Buying a Home
Buying a home is an exciting and complex adventure. It can also be a very time-consuming and costly one if you're not familiar with all aspects of the process, and don't have all the best information and resources at hand.
Here are my 5 Steps to Home Buying:
1) HOW MUCH CAN YOU AFFORD: Before you start looking, know how much home you can afford. As a loose rule of thumb, I like to use 1/4 of your take home pay as your projected housing costs and then work from there. For example, if you make $80,000/year or approximately $4700/month take home, then you want your monthly housing expenses to be 1/4th of that or approximately $1175/mnth, including taxes and insurance. You can click here to estimate your take home pay and then divide your monthly calculation by 4.
Once you have your take home pay estimated, go to my Mortgage Calc page and work the numbers including any down payment you have until you get to or close to the 1/4th of your take home number. Not good with numbers? No problem. Bring your numbers to me and we'll figure this out together. To continue this example, with an $80,000 annual salary, and a 20% down payment, you want to be looking for a house in Charlotte, NC up to about $235,000.00 which comes out to about a $1174/mnth payment including property taxes and insurance (both estimated):
2) GET PRE-APPROVED: Once you know what you can afford, now it is time to find a lender that will give you the best deals and service to get there. Remember, what a lender says you can qualify for and what you have just determined you can afford will be quite different. Don't fall into the "you can afford" a bigger house trap from mortgage brokers or bank loan officers. Big houses are great, but if you can't afford to leave them they become big prisons that you own and have to fix occasionally -- not fun. Here are links to a few of my preferred lenders. Call them, let them know where you want to be and shop them to get the best rates. You may also want to check with your current bank or credit union for comparisons. You will want to start this process as soon as possible knowing that if you need to wait a little longer once you begin the process the rates may change and you may have to recalculate your max budget:
https://www.loansbybryanbelden.com/
3) HIRE A PROFESSIONAL & LET THE SEARCH BEGIN: Did you know that hiring a real estate professional is almost always FREE for buyers? That's right! Our fees are paid by the sellers in almost all cases. Now that you have your price point in mind and know that you CAN afford it with your calculation in #1, and that you have the funds ready to purchase it, as laid out in #2, it is time to start looking. We will set up a 1-2 hour session together where we sit down in my office, your home, or coffee shop for a comprehensive no-obligation buyer's consultation and we will review the entire home buying process and get you set up on a detailed home search, directly from our local MLS, so that you are only seeing houses that meet your wants and needs. When you see something you want to get inside, just send me the address or MLS # and I will schedule a convenient showing. Did I forget to mention that my services are almost always FREE to you as the buyer or buyers? That's right! My fees are paid for by the seller of the house you are purchasing with rare exceptions. (I can also find you homes that are not on the MLS - be sure to ask me how.)
4) OFFER: Once you find a home you like, I do some homework to see if the asking price is fair, too low, or too high and we put or heads together and draw up the offer paperwork to present to the seller or seller's agent. If your offer is accepted go to step# 5. If it is not, go back to step# 3 and keep looking.
5) CLOSING: You got the house! Now what...? Typical closings can range from 30-60 days. More than likely it will be 40-45 days from the time you get your offer accepted until you get the keys. Plan accordingly and I am also here to guide you through the process and timeline. Below is a snapshot of they entire process which you get as part of your Home Buyers Guide during our buyer consultation session:
If you're like most people, buying a home is the biggest investment you will ever make. So whether you're buying a starter home, your dream home or an investment property, why not take advantage of my experience as a local market expert for the Charlotte area, Gastonia, Cabarrus County, Mecklenburg County, Union County, Lancaster County SC, York County SC to make the most informed decisions you can, every step of the way? Don't delay, call / text / email me today and lets get started searching for your next home or investment!