Buying a home can be an exciting time. No matter if your buying that first townhouse, starter house, or retirement home many of the same steps apply.
This is an overview and cannot possibly address all of the possibilities but we will try to be as complete as possible. In the following pages we will begin perhaps a year before any offer is made on a particular property with getting your credit in shape. Going hand-in-hand with this is to start saving money and figure out what you can comfortably afford to spend each month. Think about what features of your new home and the community are important to you. Schools are typically a consideration. If they are for you then transpose the school district outline (https://www.palmbeachschools.org/planning/Boundaries/index.asp) onto one of our neighborhood maps. These are the communities you should be looking at.
Speak to your bank or mortgage broker about what loan programs you might qualify for. Keep in mind that loan programs these days not only specify conditions for yourself, the borrower, to meet but also conditions for the property (the condition of it) and even the Condominium or Home Owners Association to meet. The conditions of loan program may affect what communities you can purchase a property in and should be shared with your Realtor
Track the market in the neighborhoods you think you’re interested in. What do properties list for, sell for and how often do they come on the market? Go see as many of the homes as you can so that you can get a sense of what values are. Speak to the neighbors while you’re there to see if there is anything happening which might affect values or you decision to buy in the community.
After all this you can start to think about making an offer on a home. The offer is typical subject to inspection, financing and association approval contingencies. We will go over all the typical contracts and discuss the inspections typically performed. Assuming the inspections all go well then we can get back to getting a loan to pay for your new house. Finally ending with closing the loan, closing the sale and moving into your new house.
