Tips for Buying a Home

Tips for Buying a Home by Nancy Niblett
For first time buyers, getting home can be a confusing process. Knowing the way things work and what you need before home shopping will really help. This article will contain a few tips as to what you need to do for home-buying. Of course, this is only a couple of tips and investigating and looking up other articles for home buying is recommended. The first thing you need to do before home shopping is to strengthen up your credit. The higher your credit score is the easier it will be to get a loan if need be. You will need a good credit score to buy a home. A credit score can be anywhere between 300 and 850 and there are many places where you can find your credit score online. To get it higher pay off credit cards and settle any disagreements with your credit. The next step is to determine what kind of a house and what size of house you can afford. You will have to put a down payment of about 10%-20% of the homes appraised value. Talk to lenders, sit down with financial planners, do anything you need to so you can figure out what home you can afford. Then, after this you can get pre-approved for a loan. It is a good idea to talk to many different lenders within a two week period, so as your applications do not hurt your credit score. Pick the one that is right for you and move on from there. Now you are ready to actually shop for a home. A few things will definitely help you do this. The first is signing up for the MLS so as you can be notified when new houses matching your criteria pop up. Of course, the best thing you can do is get in contact with a real estate agent. It is alright to go through a couple real estate agents and not make a firm decision on one at first. You need to make sure the real estate agent you find is right for you. Try to learn as much as you can about the agent before committing. Defining a certain area that you want to live in is a good start to narrow it down. Visit a few open houses and look at many of them before settling. There should be no pressure on this. When you finally find the perfect home, make an offer. The seller can accept this offer or counter-offer and you can go from there. When a final price is confirmed it is time to put the home on escrow. During this time there will be many kinds of paperwork that needs to be signed and read over. Your realtor should help you throughout this whole process. After this is all finished, the house will close and it will be officially yours. Using these quick tips you are on your way to buying a home that you want. Of course, there is more detail to what is actually involved and everyones experience is different. Knowing and studying before going into this is best. Find the home you are looking for in Chandler at Real Estate in Chandler, Arizona or in Gilbert at Gilbert Homes for Sale with Pools or Mesa at Real Estate in Mesa, Arizona