Buying Process

Household income. Lenders typically recommend homes with a cost no more than three to five times your annual household income, with a 20% down payment and moderate amount of other debt. 

Initially you'll provide some financial information to your lender - such as your income and amount of savings.

For preapproval, your lender will need W-2 statements, paystubs, bank account statements and to run a credit check.

After touring homes in your price range, we assist you in writing an offer on the right home. We'll present a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes in the area. We may need to negotiate this offer with the sellers until accepted. 

The immediate step after making an offer and having it accepted is to complete any inspections that the offer was contingent upon. If one of the contingencies was a home inspection, you'll have a certain number of days to complete this after the offer is accepted. 

This form will be used after the home inspection if there are any counter-offers to the seller, asking that items considered defective or problems relating to the safety of the home are corrected prior to closing. 

A home warranty can be purchased to cover repairs and replacements on systems and appliances in your home, usually for a period of a year. This may include coverage of your home's electrical, plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems as well as other home appliances. 

Title is the right to own, possess, use, control and dispose of property. When purchasing a home, you are actually buying the seller's title to the home.

Before the closing, a title search will be conducted for any problems that might prevent you from a clear title to the home.

You will also want to determine how you wish to hold title to the property - especially if you're buying with a spouse, a partner, family member, or colleague.

 An appraisal is an estimate of the value of a property. Although the primary goal is to justify the lender's investment, the appraisal can also protect you from overpaying.

Your lender will typically hire the appraiser and charge you a fee for the service at the closing. 

 After the lender approves your loan, you will get a commitment letter that stipulates the loan term and terms to the mortgage agreement. This final commitment letter will include the annual percentage rate and the monthly costs to repay the loan. It will also include any loan conditions prior to closing. 

 You won't know your final cost for closing until the last couple of days. You'll find the summary of costs on the HUD-1 document.