So here's where I take advantage of the fact that many of my friends of have been much more settled than I've been, and start tossing out real estate questions
( Read more... )
If you're talking about buying a house (or condo or whatever), in my experience, the first thing to do is find a good realtor. Ask local friends and colleagues for recommendations, and take it from there. Also, ask local friends and colleagues if you need to do anything else, since the process probably varies from state to state. :^) But in both MA and CA, my various realtors were excellent liaisons to everything else, from financing to an attorney (which you need in MA and not in CA
( ... )
I don't know the real estate rules where you are, but we were very happy with using a buyer's broker rather than a standard go both ways one.
Getting your credit reports is a good step to do right away, then start talking about mortgages. You can look at houses at any time, and with this market there's probably no hurry on most of them.
As everyone else is saying, it took about a month for me between the offer being accepted and closing. Maybe slightly less because the previous owner had already moved out--her new job, in another state, started before I even first looked at the place.
Getting pre-approved for a mortgage takes like a week. You want to do that, as amyprime says, before you contact a realtor, because it will give you a price range. You don't really get to pick your price range, unless you want something cheaper than what the banks say you can afford (ok, maybe people who aren't trying to buy something on a grad student salary do want something cheaper than the maximum they can afford, but that doesn't apply to most of the people I know). Also, if you're going to shop mortgages, you have to do it all at once: they have to look up your credit score, but if they all do it within two weeks of each other, it will only count as one credit score look-up (every time someone checks your credit score, your credit rating drops
( ... )
Comments 3
Reply
I don't know the real estate rules where you are, but we were very happy with using a buyer's broker rather than a standard go both ways one.
Getting your credit reports is a good step to do right away, then start talking about mortgages. You can look at houses at any time, and with this market there's probably no hurry on most of them.
good luck!
Reply
Getting pre-approved for a mortgage takes like a week. You want to do that, as amyprime says, before you contact a realtor, because it will give you a price range. You don't really get to pick your price range, unless you want something cheaper than what the banks say you can afford (ok, maybe people who aren't trying to buy something on a grad student salary do want something cheaper than the maximum they can afford, but that doesn't apply to most of the people I know). Also, if you're going to shop mortgages, you have to do it all at once: they have to look up your credit score, but if they all do it within two weeks of each other, it will only count as one credit score look-up (every time someone checks your credit score, your credit rating drops ( ... )
Reply
Leave a comment