My brother-in-law Daniel has agreed to let me write about the details of his first home purchase. In Parts I and II, Daniel found a home he liked, began working with a great lender and now has a binding contract on that home. If you haven’t read Parts I and II, you’ll want to do so now.
5. The inspection period
According to Daniel’s contract, he had 7 days to get a home inspection and request any repairs that he wanted the seller to make. Then he and the seller would have 3 days to negotiate the repairs and come to an agreement.
In Daniel’s case, he decided not to have a home inspection done. As a Realtor, I always recommend having a home inspection, but this is your choice as a buyer, and you may have good reasons either way as to whether or not you need a home inspection.
Since Daniel had decided not to have a home inspection, he and I made an appointment for a walkthrough.
We’re rejoining my brother-in-law Daniel as he buys his first home. If you didn’t read Part I yet, you’ll want to do that now.
He’s already
Decided on the type of home he wanted
Found the particular home he wanted to purchase
We’ll pick up here with the third step in the home buying process:
3. Find a great mortgage lender.
If you don’t know any mortgage lenders that you’d like to work with, your Realtor will be able to give you several reputable names. You need to find a lender that you feel comfortable with, whose company can offer the best loan programs to meet your needs and who will go the extra mile to stay on top of your paperwork and get you to closing smoothly and with no stress on your part. Your lender should never talk down to you and should be ready to explain the loan process in easy-to-follow terms.
I gave Daniel the names and numbers of three local lenders whom I have worked with and know to be trustworthy.
Thinking about buying your first home, but have no idea where to begin?
I’m willing to bet that a lot of first-time home buyers feel the same way. That’s why I’ve asked my brother-in-law, Daniel, if he’ll allow me write a detailed account of his first home purchase. Join me during my next few posts as I take us step-by-step through buying a house.
1. Figure out what exactly you are looking for in a home.
Decide, for starters, on your ideal price range, home size, yard size, number of bedrooms and bathrooms and location of the home. This is a good time to find a Realtor you can trust. Your Realtor can help you decide exactly what you’re looking for in your first home.
Note: the first step for some buyers may be to find a good lender and have him prequalify you. This is very helpful, and if you have no idea what you can afford, the lender will help you find out.
In Daniel’s case, he wasn’t even planning on buying for another year or so, but he had already begun thinking about what he’d like in a home. To help with this process, I’d been sending him e-mails, complete with photos, of houses currently on the market. This helped him get an idea of how property in Savannah is priced, and what types of homes are available in the different local neighborhoods.
It didn’t take Daniel long to figure out that he’d like to live on Whitemarsh or Wilmington Island. (He wanted to be close to downtown Savannah, a reasonably short drive to I-16, close to the beach and near his friends.) He also wanted at least three bedrooms.
2. Find your perfect home - the home that most closely meets your needs.
This is cool, and maybe a little bit freaky. Google’s new Street View (still a work in progress) allows you to see photos and even do a virtual tour of an area at street level. Cool, because you can look up restaurants, shops, hotels, etc. and actually see what they and their surrounding area look like. A little freaky because you can search for private homes, and in some cases you can even see people through their windows or out and about. This video explains it all:
There are no Street View photos of Savannah yet, but who knows, be on the lookout for a van with a camera mounted on top…
If you’re a first-time home buyer, you probably can’t afford to put 20% down on a home loan. In most cases that means you’re stuck paying mortgage insurance, which can cost you around $100 a month. That’s the last thing you need in addition to your new house payment.
The good news is that on December 20th, 2006 President Bush signed a new bill into law that makes mortgage insurance tax deductible. Those who purchase their homes in 2007 and have an annual household income of $100,000 or less can deduct the full amount of their mortgage insurance premiums paid this year. So, you still have to pay it, but hey - at least you get it back, right? It’s like forced savings. This could be good.
Rob and I opted to forgo our usual New Year’s camping trip and stay in this year. As we stood on our porch watching the fireworks, I pondered my 2007 resolutions. They are to write more often in this blog, to be more physically active and to be on time. So here’s to 2007! What are your New Year’s Resolutions? I would love to hear from you.
I had a fabulous open house on Sunday, October 1st. It was actually my first, and I was very pleased with the results. I now have several customers interested in the house, which is located at 737 E 40th St. Be sure to check out the slide show for it on my Listings page.
The best part of the open house had to be the folks from 41st and Maupas that came by. So many of them walked over with neighbors and stayed and chatted on the front porch for a while. What a great group! I would love to have that kind of relationship with all of my neighbors. The Baldwin Park neighborhood has to be one of the best places to live in Savannah.
My mother-in-law, Amy Lingle, catered the event. The food was delicious, especially accompanied by wine! Chris Vogler of Home123 Mortgage co-hosted the event with me. He, along with my husband and parents were a HUGE help.
