You might think that it's absolutely necessary to hire a
real estate agent when buying a house, but you can actually purchase your new home independently if you wish. Though a real estate agent takes care of all of the work for you, it can cost quite a lot to hire one. Depending on the price of your home, you could save tens of thousands of dollars by buying independently.
If you do choose to buy your next home independently, there's going to be a lot more that you are going to have to take care of. You won't be able to just show up and sign on the dotted line, once your agent has worked out the details. It will be your responsibility to work out those details yourself.
The process
Here's what the
basic process of home buying looks like. Follow these steps and the advice that follows them, and you could be moving into your new home in no time.
- Find a home. Look online or in the classifieds or drive around a prospective neighborhood while keeping an eye out for "for sale" signs. Arrange to visit several houses.
- Inspect the home. Make sure it fits your space, comfort, and location needs as well as your budget. Continue your search until you find a house that best satisfies what you are looking for.
- Draw up a contract offer, have a lawyer review it, and submit it to the sellers. If your offer comes with contingencies (i.e., acceptable home inspection, acceptable mortgage financing), make sure these are included in the contract offer.
- The seller may make a counter-offer. If he or she does this, you'll have to decide if you want to accept the offer or re-counter with another offer.
- Once all parties are in agreement on a contract, you'll have to secure financing for your home. Then, you can instruct your attorney to complete the deal.
Research
Before you buy your home, you're going to want to know more about the process, the housing market, etc. There are many books and other resources for purchase that can help you out, but, oftentimes, the best resources are found online in the form of bank websites, personal finance websites, and even real estate websites. You can also talk to friends or family members that have bought a house. Even if they didn't buy independently, they may have some insight that they could share with you. You should also:
- Check your credit score. This will help you figure out what you can afford.
- View a lot of houses. This will give you a better idea of what the housing market looks like. The more you know about the housing market, the better you'll be able to negotiate for the home you wish to purchase.
- Make a checklist of everything you need to do (i.e. check your credit score, get a house inspected, etc.). Doing so will help ensure that you don't miss anything.
Read before you sign
Never sign anything before you thoroughly read through it. Don't feel pressured to sign right away. Feel free to take the forms home to look over them. If there's anything on a form that confuses you, you can either look it up online or ask the party who is requesting your signature to explain it for you. Only sign once you feel you understand everything completely and are in
agreement with what you are signing.
Lawyers
You don't absolutely need your own lawyer. The mortgage bank will have their own lawyer to take care of things. If, however, you decide that you do want some legal counsel of your own, consider hiring a lawyer by the hour, rather than having them cover the whole process. That way, you can get the questions you have answered without shelling out hundreds of dollars.
Once you've successfully purchased a new home, shop by Movers.com for free moving quotes. You can also check out the rest of our
moving guides on all aspects of the moving process to ensure that your move into your new house is successful.
Photo by: graur codrin (Freedigitalphotos.net)