How to Buy a House part 2, You found the house you want…now what?
You may have noticed we have been really quiet on our blog and social sites the last 2 weeks. That is because we just moved into our new home! It’s been a long two weeks of final packing, cleaning, moving and getting everything changed over to the new house. But we are now in! I’m so excited. But before I get into telling you all about it; I need to finish off helping you buy a house of your own!
Last time we shared the top 12 steps on how to buy a house the easy way. We let you know how to pick out the house and how to be prepared for the smoothest home buying experience. If you haven’t read it; you definitely don’t want to miss out. Now; lets talk about what happens after you pick the home and how you buy a house; the nitty-gritty details.
Buy a House follow up steps
So you found the home! What next? Once you have the home of your choosing, you will work with your agent to come up with a great offer. This may include a reduction in price, asking the seller to change/upgrade features as part of the deal, asking seller to cover part or all of closing costs. There are a lot of variables that could be apart of this. If you have a good agent like we had; your agent will know best how to negotiate on your behalf based on the particular home and by the motivation of the seller.
Again this comes back to making sure you have an amazing agent. Ours was more concerned about getting us into the RIGHT house, and not just getting us into a house so she could collect her commission. Having the right agent is paramount. If you are moving to the Wasatch Front area of Utah; I again highly recommend Laura B. from Your Home in Utah. I can’t praise her enough for the amazing job she did for us.
Our agent was fantastic. She made the negotiation process a breeze. She helped us navigate to a price and terms we were very satisfied with. We wrote up the offer. Filled out all the “fun” contracts. (You better have your signing hand warmed up; there are a lot of papers to sign).
We then wrote our Earnest Money check and she had it submitted within a few hours.
Oh! Earnest Money. You may be wondering what that is. It’s sort of like money you put forward to show how serious you are on wanting the house. Usually it is $1000. But sometimes it can be as low as $500. But not usually. Plan for the $1000. Usually if you have a VA loan, you get this money back at closing as long as you meet all the deadlines. Each type of loan is different, so make sure you find out what happens with your Earnest Money based on the type of home loan you are getting.
Now the “waiting game” begins. It is so nerve wracking. Checking the phone and email every 15-20 minutes. Hanging on a thread waiting to hear if your offer was accepted, denied or countered.
Really you want accepted, but that doesn’t happen a lot to be accepted the first time. Counter offers are still OK. That means the seller is still willing to negotiate with you. Denied is not so good.
We got a counter offer. But surprisingly, our seller accepted all but the price! We were nervous that they would have issue with how fast we wanted to close the deal. But thankfully that wasn’t an issue. So they countered a new price. We countered back. It was accepted. And now we are officially in contract!
At this point we go into due diligence. Meaning we have time to back out for any reason, not lose our earnest money and can get out of the deal. But we don’t want to back out so we are proceeding. This is the time when you get the house inspected, you check how much property taxes are, you hunt for home insurance to see how much the house will cost, etc. Basically you are doing a lot of research on this particular house to make sure this really is the house and neighborhood you want to live in and can still afford it with city utilities, insurance, taxes, etc.
Next we set up the inspection. This is something the buyer (us) pays for. Cost for this varies based on your city, and the size of your home. But it is usually around $300-375. The inspector is a neutral 3rd party, who is trained to make sure the home is up to code and to spot any flaws in the home. Make sure if you are using a VA home loan; that the inspector knows beforehand. There is extra paperwork for a VA loan they have to fill out. And make sure he does an insect/pest inspection.
You will be able to visit the house with the home inspector. He will be able to point out any flaws he finds and give you advice for what should be fixed as well. If he is a good home inspector he will make you aware of the small things as well as the big. We used Douglas from Archibald Home Inspection, INC. He is very thorough. He has experience in construction and building so he knows a lot of the minute details to watch out for. He is licensed and well experienced. He did a great job and is well priced. So if you need a home inspection in the Wasatch Front of Utah; he is definitely your man!
Do I still want to buy this house?
After you get his report, you will know if the home has any wiring issues, foundation issues, plumbing issues, or needs any kinds of repairs, etc. Then you have the choice to accept the home as is, renegotiate with the seller to fix any issues the inspector finds, or walk away.
At this time read over your home inspection and discuss it with your Realtor. If there are major flaws you desired fixed; that can be added to the contract of buying the home if the Seller agrees to fix the issues before closing date. This can include broken items in home, bad wiring, bad plumbing issues, etc.
We were truly blessed that our home only had a few cosmetic flaws; and are rather easy to fix. So we didn’t need to renegotiate at this point. We were happy with what the inspection showed. No termites, no structural issues, no wiring issues, a solid home.
The next step of buying a home; is a lot of waiting, nail biting, and so I’m going to leave you hanging for the final installment of how to buy a home part 3! I know..so mean. But goodness; you have to understand part of the anxiety we went through this last month. Haha!
Having a home inspection done is so important. We know friends who skipped that step & there were all sorts of issues.
We were lucky when we bought our house that the people who had it before us bought the house just to fix it and flip it, so everything was brand new. The inspector only found minor things.
Oh I bet that made it really nice to buy hour house! Flipped homes are awesome!
We have a great printable checklist on our site for all house-hunters!
http://www.sahmreviews.com/2014/04/house-hunting-printable-checklist.html
Our second house was the fun one; asbestos in the basement. I fell through the downstairs bathroom floor, the porch was falling off. Those 100+ yr old Victorians will challenge you.
I’m so happy you found a house you love.
Really great advice and Congratulations. This will make it so much easier for anyone trying to buy a home.
This is really great information, especially for a first time homebuyer. But I must say, it’s great refresher even for someone like me who is on her second home…I’ve been in my second home for almost 8 years now and I definitely need a refresher on what buying is like. This is what is SO GREAT about blogging and the internet- so many great resources! Thank you for sharing and I hope your move went as smoothly as can be. It’s such a pain, but thankfully the excitement (hopefully) cancels some of the painfulness out. Congratulations!
What a great series, we own but we have so outgrown our home with 5 kids, I would love to rent out our home and buy another home but I am reluctant, not everyone makes a great renter.
Great post! I need to show this to my daughter, who is looking at buying her first house.
I read the first one of these posts and didn’t comment, but these have been really helpful. My fiancé and I are looking at buying a house soon and we had no clue where to start, how to decide what was important, or anything.
I’m so glad it is helpful! It is scary when you haven’t done it before; you never know what to expect. I wanted to take that fear away for you, since I had it myself before we went into this process.
Waiting is the worst part, so nerve wracking! Great tips here, thanks!
My biggest tip is to be patient, every thing seems to happens so slowly once you get to this stage. There is always more paperwork to do!
Boy is that the truth! Goodness, always more paperwork and more waiting. Everything happened all within the first 1.5 weeks..the rest of our 4 week home buying experience was waiting and grabbing more paperwork. Ug.
Such a great post. You’ve given first time homebuyers a lot of important tips that are priceless! And you are right…the paperwork…ugh….It seems never ending…
Sounds like you guys are settling nicely into your new home! Congratulations again 🙂 Also, thank you for this detailed two part series on buying a house!
Great tips! We’ve been through the process twice… I agree that having the right realtor is SO important! Our first one – when we had no idea what we were doing – was terrible. She was new and she had no answers for us. Our second time around (just 1 year later) we used something else who was AMAZING. Like yours, helped us find the right fit and helped us negotiate. Maybe it’s not as much of a problem where you are, but we also add in a radon test during inspection (and I agree to add on the insect check, too)!
Congrats on your new house! What an exciting time (and stressful). Thank you for the updates and I will be sharing with friends who are house hunting.
Great tips… i think that having a great agent like the one you had is a must… Buying a house can be so emotional, especially when putting in bids and stuff… a great agent can really help
When I went into the home buying process I meant business. I knew what I could afford, and had my 40k to put down, and my process took exactly 30 days. i was always sure to stay on top of any and all paperwork.
very good, well thought out tips. 🙂 i wish this was around when we got our first house!! such a helpful resource
These are fantastic tips. I have never gone through the process of buying a house. My Husband had just bought a house when we met. I think I would be a nervous wreck waiting for the call back.
These are all fantastic tips and things to keep in mind when buying a house! I also agree that a good relator that has YOUR best interest in mind when it comes to buying and selling a home is worth their weight in gold.
What an exciting time, congrats! My advice is to kick back, unpack at your own pace so everything is just how you want it, and enjoy your new home!
For a first time home buyer, you really covered this so well. I’ve bought and sold many times and you are so lucky that your inspection turned up nothing of consequence. I’ve not been that lucky EVER!
Someday I will be at the point that I will be buying a house. I love learning everything I can before hand because then I am hoping I won’t feel overwhelmed
I would love to own a house. I’ll need to keep these tips in mind for when I see the perfect one.
Great advice here for new homeowners! That inspection is so important!
I wish I would have known more about buying a house before I bought mine. Thanks for sharing these tips!