Home Buying Process

You want to buy a home, now what? Meet with one of the Heartwood Realty agents so that we can learn what you are looking for. What has brought you to this point of buying a house? What is your work and family situation? What are your wants and needs? The more information we can gather from you at this initial meeting, the more we can be on track to get you the house of your dreams within your budget.

Whether you already know which lender you’d like to use or you are looking for a recommendation, you’ll want someone who is competitive on rates and responsive to your questions and concerns. This is a big step in the home-buying process and your Heartwood agent will be available to support you through it all.

This is the fun part! Your Heartwood agent will help you narrow down your house requirements and those nice-to-have elements that aren’t dealbreakers. Do you need to be in a certain school district? Are you looking for an extra-large garage? Now is the time to think this through and provide this information to your agent.

Based on your housing needs, your agent will set up an MLS search for you. This will pull up properties with your requirements and let you compare them. This MLS search can be tweaked as the search goes on, and you see various homes. Once you’ve been to a few house viewings, you’ll get a better sense of what you like and what you don’t like. Ask questions of your agent and rely on them to provide up-to-date market information.

View the homes you are interested in with a critical eye. You’ll be spending a significant amount of money on this investment, and you’ll want to be confident about your decision.

If you find a house or two that you are interested in, great! Now is the time to find out the house’s value. Your Heartwood agent will help research comparable properties in the area that are currently on the market or have recently sold. This analysis will help you determine how fairly these homes are priced compared to the competition. This information can help you come up with a plan, whether that’s to continue looking or make an offer.

You have found a house and are ready to make an offer! This is an exciting time in the home-buying experience. You will review your offer with your agent and use their expertise to come up with a game plan. Once you are in agreement on the terms, your agent will prepare the necessary paperwork to review and sign. Your offer will include your offer price, preapproval letter, proof of funds for a down payment, and any terms or contingencies. Your agent will be available to answer any questions you have when you submit the offer to the listing agent.

Once your offer has been submitted to the seller’s agent, the ball is in their court. The seller has a few choices: accept the offer, reject the offer, or make a counteroffer. A counteroffer includes revised terms that the seller would prefer to see. You can then choose to accept the counteroffer or submit your own counter. There can be a number of back-and-forths during this process, bringing the parties closer together until mutually acceptable terms are established.

If your offer is rejected, the deal isn’t necessarily dead in the water. Your agent can advise you as to whether they think submitting another offer is worthwhile. Often, your agent can get some details from the seller’s agent to help with this assessment.

Congratulations! You made it through the negotiations, and you have an accepted offer. You’ll need to get the due diligence money and earnest money to your agent immediately. The contract will need to be signed by both the buyers and the sellers. This will lay out all the details like purchase price, due diligence period, home inspection contingencies, and closing costs.

a. The due diligence money is an agreed-upon amount that is offered in good faith to the seller. During the due diligence period, the seller takes their house off the market to allow the buyer time to perform inspections and get appraisals. The buyer can elect to terminate the contract for any reason during the due diligence period. However, if the buyer elects to terminate the contract, the seller will get to keep the due diligence money. If the buyer purchases the house, the due diligence money will be credited toward the purchase price of the home.

Consult with your agent to decide what other inspections you’d like to order during the due diligence period. These may include but are not limited to standard home inspection, pest inspection, septic inspection, radon test, and well water test. These will need to be scheduled during the due diligence period and will incur additional costs that you will be responsible for.

Once these have been completed, discuss the results with your Heartwood agent to decide if you may need to try to negotiate a closing credit or repairs to be completed before closing. You also have the option to back out of the contract before the end of the due diligence period. If you do so, you will lose the due diligence money, but the earnest money will be returned to you.

The earnest money is a negotiated amount that is held in escrow by the buyer’s attorney until closing. If the buyer terminates the contract during the due diligence period, the earnest money is refunded to the buyer. If the buyer continues to closing, the earnest money will be credited to them at closing.

If the buyer terminates the contract after the due diligence period and before closing, both the earnest money and due diligence money remit to the seller. The earnest money is considered damages, and should the buyer breach the contract, this is everything the seller can recover.

b. Mortgage application – Once your offer is accepted, you’ll need to let your lender know. They will begin the process of running your credit report and verifying your financials. It is important that you do not open any new accounts or credit cards during this time period, as it could impact your credit rating and your ability to get a mortgage. Get any required documents to your lender as soon as possible so that you don’t delay this process.

You will need to schedule an appraisal, which typically costs around $500-$800.

Get home insurance quotes and provide them to your lender.

You will need a closing attorney who will work closely with your realtor and lender to complete the title work and secure the title insurance. Heartwood can provide referrals for attorneys, insurance agents, and other service providers you might need.

c. The due diligence period ends – At this point, repair requests and necessary addendums have been signed. If you will need to wire money at closing, start preparing for that and determine if you need to do it in person. Make the funds available so everything will go smoothly at closing.

Provide any final items the lender may request to finalize your loan file. Your agent will coordinate with the attorney’s office to schedule a date/time for closing. Set up your utilities for your estimated closing date and reserve movers if needed.

A final inspection may be scheduled if repairs were agreed to.

You made it to closing day! Bring your photo ID with you to the closing. If you need to wire money, confirm that it has been scheduled/sent. If you need a bank check, bring it to the closing. Once all the documents have been signed and money exchanged, you will get the keys to your new home!