Video Transcription:
Welcome back. Thinking about buying a new home? Where do you begin? It is a big process. We’re here with a breakdown of the home hunting process ahead of the fall season. We have Ryan Smith of Tier 1 Real Estate in Bristol. Thank you so much, Laura. Good morning. So for people who want to get out and buy, is it too late in the season?. Absolutely not. I think it’s a great time to get started. There might be a little less competition. We’re kind of past the busy spring season, so now’s a great time. So is it a, there’s still a lot of properties out there to scoop up though? Absolutely. Yeah, there’s still a good amount of properties out there, but I think there’s going to be a little less competition right now, which could work to your advantage if you’re looking to buy a home.
All right. So what are the step by step? I knew that you must see a lot of mistakes that people make. Let’s get done. Yeah. So I mean, I think the very first step in the process is going to reach out to local mortgage lenders. They’re going to help you determine what the best type of loan product is gonna be for you. They’re going to help you determine what kind of down payment you need, what’s your monthly payments are going to be. They’re also going to want some information from you as far as your financials. They’re going to check your credit, they’re going to know your income. And then based on all that information, they can issue what’s called a preapproval letter. And with that information, you can formally start the home search process. Do you have any advice for choosing a bank to go through this loan process with this first step?
Absolutely. So I personally, I tend to like to work with local lenders. I just like, I feel like there’s more of a sense of accountability if you know the people at the bank. Um, and they also tend to provide very good service as well. So my recommendation is to start looking local first if you’re looking to find a bank for a mortgage. Okay. And I know in my own process, word of mouth really is. Absolutely. Just talk to your friends and see where they had success. Yep. All right, so what’s the next step? So the next step is going to be actually searching for homes and I would say the multiple listing services, the best place to do that. You can connect with a local agent with the local market knowledge and they’re going to help you by getting you set up in the multiple listing service.
You’re going to get an email notification anytime a new property comes on the matches, your search criteria, and this is all going to happen in real-time, which is nice because some of the other sites like realtor.com or zillow.com they may not update as fast as the multiple listing service. And in a hot market, you wouldn’t want to miss out on a listing because you didn’t see it on the web though. Right. All right. How about the pros and cons of working with a realtor? Yeah. Yes. So I highly recommend working with a buyer’s agent. The nice thing about the way it’s set up is that you can sign on with an exclusive buyer’s agent and ultimately the seller’s going to pay their costs, their commission, and yet they’re going to be representing you and your best interest. So essentially you get representation at no additional cost to you.
It’s also nice because then they become a single point of contact for any showings that you want to see. You don’t have to reach out to 10 different listing agents. Um, that way they get to know, you get to know what you’re looking for and the whole thing becomes a little bit more comfortable. And then the other nice thing about a buyer’s agent is that they’re going to have a network of some of the top real estate professionals, whether it’s closing attorneys, home inspectors, mortgage lenders, they can refer these people to you. And these are the kinds of people in addition to your realtor who is going to make your deal go smoothly and guide towards a successful closing. Okay. So that’s obviously the next step. I would imagine when you are when you finally settled on a home and a price. Yeah, absolutely. That’s, that’s you know, the process where you’re going to put an actual purchase contract and on the home and your agent is going to be very involved in helping you determine what price you’re going to offer and all the terms of the, of the contract and any young quick mistakes that you see people make in this process.
We’ve just gone through the steps. What is the timing? I think the biggest one would be probably starting out and looking at homes that you don’t really qualify for. Okay. So you just really want to make sure that you qualify for the homes that you’re looking at. Um, you know, just from your financial comfort range and also in terms of what kind of loan you’re preapproved for. So I would say that that would be the biggest mistake that I see people make.
