The Mortgage Process for Home Purchases

If you’re a first time home buyer, this is where you belong…

In this video I breakdown the major steps in buying a home:

And in case you want everything spelled out for you here are those steps in the home buying process with more info about each:

1. Get Pre-Approved
2. Find an Agent
3. Look at Homes
4. Submit Offers
5. Open Escrow
6. Close and Celebrate

Get Pre-Approved

So the first step is you need to get pre-approved and that means finding a good lender. Of course since we’re biased who the best lender ON EARTH is…you should probably reach out to family or friends and see if you can get some referrals to local lenders. Always check the lender’s Yelp and Google reviews (check out some of our reviews here) too.

Keep in mind there are all kinds of loan programs and lenders tend to specialize so don’t assume loan officers are a one size fits all profession.

Note: if you already have a good agent, then get them to refer a lender that they trust. Whether the lender refers the agent OR vice versa…it doesn’t matter. Just always verify with the person’s reviews AND don’t start looking for homes until your lender gets you pre-approved. This prevents you from falling in love with a home that you can’t afford.

Find an Agent

Step two: Ok now that you’ve decided to work with the best lender out there (ahem!)…you’re gonna need to find a good agent. Again, reach out to family or friends for referrals AND also ask your lender. We work with a lot of agents…just like agents work with multiple lenders.

And as mentioned when selecting your lender: check Yelp and Google for reviews AND make sure the agent has a successful track record doing business in the areas, price points, and property types that you are looking for. The agent that listed your rich Uncle Phil’s house in Bel Air may not be the one that’s best suited to help you land that starter condo in South Adams.

Look at Homes

Ready for step three? This is what most people call “the fun part”.

Get with your agent and start putting together your wants and needs. Then your agent will start setting up showings where you can see properties and you can also visit Open Houses.

Your price range is based on your pre-approval so if you decide that you need to go up in price to get what you want, your agent should coordinate with the lender to confirm the financing is ok.

Submit Offers

Step four is crunch time because you’re gonna start making offers. Your realtor will make offers on your behalf. If we’re your lender we’ll be involved too: we do is we send out personalized videos to the listing agent going over the strengths of your pre-approval so the seller knows that if they accept your offer, the financing is good to go.

Assuming you get an offer accepted you get to proceed to Step five.

Open Escrow

Step five is getting into contract aka “opening escrow”. Here’s what happens:

• Shortly after the offer is accepted, you’ll send an earnest money deposit (the amount varies by transaction so check with your agent)
• Your realtor will take the lead on the inspections and disclosures and you’ll get involved when the time’s right.
• Your lender orders the appraisal, begins getting all documents in order for financing, and working towards getting your loan finalized.

Some might say this is the not fun part, but with us it can actually be kinda fun (don’t believe us…let’s do your loan and find out!).

Close and Celebrate

Step six is when you close the transaction. It’s basically a done deal, but you need to dot some i’s and cross some t’s…and sign your name about a million times. You also wire the rest of your down payment and close the transaction. That means you get your keys, which is REALLY the fun part.

Here’s an infographic on the homebuyer process that’ll fit nicely in your wallet rollie suitcase – btw to save space we adjusted some of the steps but don’t worry…the important points are all the same!

Want even more first time homebuyer info?

Browse our common questions for first time buyers here. If you get lost in the jargon, we define a lot of mortgage and real estate terminology here.

PS Buying a home is a big decision. When it comes to the mortgage, you should NEVER be in the dark. When you work with us, this is how it goes down. So when you’re ready to take the first step, check out our simple eval process where you can choose whether you want to: get real rates specific for your scenario (beware of teaser rates!), see how much home you can afford, get pre-approved, or quickly submit your contact info so we can get back in touch.