Buying a house

So, you want to buy a house—now what? If it's your first home or fifth home, buying a home is an emotional, exciting, and also exhausting experience. You may also be wondering along the way—what am I missing?  Here’s a few tips. 

• Do some preliminary online searching. Check into what homes are selling for in the areas you’re interested in to give you an idea of what you’re looking for. This will help later on when communicating your wish list with your real estate agent.
• Find an agent. A good real estate agent will help you navigate the process every step of the way from preliminary searching, to suggesting multiple qualified lenders to speak to, showing you homes,  narrowing "must have's' with "wants" in your new search, making an offer, negotiating inspection asks, being present with you at signing and getting you the keys! Your friends and family will also be great sources—see if any of your trusted contacts have someone they recommend.
• Get pre-qualified. Getting pre-qualified can be a journey in and of itself.  This will help align your dreams with reality. There may be things you need to do before you can buy a home. Increase your credit score. Pay off debt. Save for a down payment and closing costs. Understand how the current interest rates impact your mortgage and what that means for your buying power. Mortgage calculators are beneficial, but in the end you want to speak with a lending professional that can assess your financial reality and realistically advise you on the price range of homes you are qualified to buy. 
• Look at homes. This is the exciting part. Your real estate agent may show you a variety of homes to get your reaction on features they think you’ll like. Give your agent detailed feedback so they can show you homes that are perfectly suited to you. Also, make sure you let friends and family know you’re looking for a new home--you may even find out about an amazing home before it hits the market.
• Make an offer. Once you’ve found your dream home, you may want to move quickly. Your agent will guide you on a reasonable first offer to start negotiations based on market conditions. 
• Closing. When your negotiations with the seller are successful, and you pass the inspection process, you should be ready to close. At your closing, you’ll spend a little over an hour signing lots of paperwork. Once the property has recorded with the county, sometimes several hours later, you'll meet your agent and she'll hand you the keys to your new home!