No One Said Buying A Home Couldn’t Be Easy
Provided by Amanda Shelton with Cornerstone Mortgage. Please visit Cornerstone Mortgage at http://www.chlhometeam.com
Life can be stressful — so stressful, in fact, that two researchers came up with a real-life stress scale way back in 1967. By assessing the medical records of more than 5,000 patients to correlate illness and stressful life events, The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale was made. And as much as we hear that buying a house can be extra-stressful, we were delighted to find that it didn’t even make the top 10.
TAKE A DEEP BREATH
Life circumstances like death, marriage, divorce, and retirement may throw you off course, but according to the research-backed stress scale, there’s every chance that buying a house can be easy. Whenever we meet with potential homebuyers, we always let them in on a little secret: The home buying process can look complicated, when it’s actually pretty straightforward.
Buying a house is simple enough to be broken down into five steps:
1. FIRST, YOU’LL GET PREQUALIFIED.
Here’s where most people get it backward right out of the gate, spending weeks and even months of their time looking for the wrong house. Getting pre-qualified first can give you the security of knowing that your loan is already locked and loaded, ready to go when you find the perfect place. Being pre-qualified also gives you a stronger bargaining chip to use when making an offer. Sellers are more likely to make a deal with a pre-qualified buyer who means business.
2. THEN, YOU’LL START SHOPPING.
It’s the moment you’ve been waiting for — the chance to comb through real estate listings and schedule some in-person showings. Your mortgage lender helped you get the money by getting you pre-qualified, and your realtor is going to help you get in the door. This is again where pre-qualification is critical: Once your loan amount has been preset, your realtor will be able to show you homes that fit within your budget.
3. NEXT, YOU’LL PICK A LOAN PRODUCT
You’ve gotten prequalified, but there are still many different types of mortgage loans to choose from with different financing options available. You may have been given multiple loan product options during the prequalification process (step 1), but know that some products or programs may be subject to change based on the property you decide to buy. In this step, you’re going to get to know your loan officer a whole lot better as you work together and fine-tune the right loan program to meet your short-term and long-term goals. This is one time when the old saying holds true: When working with your mortgage lender, there’s no such thing as a stupid question.
4. NOW, YOU’LL GET FINAL LOAN APPROVAL.
You’ve finally found your dream home, gotten your offer accepted, and made it through the appraisal and inspection in one piece. Before you post that celebratory Facebook status, you’ll still need to get through the final approval process. Your loan officer will collect the rest of your paperwork, including title work, flood certification, and homeowner’s insurance, to give you the seal of approval on your loan.
5. LAST BUT NOT LEAST, YOU’LL CLOSE ON YOUR NEW HOME.
As hectic as it might be, this is the time to celebrate. On closing day, which is also moving day, you’ll meet with the seller to transfer the property and close the transaction. To make it happen, you’ll need a certified or cashier’s check, made payable to yourself and ready to be endorsed to the title company. Take a moment to review the “Closing Disclosure,” sign the mortgage note, receive the deed from the seller, and pat yourself on the back. It’s a done deal.
