High Performance Starts with a Process
Buying a home is one of the most exciting milestones of your life. To prepare yourself for this moment, you need to know what to expect during the process. This step-by-step first-time buyer’s guide will help reduce the stress of buying a home and help you enjoy the journey as much as possible.
Do you already know where you want to buy? If you want a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Which features do you like and dislike? What’s available on the market now? If you answered no to any of these questions, now is the time to start researching. In addition to looking for homes that interest you, also take note of any changes in asking prices. This could give you valuable insight into housing trends in specific neighborhoods and help you when the time comes to make an offer.
Notice I said to decide on your budget—not determine how much the mortgage company will give you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for more than you’re comfortable spending, which is why you need to determine the monthly payment you feel comfortable with before talking to a lender. This likely includes doing a full household budget and taking into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or with roommates, you may overlook new expenses like garbage, water, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget.
Just because you think you can afford a certain payment every month doesn’t mean the mortgage company will agree. Just as they may approve you for too large of an amount, they may also approve you for a lesser amount or deny you a mortgage altogether. Lack of time at a job, insufficient credit, past bankruptcies, or other financial issues can cause major problems when trying to secure a mortgage. Before you get your heart set on a home, talk to a mortgage professional to find out what amount you can qualify for. This will also be an advantage when you make an offer on a home, as some sellers won’t entertain offers from those who aren’t already prequalified for a loan.
Not only will I help identify properties you might be interested in, arrange showings, and ultimately handle the offer process, but I also have a knowledge of the market that you don’t possess. Finding the perfect home can be a daunting task, this is where my expertise and wealth of knowledge come into play. Let me show you around some homes that meet your dream home criteria so you can find the one that's right for you.
We always take a no pressure, consultative approach with an attentive process tailored to your specific needs.
This should be the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). I will arrange showings of homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details. Turn light switches on and off, open and close doors, and run the faucets in various rooms. Don’t limit your inspection to the home itself. Make sure to take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.
Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. I will be able to help you negotiate if you receive a counteroffer and reach an agreement. At this point, the house will go into escrow.
In most cases, your offer will be contingent on having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or large repairs needed. I can help you arrange this, and you can schedule it within days of making an offer. If there are no major issues, the process goes to step eight. If there is, you can renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed, or you can withdraw it.
Now is the time to go back to the mortgage lender who pre-approved or pre-qualified you and choose your mortgage. You will be presented with various options based on your unique financial situation, including fixed-rate, variable-rate, 15-year, 30-year, or special programs such as VA loans or FHA loans. Work with your mortgage lender to select the option you feel the most comfortable with.
Your lender will have your new home appraised so they have their independent value of it. The appraisal is to ensure that all parties involved are paying a fair price for the house.
No one looks forward to all the paperwork involved in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Fortunately, everything will be arranged by your lender and title company and, when you’re finished, you’ll know you are the legal owner of your new home.
After signing the final paperwork to complete the purchase, you are now the owner of a new house. It may take a few days for your loan to be funded once the paperwork has been returned to the lender, but once that check is delivered to the seller, you’ll be all set to move into the home of your dreams.
Property Purchased: 20730 Linwood Road, Deephaven, Lake Minnetonka Upon retirement, my wife and I decided we wanted to move closer to our kids. This led us to seek a home on Lake Minnetonka. We’re from Green Bay and had no re...
Nick and Sage were amazing to work with. The process of buying and or selling a home can become super emotional and having Nick's expertise with factual data and analytics makes the process a lot easier to manage. We highly rec...
I have completed 12 transactions with Nick and his team. If it is within Nick's control, it happens as promised. From entry market transactions to luxury, he can handle it smoothly. You will continue the relationship and recomm...
Nick and Sage were absolutely wonderful to work with. Expert knowledge, professionalism and responsiveness. We had a few challenges come up through our home selling process and Nick was right there with us working through it al...
Nick and Sage are best in class when it comes to real estate. They offered excellent advice on all aspects of the buying and selling process on everything from staging, selling strategy to maximize our offers received, and help...
We worked with Nick for almost 9 months to find a home in Minneapolis for the summer months and since we live in Florida, most of our interaction was remote and when we were on location, tightly coordinated. Nick was extremely ...
Nick and his team absolutely knocked it out of the park with both our purchase and sale! Nick provided great insight into the market, as well as different strategies to deal with the difficult market, not to mention very strong...
Nick was amazing to work with throughout our home buying process. His knowledge of the local market and negotiation skills were invaluable in helping us to find and purchase our dream home, particularly as we were moving from o...
We had a wonderful experience working with Nick and his team at Leyendecker Realty, and I cannot recommend them highly enough! We started looking at homes about 3 years before we bought, and Tony and Nick sent us MLS listings a...
We couldn't have asked for a better experience in selling our first home with Nick & Sage @ Leyendecker Realty. From our first meeting, Nick was extremely knowledgeable and prepared to educate us on overall market trends and sp...
My partner and I just bought our first home, and the experience with the Nick Leyendecker Team was simply incredible. When we began the search process we had no idea where to start, we looked at a couple of properties with vari...
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