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Home buyer Guide

Step 1: Choose agent

Buying a house could be the next chapter in your story.

There’s so many exciting parts about the house hunting experience–from starting your online search, making lists of things you want or love, and stepping through the doors of your first ever open house. There’s also quite a few steps that need to happen before you fall in love with one and get the keys at closing.

Your REALTOR® will:

• Meet with you to discuss your needs and goals to help plan your search;

• Ensure you get pre-approved and establish a budget;

• Show you properties that meet your wants & needs list;

• Research comparable homes in the neighborhood(s) you choose until you find one you love;

• Help you determine your best offer and negotiate in your best interests;

• Set up the various home inspections and appraisal, then negotiate the repairs with the seller;

• Prepare for your closing with the title company, help you organize the final documents needed by the lender;

• Complete the final walkthrough, sign closing docs, and ensure you know the correct amount to bring to closing;

• Keep you updated on the progress of your transaction every step of the way!

SERVICE ITEMS TO NOTE

Mortgage Services

We can help you find a lender to get you pre-approved, explain the different types of loans you qualify for, and tell you your estimated monthly payment.

Warranty Services

American Home Shield® offers extra security for the appliances and systems within your new home for peace of mind.

insurance Services

Typically, part of your monthly payment will include homeowner’s insurance. Your agent can help connect you with local agencies that offer great rates & umbrella coverage.

title Services

Title issues can be researched & solved before closing so you close on time.

Step 2: financials

Building your credit in anticipation for a large purchase should be considered the first step. There’s a minimum credit score that any home buyer must meet in order to secure a loan for a mortgage. If you haven’t already been on FreeCreditReport.com, head there and pull a free credit report (you are entitled to one free report each year, without the need for a financial institution to pull it for you—too many hard credit inquiries actually deducts points from your credit score!).

On average, it takes 3 to 6 months to build a credit score from scratch, and could take 2-3 years to improve it significantly (depending on the age of credit, mix of credit types, available credit, and how you pay your bills).

Your lender is able to look at your specific financial blueprint and help you set a course for improving and building your credit so you look more appealing to lenders.

Buying a home starts long before you begin looking for houses.

Things to start doing immediately to build better credit:

• Check Credit Reports & Scores. Does everything on your credit report look accurate? If there’s things listed that shouldn’t be there, you’ll need to have those removed immediately.

• Pay Every Bill on Time. This shows lenders how you’ll handle repayments.

• Stop Applying for Credit. House hunting is not the time to buy a car, open a credit card, or take out a personal loan. Consider yourself cut off.

• Limit Big Purchases. You want your debt-to-income ratio (DTI), the percentage of your gross monthly income that goes toward debt payments, to be low.

• Reduce Debt. Make payments and try to pay current loans off.

A credit score is based on your credit history, and is used by many lenders as a scale of how likely you are to pay a loan back on time. Scores range from 300 to 850. Experian, Equifax and TransUnion are the 3 credit bureaus that report this number.

Step 3: home search

This is considered one of the most exciting steps in the home-buying journey. While most people love looking for homes and envisioning this next step in life, it can also be overwhelming with so many choices.

Start with Your Wishlist. Identify your must-haves, like the number of bedrooms, bathrooms, location, and any specific features (like a large backyard or updated kitchen). Share this list with your real estate agent so they can narrow down the options for you.

Let Your Agent Search. Your agent has access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), a comprehensive database of available homes. They’ll use your wishlist to find properties that meet your criteria and will send you personalized listings. They may even have access to upcoming listings that will be on the market soon.

Do Your Own Research. While your agent works on their end, you can explore homes online through platforms like Zillow and Realtor.com. These sites allow you to filter searches by price, location and amenities, giving you another way to spot potential matches.

Finding a good match and your next property.

Attend Open Houses. Visiting open houses or scheduling private showings is a great way to envision yourself in a home. Take notes, ask questions, and consider the property’s layout and condition to see if it aligns with your wants and needs.

Refine Your Search. As you begin looking at homes, you might find that your preferences evolve. Maybe a big backyard becomes less important than a home office, or you discover you love a particular neighborhood. Communicate the changes to your agent so they can update their own search efforts.

LOCATION

new home wishlist

HOME TYPE BEDS / BATHS

Step 4: Make an offer

In today’s market, when the demand is higher than the amount of homes available, it’s important not to wait if you’ve found the perfect property.

How Much to Offer. We’ll sit down and look at recent sales and current buyer activity in that neighborhood, as well as the value of the property in its present condition. Putting all this info together, we’ll determine the price that you want to offer.

Submitting the Best Offer. You may only have one chance to make a good impression. Can you make it more appealing? There’s some things that make an offer more appealing to a seller: all-cash purchase, shorter inspection period, offer to close quickly.

After You Submit an Offer. The seller could accept, decline the offer (if yours isn’t close to their expectations to further negotiate), or counter (seller asks for different terms). If there’s a counter, then you can accept, decline or re-counter.

When your offer is accepted, you’ll sign a purchase agreement—you’re finally under contract! Now inspections,

It’s the perfect time to ask for concessions & negotiate.

appraisals, or anything else built into your purchase agreement takes place (unless you’ve waived this). Note: You’ll be asked to cover the cost of the inspections and appraisal costs out of pocket. This period of time is called the contingency period.

If one of the contingencies was a home inspection, you’ll have a certain number of days to complete this after the offer is accepted. Note: Typical inspections include roofing, plumbing & sewer, electrical, and HVAC. Foundation, asbestos, septic & well, lead-based paint and radon can be done if there are specific concerns. Appraisals are ordered during this period as well.

The post-inspection agreement is the next form you’ll sign if there are any counter-offers to the seller, asking that items considered defective, problems related to the safety of the home or repairs found during inspections are corrected prior to closing. Typically repairs are completed by professionals.

the negotiation

Negotiations are a normal part of a real estate transaction. Before you even have a chance to negotiate with the sellers of a property about repairs, you first have to come to an agreement on price and concessions (a benefit or a discount offered by the buyer or seller to help sell a home and close a deal). There’s typically 3 types of concessions you’ll see thrown the seller’s way:

Closing Costs. These include a range of fees that include appraisal, mortgage insurance, property taxes, title and origination fees, escrow, title insurance, and more. Sellers might cover all, a portion, or none of these. While having this covered won’t put cash directly into your pocket, it’ll reduce the amount of money you have to bring to closing.

Mortgage-Rate Buydowns. This can help lower your interest rate and, as a result, your monthly payment. You can permanently buy down your interest rate by buying points—each point generally costs about 1% of the mortgage amount and lowers your interest rate by approximately .25%. You can ask the seller to cover all or part of the cost.

Temporary Rate Buydown. There’s 3 common types: 1-0 Buydown, 2-1 Buydown, 3-2-1 Buydown.

Information related to concessions are meant to be a high-level overview. If you have specific questions about these or other items related to buying a home, please consult your agent as well as your chosen mortgage professional for additional details. Items stated here are subject to change and are not final.

Step 5: appraisal

Your lender will hire a board-licensed appraiser to come out and place a value on the property. Although the primary goal is to ensure the house is worth the amount of the loan the lender is providing, the appraisal can also protect you from overpaying. Your lender will typically add the appraisal charge on to your closing costs.

Most home buyers will never meet the appraiser or review the appraisal report. The lender will send the estimated appraisal value to the real estate agent to pass along.

What an Appraiser Does.

• Inspect the interior and exterior of the property.

• Research county and municipal records for documentation about the property and market area.

• Review recent sales and listings of comparable properties (similar utility, quality, age and amenities).

• Review living area of the home, land area, style, age, quality of construction, number of beds & baths, garage and outbuildings..

• Consider what it might take to rebuild or construct a reproduction of the existing property.

• Determine how many living units are present (in the event of a duplex, etc.).

HOW OFTEN DO APPRAISALS COME IN AT OR ABOVE CONTRACT PRICE?

the process

Home Warranty. A home warranty can be purchased to cover repairs and replacements on systems and appliances in your home, usually for a period of a year. This may include coverage of your home’s electrical, plumbing, heating and air conditioning systems, as well as other home appliances.

Title Search. Title is the right to own, possess, use, control and dispose of a property. When purchasing a home, you are actually buying the seller’s title to a home. During this period, the title company will look to see if a previous claim or lien is present on the property (this will affect the ability to purchase it until the claim or lien is handled). You’ll want to determine how you wish to hold title to the property--especially if you’re buying with a spouse, partner, family member or colleague.

Final Commitment Letter. After the lender approves your loan, you’ll get a letter that lays out the loan term and mortgage agreement. This final letter will include the annual percentage rate (APR) and monthly costs rolled into repaying the loan. It also includes any loan conditions prior to closing.

Homeowners Insurance. Lenders will require proof of insurance on a home before issuing a mortgage. Note: payments toward the homeowners insurance policy are usually included in the monthly payments of the mortgage.

Refinancing Letter. You’ve undoubtedly heard the phrase, “Marry the house; date the rate.” If you’re looking to refinance to lower the interest rate on your mortgage and/or take out equity, your lender will typically request an appraisal at that time, too. Again, this helps ensure their investment is sound and can determine the amount of equity that can be taken out. For more information, contact your Lender.

Step 8: Closing

USEFUL PHONE NUMBERS

Pack up the house, sign the documents and move in!

There’s a lot that happens as each individual company wraps up their side of this deal: from your lender and title company, to your inspectors, appraiser and agent... Once closing day comes, you’ll need to, essentially, sign a bunch of papers and then hand over your final check.

Closing Disclosure. Lenders are required to provide you with a closing disclosure, at least three days before closing. This will show you what your final loan terms and closing costs will be. You’ll have three days to review the statement (to make sure there’s no surprises at the closing table). If there is a significant discrepancy between the loan estimate and the closing disclosure, the agent will notify your lender and title company immediately.

Final Walk-Through. You’ll have a final walk through of the home within 24 hours of closing to check the property’s condition. This final inspection takes about an hour and is your opportunity to make sure any repair work that the seller agreed to make has been done. You’ll also: make sure all appliances are working property, run the water in all faucets to check for leaks, open and close garage doors with opener, flush toilets, run the garbage disposal and exhaust fans.

Closing Table. Closing is typically held at the title company, where you’ll sign lots of paperwork, including the deed of trust, promissory note, and other docs. At the table, your agent, the seller, the seller’s agent, a title company representative, your loan officer, and any real estate attorneys involved in the transaction could be present. It’s not uncommon for it to be you, your agent, the title company rep, and the seller’s agent to be present instead.

Bring to Closing. You’ll want to make sure you have a government-issued photo ID. It never hurts to also bring a copy of the sales contract, homeowner’s insurance certificate, proof of funds to cover the remainder of the costs, and your contribution to the closing costs (typically 3-4% of the home’s sales price, unless negotiated with the seller).

GOOGLE LENS

Search Google through your camera lens in case you can’t identify any item in the house.

Get technical

Search the Apple or Google Play stores to find apps that will help you and your new home!

Take a photo of a prospective home’s yard and then add trees, shrubs, flowers, and more to see what it could look like through AR.

HOMEZADA

Record your home inventory, along with repair projects and their progress. Set budgeting plans for home remodeling, log research, schedule reminders for seasonal maintenance, stay on top of home insurance policies and claims.

Learn about the community, local events, and neighbor reviews of the area.

Check out a neighborhood and see if any of your neighbors are a safety risk. All info should be confirmed with the Laramie County Sheriff’s Department.

FAMILY WATCHDOG ZILLOW MORTGAGE

Make quick calculations on various financial aspects of purchasing a home.

ISCAPE FREE HOMESTYLER VR CENTRIQ

Place furniture similar to yours in a home you’re considering to see how it will look and fit.

REALTOR.COM

Browse home listings with detailed information on prices, taxes, and nearby amenities.

Winner of the National Association of Home Builder’s Game Changer Award— a one-stop-shop to help you access appliance manuals, order spare parts, and video guides for DIY repairs.