The First Steps to Buying a Home

The first step in deciding to purchase a home is knowing that that is what you want. But wanting to own your own home does not prepare you to actually be an owner. If you really want to own your own home my first advice to anyone is - Get Informed- in everything there is about owning a home.

There is a lot of information out there online, but I personally feel that it you are reading it on a website that provides a service to you, they will only tell you the part that makes you happy and smile. They will answer honestly to any question you may have, but it does not help if you yourself don't know what questions to ask. Remember that anyone you deal with in purchasing a home has a financial interest in making sure the deal goes through if they are providing you a service in the process.


So to begin, be well informed and remember there are no dumb questions.


Let me walk you through in my own words how the home buying process begins:

• You decide you want to own a home
• You find out what loan amount you qualify for and how much you can afford
• You contact a real estate agent to show you property and find one that you like
• You make an offer to buy
• The Offer is accepted
• You sign a "Purchase & Sale" agreement
• You close
  
• Congratulations new home owner.

In real life there will be pitfalls along each one of those steps, I will explain why and how you can avoid them.