3 KEY STEPS TO BUYING A HOME

 The first key step in buying a home is finding an agent. A good agent is worth their weight in gold! They connect you to good lenders, help you evaluate your goals, needs, and desire, search homes for you, negotiate on your behalf, and make sure you operate legally within the home buying process.

An agents job is to make the home buying process as smooth as possible for you. A good agent will learn your needs and wants, and do the work for you to put you into your ideal home.

The second key step to buying a home is to know what you can afford. Many home shoppers first questions are: “How much home can we afford?”, “How much do you actually have to pay for a downpayment?” “What will our monthly payment be?” You will not know what those answers are FOR YOU until you talk to a lender, and you cannot buy a home until a bank or mortgage company guarantees that they will give you a home loan.

A good agent will be able to connect you to banks and lenders who can tell you exactly what you can afford from the home purchase price to what your monthly mortgage payment will be. Many people assume they can’t afford buying a home because they may not have enough money for a traditional down payment, but good agents will also have knowledge and connections to low down payment loans, first time home buyer programs, and down payment assistance programs and grants.

Knowing what you can afford is key to starting the home buying process.

The third key step to buying a home is to establish goals. Only after you have an agent who is working on your behalf and you know what you can afford can you realistically request things like:

“We want a 3-2 in this neighborhood”, or “We need our monthly payment to be under $2500 a month”.

Establishing goals also allows you differentiate between your needs and your wants. A family of five may need four bedrooms and 2 baths, where granite counter tops may be a want for that same family.

After talking to both your agent and getting financed by a lender, you can realistically create goals that pertain to your needs and wants as you start the home buying process.

Taking the three steps to buying a home are essential to starting on the right foot in the home buying process. Our job at The Porter Group is to help you be as prepared as possible to buy your perfect home. Fill out the form or contact us today at 901-479-5615 or scott@theportergroup.com to take your next step today.