate agent to ensure that everything is according to the purchase contract and there have been no changes or damages.
And that’s it! You’ll be a new homeowner. It isn’t as hard as you thought after all, is it? That being said, it can get difficult to navigate all the documents and legal jargon, so it’s in your best interest to hire a real estate lawyer. Should you decide to hire one, don’t hesitate to give us a call!