First timer tell me everything

amother

Firebrick

Mon, Dec 11 2023, 8:54 pm

Firstly you need to get a mortgage broker who can look at your finances and get you a pre-approval letter. You’ll use those when giving offers on houses.

You’ll also want to find a realtor to work with in the area and maybe start researching lawyers as well, since if an offer is accepted you don’t have a lot of time to get things moving.

The way the offer process works in NJ is that your offer goes to the seller as an official contract. Once accepted you have only a few days to let them know you’ll be making changes to the contract, and then a certain amount of time to actually make those changes and submit them to the sellers lawyers.

In NJ the realtor fees come from the buyers, not you.

You give your down payment in portions, with a small sum right when your offer is accepted, another after contracts are signed and accepted, and the rest at closing. I believe the two initial deposits in my case were 10k each.

It can be very stressful, and after an offer is accepted things need to move very quick, and then move very slow while waiting for mortgage to be approved.

After acceptance you need to do a home inspection asap. If anything comes up that will cost major $$ you can ask your realtor or lawyer to see if the other side will credit you or do the repairs before closing. It’s always worthwhile to ask.

Typically the process is:
Send an offer
Get approved (at some point!)
Make initial changes to contract
Send 1st deposit
Start applying for mortgage- it’s a long process
Do home inspection (set up by you)
Make more changes to contract, maybe
Sign updated contracts
Send 2nd deposit
Home appraisal (scheduled via mortgage company)
Mortgage approval (hopefully!)
Closing

Closing means just signing endless papers. You’ll also have to send the rest of your down payment, we did ours via bank wire and gave the confirmation copy to the lawyer, same with the other two deposits.

Realtors might try to get you to be more competitive when giving offers. Be very careful about waiving mortgage or inspection contingencies. Waiving mortgage contingency means you agree that even if you don’t get approved for the mortgage you will buy the house and come up with the rest of the money (cash) or if you back out you forfeit your deposits. Waiving inspection means that if the inspection shows anything bad about the house you cannot back out without losing your deposits.

Keep in mind that even if you would theoretically get approved for a 700k mortgage, for example, if the house only appraises at 500k the bank will not give a higher loan than that. So if you are buying a house for 700 but the bank will only give 500, you need the other 200 cash. Typically at this point you can back out and get your deposits back, but if you waived the mortgage contingency you cannot. I’m not sure about current markets but if the prices are inflated at all it could be very risky.

My advice when giving offers: give the amount you would be willing to pay for THAT house. If you would be upset if someone had an accepted offer for 500k and you would have paid that, but didn’t offer that high, then offer that high. I get disappointed when sellers don’t accept but if it was out of my budget then no big deal. If I would have paid that amount then I feel like I missed out. But also keep in mind just because you COULD pay a certain amount, doesn’t mean you should. Every house will be different and you’ll find your own value in each one, it’s not all the same.

amother

Almond

Mon, Jan 01 2024, 10:02 am

amother Firebrick wrote:

Also looking to buy. This was super helpful thanks so much