Frisco TX First Time Home Buyers
If you missed the previous articles prior to this:
Part 1 - Your First Steps to Homeownership
Part 2 - Difference between Pre-Qualification and Pre-Approval and how to strategize a better negotiation
Part 3 - What makes up a house payment in Frisco TX
Part 4 - How much funds are needed to buy a house in Frisco TX
Part 5 - Setting yourself for real estate success with tools you need
Part 6 - Should you use a Realtor(R) when buying your first home?
Part 7 - A Real Estate contract is a legally binding contract
In this part, you will read about:
Frisco TX First Time Home Buyer Series - Home Inspections and What to Expect for Frisco TX First Time Home Buyers (Part 8)
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As a Frisco TX first time home buyer, you dream of owning your first home. The contract is accepted and you are one step closer to the American Dream.
Here in greater Frisco TX, first time home buyers normally perform a General Home Inspection during the Option Period, as described in Part 4 - How much funds are needed to buy a house in Frisco TX. The buyers purchase an Option Period from the Seller for a specific timeframe. During this time, the Seller takes the property off the market to give the buyers an opportunity to inspect the property.
Here's what to know about Property Home Inspections:
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Inspections are performed as a "general" evaluation of the property condition AT THAT TIME. It does not warranty future performances.
- Inspections are typically "visual" by eyesight. The inspector will not take Seller's property "apart" - to destroy, dismantle or perform any destructive or invasive inspection. During the inspection, some conditions may obscure the inspector from reaching the areas/ items to inspect.
- Some property conditions may only be discovers after occupying the property. A home inspector will not be able to discover all items during a 3-hour inspection. Hence, a home warranty package will be important to include during the home purchase to ensure during the 1st year of homeownership, some of these items will be taken care of by the home warranty policy.
Why some issues are not discovered during an inspection:
- Some occurrences occur when the right "condition" arise. During home inspection, the inspector only visually inspects the property and may sometimes miss the "conditions" in which homeowners live in the property.
- Home inspectors are typically "generalists" to property conditions. Should a "specialist" be called for further evaluation, you should never hesitate to do that even though there may be additional costs to incur. Spending several hundred dollars will save you some further problems down the future.
A home inspection is called to understand the current property condition. It is NOT an insurance policy to eliminate all risks. It is designed to better your odds at purchasing a lemon.
The home inspector you hire should be a licensed home inspector. All Texas licensed home inspectors must adhere to the minimum standards for inspections by TREC (Texas Real Estate Commission).
What first time home buyers should take away with this:
- There is no perfectly built home out there (new or existing). So, it is natural to uncover flaws in the home. The amount of imperfections depend on the age of the home and how well the home has been maintained.
- Discuss with your real estate agent about what may or may not be reasonable repair requests.
- Repair requests are negotiations between Buyers and Sellers. In a Buyer's market, you could expect for Sellers to agree to fixing "more" than normal items. However, this also depends on the property value. If the Buyers purchase the property at "less" than market value, do not be surprised that the Sellers will not make any repairs at all.
- During the option period, buyers purchased an unrestricted right to terminate the contract for any reasons or no reasons at all.
- First time home buyers should be objective towards the problems uncovered. For every problem, there is a solution. Whether it is the solution of seller taking care of the problems or buyers accept a price reduction or closing costs in lieu of repairs are also part of a solution.
- Until the Amendment towards repairs are completed, it is not a fully executed contract.
Should you attend your home inspection?
My quick answer is YES. Climb up to the roof, crawl under the foundation. It's one of the best opportunities to learn about your new home. A good home inspector will teach you about your house and how to maintain it from here on out. Be sure to keep out of inspector's presence especially when he/she needs to make notes about the property condition.
Articles in the Frisco Texas First Time Home Buyer series:
Related Articles:
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Contact:
Loreena Yeo
Realtor®/ Broker of 3:16 team REALTY
(214) 783-2210
loreena@loreenayeo.com
Super-serving Frisco, Plano, Dallas, McKinney, Allen, Little Elm, Prosper, Celina, Richardson, Dallas M-Streets, Dallas White Rock Lake area communities and other surrounding areas.
Copyright © 2009 by Loreena Yeo (3:16 team REALTY).
Frisco TX First Time Home Buyers - Home Inspections and What To Expect for Frisco TX First Time Home Buyers (Part 8).
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Loreena - This is extremely helpful info in regards to the home inspection process. You have so many helpful links and useful info jam packed into this series which is awesome. This is one of the most important steps of the process so it is important to really understand the process as a consumer. And as an agent it is critical to communicate the process to a client.