Buy your dream house with confidence

So, you want to buy a house—now what? The first time buying a home is an emotional, exciting, and also exhausting experience. You may also be wondering along the way—what am I missing? This is a common question. Here’s how the buying process works from start to finish.

• Hire a Realtor®. A great Realtor® will help you navigate the process every step of the way. Since you are here, I'm glad you are considering me to guide you through your home buying journey. It's important that you jive with your agent since you will be working closely together during the process. I would love to meet you either virtually or at a local coffee shop to discuss your needs. 
• Get pre-approved. A high- quality lender is essential to a positive home buying experience. A superior lender will communicate both effectively and frequently and I make it a priority to put you in touch with a lender who will walk you through the loan process and ensure that you have everything you need to get you to the closing table. 
• Begin the Search Process & Look at homes. We will sit down and discuss your ideal dream home, neighborhood and the life you'd like to live in order to detail your needs and wants in your new home. This is the super fun part! Once we determine your priority list we will then determine the homes to preview and begin looking! (Side note: there's much more to discuss in this stage. We will expand on that later!) 
• Make an offer. Once we've found your dream home, you will want to move quickly. We will discuss a reasonable offer to start negotiations based on market conditions. 
• Negotiate. Prepare to go back and forth with the seller a few times on price and selling conditions. Your real estate agent will be your advocate here and try to get you, their client as much as possible for your money while being fair and respectful to the seller and their real estate agent.
• An accepted offer. Pop the champagne! If you reach an agreement, you’ll make a deposit to an escrow account to show good-faith. Escrow is usually 30 days where the seller takes the house off the market with the contractual expectation that you’ll purchase the house - provided you don’t find any serious problems during the inspection.
• Do a home inspection. Even if the home appears to be flawless, there’s no substitute for having a professional inspector review the property for quality, safety, and general condition of your potential home. You don’t want to be surprised with a home that needs a lot of unexpected repairs. If the inspection reveals undisclosed serious defects, you can negotiate further to have the seller make repairs or discount the selling price. You’ll also likely have the option to withdraw your offer and get your deposit money back.
• Closing. When your negotiations with the seller are successful, and the inspection came back clean, you should be ready to close. At your closing, you’ll spend a little over an hour signing lots of paperwork and then will be handed the keys. Yay!! Now it's time to celebrate!