Bill Burke wrote a post about "writing the offer" that made me think about the timeline issues our buyers face. For many buyers who were in the market this spring for the first time homebuyers tax credit, the entire experience was new. Other buyers are old hands at the purchase of a home, but even for experienced buyers, new paperwork, strict new appraisal and financing guidelines, and a changing market present challenges to the smooth flow of a transaction. In fact, buying a home has just as much of a project aspect as building a home, represented in the picture on the right.
I created a list of the key home buyer's milestones I thought were part of the normal buying process:
- Describe your dream property
- Select Agent
- Determine Budget
- Begin Search
- Locate Target Property
- Write Offer
- Negotiate and Finalize Contract
- Due Diligence End
- Financing End
- Contingency Release
- Paperwork Signing
- Take Possession
There are many, many more tasks that would fill out a comprehensive project task list, but these milestones represent important targets within the overall project that every buyer should think about as they are engaged in the process. Feel free to add important milestones in the comments section that I may have forgotten to list.
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