Agent selections should be thought out if you don't already have a highly recommended and reviewed agent in mind. You should invest your time and energy into an agent that you feel will best represent you, your interests, and you are compatible with. Working with someone that you have trouble understanding or communicating will just cause more stress. 

The next step that your real estate agent will do is ask questions about your home search criteria. This information will let them know what style of property, square footage, features, acreage, and area you want your new home to be in. You have to be realistic and honest here otherwise the search will not yield what you ultimately want. Knowing your budget and thresholds will come in handy for this section of the home search. 

This is the most fun you will probably have in the buying process - going shopping! Looking at homes can give you a solid vision of what exactly you are looking for. Maybe that cape cod style just isn't as large as you thought it was or the upstairs is just too clunky of a layout. This is also a great time to ask as many questions as you can about the properties to your buying agent. The more you know the better you will be able to narrow down homes. Seeing the property in person also gives you a sense of the state of the home. Photographs can make the home appear in better shape than what it actually is. Be wary when purchasing a home "site unseen".

Needs and Wants Checklists PDF

The offer stage is where the seriousness begins. Your agent is going to ask a ton of pertinent questions about what you want, dates, inspections, money, and more. Writing an offer can take a few hours depending on the conversations had so be prepared for a lot of sitting with those 100 questions. Compiling and signing an electronic offer can be faster, but that depends on how fast your agent can type vs write. 

Depending on the experience of the client, agents have the ability to create electronic documents and then send them out for initials and signatures. If you want a more hands on approach because you haven't bought 80 homes in your lifetime, ask them to meet at their office or a coffee shop to go over the documents and sign in person. 

Some typical questions will be:

• How much do you want to offer?
• How much money will you be putting down?
• Can you pay your own closing costs?
• What loan type are you doing if any?
• Do you want a home/radon/termite/well/septic/other inspections?
• Are you going to ask for the seller to make repairs?
• How much can you put down for the EMD (Earnest Money Deposit)?
• How long do you want to give the seller to respond?

You also need to consider what type of down payment option is the best fit for you. There are different kinds that are associated with different loan types. Check out or blog article on the different down payment amounts and how they could benefit you.

Ask for a repeat if you are not understanding your agent during the contract writing process! We don't want you to be signing documents you are not 100% comfortable with. Your agent will gladly reiterate their question or statement to you. 

Over the next few predetermined weeks post offer acceptance, inspectors will visit the property, you and your agent may visit again for various reasons, and the sellers will be packing up their items to go if they haven't already. It's a waiting game: you wait for the appraisal to be completed if you had to finance the purchase, you wait for the home inspector to do their thing, and you bite your nails counting down till closing day. If all inspections go smoothly, you close on time. If not, then it may be necessary to extend - it's no problem. Contract extensions happen all the time.  

If there are issues with any of the inspections, the contract goes back into negotiation depending on what the issue was. Let's say the home inspection came back with some lender required repairs, these are repairs that the lender is stating have to be completed and in working order for them to be able to loan you the money for the home. Each loan type has a different strictness of the condition things can be in the home. Depending on what contingencies you agreed upon in the contract you can go back to the seller and ask them to make those required repairs. If they don't then the contract could become null and void with you loosing that home. If they choose to make the repairs, then you may have to wait a couple more weeks as the seller and their agent find the appropriate professional for the repair job. 

You have waited. You have been asked questions that you didn't even know existed. It's time to go to closing! At the designated place and time, you will meet up with your agent and the sellers in most cases. Sometimes, parties choose to close at a different attorney or close another day due to scheduling conflicts.

You will all sit down at a table with the closing attorney who will begin to explain the charges and payouts to both you and the seller. Usually, the seller goes first since they have less line items. Once they are finished with the paperwork review and have signed, they are free to go after leaving you the keys and other items stated. The attorney will turn to you and go down your fees, debits, loan amounts, where the first month's payment will go, etc. Once your side has been completed, you will sign and get the keys. It could take a week or so for the deed to your new property to be mailed to you.

You're now a home owner!

Go check out your new home and eat pizza on the floor because you don't have a table yet!

Again, if you have any questions feel free to ask and ask again! They are here to make sure you understand what you are signing!