3 Steps to a Home

This article simplifies the purchasing of a home by explaining it in three easy steps. These three easy steps break down the process of buying a home and make it smoother for you the home buyer and actually all parties in the process of home buying. The three steps are Pre Approval, Location, and Finding a Realtor. They should be followed in order but in a lot of cases the realtor already has a lender or the home purchaser already knows where they want to live before they know if they can afford it.

Pre-Approval:

This allows you to get an idea of how much your payments are going to be and how much of a home you can afford. There are many factors that affect those parameters the most important is credit score, DTI (Debt to Income) and Assets or how much money you have in the bank etc... for a down payment. For those people that have bad credit or a high DTI then you will want to get pre-approved now but might have to wait till your issues get cleared up before you can actually purchase a home. The key is not to be scared to try to get a home it doesn't hurt to find out what you can afford and or to fix your credit. The worst thing to do is to wait until you need a home and then find out you can’t afford it due to credit issues.

Location:

Location is key. I'm sure you herd in the real estate world "Location-Location-Location" are the 3 most important things. When choosing a location there are different factors that come into play. One of the biggest is where you are in your life and proximity to the things you need. For example if you are married with kids you might look at the school districts, crime rates or proximity to super markets or stores. On the other hand if your not you might look for a location that is more up beat or fashionable to make a statement to other singles. Maybe you are a work-aholic and the proximity to your job could be your most important feature. Either way you should check out the location closely by asking local people about the area. The differences in price for an equally sized home in an uninviting area is dramaticly lower then the same thing some where else, so be careful of the bargain deal homes. Check the surrounding areas as well to do some comparison pricing.

Find A Realtor:

This shouldn’t be hard because they are all over the place. I have not noticed any particular difference in the different companies that are out their they all do pretty much the same thing. What I would look for in a realtor is there commitment to helping you the knowledge that they show of the area and home you are viewing. These are just a few of the many things you can expect from Realtors:

  • They will keep in close contact with the Lender making sure they are staying on schedule, not to default on the purchase contract.
  • They will make sure all required inspections are done.
  • They can even find buyers for your current residence.
  • They will work with Appraisers and make sure the value is there.
  • They will work with selling Agents to set up times for walk through.
    • All the time keeping contact with you through every step of the way answering any and all questions, so you don’t have any surprises. They get a good commission to make your life stress free during this process.

    Robert Blizzard - EzineArticles Expert Author

    My name is Robert Blizzard and I own RBIB.inc and one of our sites is dedicated to helping the home buyer by simplifying there home buying experience. To do this we created 3 Steps to a Home, a customer friendly site with no extra advertisements and no memberships to market to you. All we do is provide you with helpful information and allow you to find your realtor and lender reps, by Zip code. They are local to that area and can properly assist you and not lead you astray. Come visit us at:
    http://www.3stepstoahome.com/

    We also have two sister sites dedicated to helping you in deferent facets of your life:
    One that helps people with equity in there home that are looking to retire soon or increase there liquid assets called Investing Equity:
    http://www.investingequity.com/
    The other helps people who currently live in apartments complexes and are wondering if they should buy a home or not called Apartment or House:
    http://www.apartmentorhouse.com/