A New Home Checklist for First-Time Home Buyers

Hello World!  Welcome Friends!  According to statistics from the Census Bureau, an annually adjusted 901,000 homes were sold by July 2020. Many of us will move this year or in the near future and having a new home checklist in order can make the move much easier.

If you’re a first-time buyer, moving can be very confusing. In this guide, we’re going to show you what you need to look for when buying your home. When we’ve finished, you’ll be informed and ready to buy your home.

Ready to learn more and get informed? Then keep reading!

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1. Determine Your Budget

The first item on your checklist for moving into a new home needs to be your budget. There is a huge variance in house prices across the country. For instance, cities like San Francisco have much higher prices than Memphis or Oklahoma City.

Wherever you’re going to live, you’ll need to set a budget. To work this out, you’ll need to take the following factors into account:

• Your household income
• Your credit score and debts
• Closing costs
• Your ability to get a mortgage

When you’ve got your budget, you can start looking for homes that fit the bill. You can consider looking for a new construction home in the bay area or moving to a nearby commuter town. Your hometown search will depend on your house requirements, such as size and location.

2. Get a Pre-Approved Mortgage If You Can

A pre-approved mortgage can take a lot of the worry out of buying a house. You’ll probably only be able to get a pre-approved mortgage if you have good credit and can prove that you have a sustainable income and valuable assets.

If you can get pre-approved, it means that the mortgage lender has agreed to lend you a certain amount of cash. This means that there are fewer delays when you find a house that you want to buy and you have a budget that’s more set in stone.

3. Start Looking for Homes

Now it’s time for the most exciting part: you need to start looking for a home. We would recommend that you don’t only look at homes through agents or online. Take a combined approach as this will help you find the very best properties.

It’s worth looking on websites like Zillow, contacting realtors, and visiting open houses. You could also consider going the very traditional route of looking in newspaper property listings.

We would recommend that you work with a realtor when buying your first home. This can take a lot of the fuss out of buying a home and there will be less for you to worry about.

You should go on as many tours as you can. The perfect house is out there waiting for you and you need to be patient. Choosing the wrong house just to get the process over faster is a bad idea.

4. What to Look for During a Tour

Knowing what to look for in a house viewing can be difficult. First off, you need to make sure that the building is in good shape. Check for signs of damp and any signs of structural unsoundness like cracks in the wall or sloping doorways.

Check that there is enough storage space for your needs and enough power sockets for all of your items. Are the rooms big enough? Are the roof and electrics in good condition?

If you can’t find a house that you like, you could always consider contacting a custom home builder and making it yourself!

5. Submit Your Offer

So you’ve found a home that you like and you want to move in. Well, hold your horses! First off, you’ve got to make an offer.

Your realtor should be able to help you make an offer and give you the best chance of getting accepted. You should research a good price for the property, obtain disclosures and contingencies, and submit the offer.

This stage can often be a bit back-and-forth. The owner of the home may well submit a counteroffer and you may have to negotiate for a while before you’re both happy.

You should submit an offer as soon as you can, even if you’re wary of getting into a bidding war. You don’t want someone to submit a better offer before you and lose out on the home.

6. Inspect and Appraise the Home

You’ve submitted an offer. Now it’s time for you to learn a little more about the home with an inspection. This can show any underlying issues about the home that you may need to fix when you buy it.

These can include problems with insulation, roofing, heating systems, foundations, electrics, and plumbing. If you find that the home has a lot of problems, you may want to withdraw your offer, so don’t skip this step!

Even if you want to move into the house regardless, you could request that the owner does repairs to the home before you move in.

You will also need to get the house appraised before you can get a mortgage. This is where a professional comes up with an accurate estimate of the value of your home. If you don’t have one, you won’t be able to get a mortgage.

7. Closing and Moving

When everything is sorted, it’s time to close the sale and move in. Both parties will need to sign documents and you’ll become the house’s new owner.

Then all you need to do is move into your new home!

Your New Home Checklist in Seven Easy Steps

So that’s your new home checklist! Follow the steps we’ve laid out and you’ll soon be moved into a new home that you love. Good luck!

For more interesting and informative articles like this, why not check out the rest of our website and blog?

Click the links below for any posts you have missed:

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Animal Removal Specialists

Self Storage Units

Hiring the Best Heating & Plumbing Company

Late Summer Wreath

Back Hall Reveal

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Thanks for stopping by!  Have a wonderful day/night depending on where you are in the world!  Go with God and remember to be kind to one another!

Toodles,