Buying a home can be a positive and minimal stress event -- provided you use the right real estate professional and you understand the process of buying a home.

There are several steps or phases that we have identified in the real estate home buying transaction process.  All real estate home purchases involve these steps, often varying in the details, but you can not have a successful home purchase without properly executing these steps. 

1. Analyze and determine your needs -- both short term and long term.

• Identify and validate reasons for purchasing: transferring, upgrading, downsizing, fulfill a life dream, financial... 

• Determine desired time frame.  (Whether you need to buy immediately or can afford to wait; whether your purchase is contingent on selling your current home -- this will effect pricing, the homes available for you to consider, negotiations, etc.)

• Evaluate desired price range.  (Pricing will directly impact qualify, location, length of time to find property that meets your requirements.  You will confirm and set pricing in Step #2 below.) 

• Calculate current cost of ownership (investment equity) and how much you need to break even if selling your current home.  (What is your break even point?) 

• How much money do you able to put down on a property at settlement? 

• How much money can you place in escrow as a good faith deposit upon making an offer and/or at the signing of a Contract For Sale? 

• What are the location(s) to which you are interested in relocating.  What are the criteria for selecting and their priority? (For example, is quality school system more important than amount of land, tax rate or access to major means of transportation and jobs?) 

• *IMPORTANT!* Have you been pre-approved by a mortgage company?  (And do you have a Pre-Approval Letter from them?) 
  If not, and you do not have a mortgage company with who you are currently working, click here to request a mortgage pre-approval.  [Note: We have no financial relationship with any mortgage service.  Any mortgage contacts that we provide are strictly based on past performance experience, but there are no guarantees of future service satisfaction nor best price.  It is your responsibility to thoroughly investigate and determine best fit for you own unique needs.] 

• Make decision to continue process of buying a home.

      Note: The above step requires action by the buyer to make a decision to begin searching for a house to buy.

2. Identify an agent with whom you are comfortable and has the proper credentials and experience for your situation.

• Manage your risks. 

  Having someone with the proper depth of training and breadth of experience to assist and guide you through the buying  process steps will greatly reduce your risk, your overall costs, and minimize your chance of unpleasant surprises, undue stress and being inconvenienced or disappointed.   You want someone that has faced enough situations so that they can more easily and effectively handle and deal with any problems that will occur during the real estate transaction that you can not foresee nor plan for in advance and that are outside of your control.

  Make sure that the agent is a full-time professional so that you get a 100% commitment of their time to real estate service.

  Note: Some say that Step #2 should come before or in conjunction with Step #1 above, so that the agent can facilitate and provide input to your decision making process.  We believe that at least some initial thought and determination to buy a home should proceed engaging the help of an agent. 

• Maximize the potential to find the right homes on the Internet. 
  Since everything is heavily Internet oriented nowadays, it's important you have Realtor that has a strong web presence and web sites that provide state-of-the-art search and support facilities, reaching as broad an audience as possible and able to target specific market segments. 

• Use the agent to confirm and refine your analysis and decisions. 

• Make available your mortgage company's  Pre-Qualification / Pre-Approval Letter to agent. 
  -OR-
  Have agent suggest, or get you in contact with, possible mortgage companies for you to check out if you do not yet have a pre-approval letter -- otherwise, we can not proceed to step #3.   [Note: We have no financial relationship with any mortgage service.  Any mortgage contacts that we provide are strictly based on past performance experience, but there are no guarantees of future service satisfaction nor best price.  It is your responsibility to thoroughly investigate and determine best fit for you own unique needs.] 

• Confirm (with input/guidance from the agent) to proceed with purchase of home and the time frame for closing and taking possession of your new property. 

Notes: Step #2 requires action by the buyer to select a Realtor that is a best fit for buyer's situation and needs.

The following steps are carried out by the buyer with the aid / guidance / support of the Realtor or by the Realtor on behalf of the buyer.  The timings for each step will vary, many times overlapping, but no step can be skipped.
       

3. Establish Price Range and Location of Homes To Be Searched.

Continue the buying process with the following link...


The Home Buying Process - Steps to buying your new home




Visit my web site for more buyer support and additional resources and services: http://www.LawrenceYerkes.com

and visit BestHomes-NJ.com for the latest New Jersey Real Estate property listings (residential, commercial, multi-family, farm, land)

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