Albuquerque Home Buyer Checklist: 8 Steps to Buying a Home
(Transcript Snippet): “Tego:
We’ve had this list on our website for the longest time. And I think it’s just a good time beginning of the year. And you know, there’s a lot of refreshing going on at the beginning of the year. And so let’s put this out. There’s eight steps to buying a home. It’s the buyer check list. So it’s eight steps with substeps, but let’s kind of rapid fire go through this and see if, if sure. We can go through this and rapid, rapid fire.
Tracy:
We never do that.
Tego:
We can do it. We can do it.
Tracy:
They’re on welcome home. Abq.Com under buyer, under buyer resources, buyer resources. Yep. So eight steps. So one is prepared to buy, right? Begin the process may make sure you’re ready to go. That that now is the time resolving issues. What would that be? Tego? What kind of issues would you wanna resolve? Well,
Tego:
It, you know, were your leases. If you’re renting, if you’re already owning, you know, do you need to sell first? It, it may be clearing up some credit issues, you know, call me Mike Remos, you know, and, and get your credit. That may be part of another, the, the financing step as well. And I thought this was interesting, make sure that all the parties involved in the purchase are on board. Now we have seen that before where we have a, a family member, maybe a parent or something, that’s gonna be a co-signer. And, and it seems like maybe they had a conversation, a casual conversation, and then all of a sudden somebody’s out shopping for a home and all, and the other party, isn’t quite a hundred percent on board. So I think that’s an interesting tip.
Tracy:
It is an interesting one. And we do see that even with couples, you know, where one, one of the couple, no, doesn’t know that it’s really happening as quickly.
Tego:
Don’t all you guys of that, that, that, you know, you just go along for the ride that
Tracy:
Well, somebody, so then, you know, you’re thinking about it then, you know, call us, meet with an agent.
Tego:
Yeah. I think having that consultation, you talked about that a moment ago here in, in this broadcast, but you know, talking with the real estate agent, that there to be a level of trust between yourself as the buyer and the real estate agent, the real estate agent’s job is not to sell you anything. Correct.
Tracy:
Right. They’re, they’re a fiduciary, right. They’re there to work for your best interest. And, you know, a lot of people think Tigo that they should go straight to the listing agent that they’re gonna save money somehow. And, you know, we need to remind buyers that the listing agent works for the seller. Correct. And they have a, a, a duty to get the best deal for the seller. Correct. So usually that’s, you know, get your own buyer’s agent, right. A buyer broker to help you and be working for you
Tego:
And just ask some of the tough questions and, you know, tough questions are fine. If the real estate agent knows what they’re doing, they’ll be a, will answer them.
Tracy:
So tough questions of the real estate agent that you choose. Is that what you mean? Yeah. So even as a buyer broker, you get to choose, right. And you wanna choose somebody that’s full time in real estate that really knows the ins and outs that’s been through many transactions that you feel comfortable with and you feel like they’re working for you, right?
Tego:
Yeah. Yeah. So the next step is, is, you know, figure out what your price range is, you know, get your financing figured out. And that may be talking to a lender. It may not be, it may be getting online and doing some calculators, cuz there’s a bunch of mile out there and we have ’em on our website at welcome home. ABQ dot com. I would
Tracy:
Say, go ahead. Talk with a great local lender because calculators don’t know what type of loan you’re best suited for. They don’t know that you might be a VA person that’s eligible or you might be an FHA borrower versus conventional. You know, sometimes people think, well I only have this much for a down payment. I don’t have 20%, so I’m not gonna be a conventional buyer, but there are conventional loans down to 3%
Tego:
Down payment. And so, you know, you’re saying these things like everybody just knows what a conventional loan is and what an FHA loan is and what a Fannie Mae is and what Freddie Mac is and what a VA loan is and what a U S D a loan is. And so, yeah, that’s why talking with a lender and you did say at local lender, you know, somebody that you can meet face to face, it really does make a difference. Right. and, and you know, the, the local lenders, they have a reputation to protect in the realtor community, as well as just, you know, their clientele base and their, their rates are gonna be as competitive as, as stuff you can find, you know, nationwide.
Tracy:
So kind of a sidebar to the local lender thing, you know, walking into the bank that you normally bank with might not be the best local lender. Right. A lot of those lending banks are actually outta, they transfer you to somebody out of state. So somebody local that has a reputation. Yep. You know, for sure, for sure. So financing’s a big piece of it. What, what we know is most people start with home searching.
Tego:
Absolutely. And that’s number four on our list.
Tracy:
That’s number four. And that’s my point is starting with the home search before you’ve established, you know, the type of loan, the down payment, closing costs, what price range you’re in, what realtors gonna help you and give you, you know, good solid advice. You’re sort of putting the cart ahead of
Tego:
The horse, but that’s the fun part I know, getting on these websites like ours or Zillow or any of these things and, you know, driving our around town and looking at for sale signs, which there’s not a lot of ’em out there, they right, right now. But you know, actually, you know, it is it. And, and I, I will say, you know, you think about when we started in a business and there were just a few real estate websites, right. That was one of our big successes early on, as we had a pretty powerful real estate website here locally in Albu. And, and now, you know, everybody has a website, right. But the ability to really narrow down different features that you want in a home and, and the benefits that you’re gonna get out of those home, that those, those features you can really scroll down when you’re looking at these online and start, you know, the, the photos are so much better now you’ve got 3d tours. Now you’ve got so much more that you can do to determine what’s right for you. Right. before you actually even go out and start looking.
Tracy:
So I, I know how much funded is to, to lurk on real estate websites and look at homes for sale. We, we do it ourselves. Right. and great, you know, get online, look at houses online, get familiar with what you like, what color palettes, what, what features really excite you when you look at a certain house. But don’t start looking physic in houses and going to visit houses until the rest are in order. Right?
Tego:
Yeah. And one of the things that, you know, in determining your requirements, just what, what we find all the time is that what you think you want and you think is a nonnegotiable in the end may be a negotiable, depending on other, other features that, that you find in a home. And of course, price is always that trade off as
Tracy:
Well. So that’s the next step, right? Determining your requirements in your home. And it’s interesting because when we really get together as an agent with somebody who wants to start looking at homes, and we really talk about how you live and how you entertain that list of people’s wish list really changes. Oh, for sure. You know, a lot of people say, well, I need that guest bedroom. And I go, well, how long, how many days a year do you have a guest? You know? And, and a lot of times it’s none or, you know, two, two, and you’re like, okay, so you need that extra bedroom for the guest where it’s gonna limit the number of houses you can consider because you need that one extra bedroom. That’s not going to be used except two nights a year. You could get a hotel room for them for two nights a year.
Tracy:
Right. Right. Obviously we love to have people stay with us, but sometimes it doesn’t make sense, but just, you know, big backyard, what does that mean? You know, really working with the agent to drill down a, on how you live and how you, how you intend to use the spaces. And what’s important to you. What are your hobbies and interests and how do you use your house? Because a lot of times we have things, we need some backyard access. We need a place to park something. Yeah. For sure. But as your realtor, we need to know what those are so we can help guide it.
Tego:
So the, the next, you know, piece is you, she start house hunting. It seems like that’s what we’ve been talking about. But really it was just, we were talking about determining needs, right. And then, so we’re on step five and now we’re on step five, which is, you know, start your house hunting, which again is gonna be done online. In most cases, that’s where you’re gonna start, start narrowing down what you want. You can preview those homes online. And generally what happens is you’ll be preview homes online. You’ll be talking to us the, you know, your realtor, your buyer, broker, that’s working with you or working for you. And they’ll be sending you homes that, that may fit your criteria. And you’ll start narrowing down a list, correct, Tracy. Right. And then you start, you, you pick a day and you go out and look at homes. Exactly.
Tracy:
And that’s fun. Right. Obviously it’s great. And we, we love to do that. So you, when you look at homes, we know that it’s it’s very, you, you can be tainted by how the house smells and looks and with people’s own furnishings in them and things. So it’s really important to look at the house from how you
Tego:
Live and, and, and just beware and, or be advised that it’s very common that, you know, you see a house online, you see the photos, they’re beautiful photographers, do amazing job, making homes look amazing. Right. And then you get to the house and go, oh, this is not what I thought it was gonna be based on the photos that I saw online. So yeah, it, it, it makes a big difference. Okay. Let’s, let’s, let’s jump forward. Okay. We’ve looked at a bunch of houses and we’ve narrowed it down and we’ve picked one. And we said, this is the one I want to do. I want this house. What’s the next step.
Tracy:
So moving quickly is very important right now, making the decision and just going forward and having your agent put together that purchase agreement. So that’s the next step, the purchase agreement, it’s the offer that you wanna have presented on your behalf to the seller? So it’ll be, you know, all the, all the details about a purchase agreement, closing date, down payment, earnest money, any personal property that’s in the house that you wanna make sure stays with the house dates, deadlines, all of those things. And you then review the purchase agreement, get it signed, your agent presents it on your behalf.
Tego:
Yeah. The, the purchase agreements, you know, the, the one we use, we have a standard form here in New Mexico is what 16 pages, I think right now. And there’s all kinds of contingencies, all types of dates and deadlines for the buyers. Most of the stuff is for the buyer benefit in the sense of, you know, giving the buyer the option to do all these different due diligence, you know, financing, contingency, appraisal, contingency inspections, contingency, so on and so forth. So you’ll go through all of that stuff in the purchase agreement. And you then, then
Tracy:
Congrats. Yeah. They accept your offer, right. Well,
Tego:
Yeah. Well, you, you miss kind of one step, which is negotiate the deal. Right. Right. You know, there’s a kind of a back and forth. Usually when you, when you first do not, not always, sometimes you’ll send over an offer buyer, the seller signs it and away you go. So, so now it’s the, the, the closing process or the scroll period. If, if you will, right. Tracy, what, what happens there? That’s
Tracy:
Where we get all the contract to your lender. If there’s a lender, we get it to title the title work goes on. If there’s a lender, you’re getting them, all your supporting documentation. If you haven’t already, they’re verifying employment, checking your all of your bank and saving statements and just kind of making sure your file is complete and you’re gonna be running around because you’re gonna be getting your tax past taxes to them and different things. And then we’re gonna be setting up a closing time, a time for you to sign to close on
Tego:
Your house inspections. Oh yeah. And it’s inspections during that. Period’s, that’s a big one. You’ve like trying to rush me so well, no, no, I wasn’t. I, I mean, that’s like the biggest one, right? It’s it’s yeah. We can’t forget that because there can be multiple types of inspections, you know, generally there’s a full home inspection where the buyer gets to, you know, evaluate the, you know, property condition so that they’re comfortable with moving forward with the purchase. So, right. Yeah. There’s a lot of stuff that happens from the, the moment you go under contract on a property until you actually go and sign and, you know, trans transfer ownership. And so that, I mean, we could do two hours on just that process, right. What we call the contract to close, you know, period. And that’s really where we have our team here, our transaction team that, that, that handles all those little details that are behind the, you know, that are going on until you’re ready to go. And of course the last step, the fun part, you, you sign and you transfer ownership and you get key. Yeah. So, so that was, that was the eight steps of buying a home. And, and I think they, I think what we go through about 150 steps, really, cuz now I there’s a, there is definitely a lot in having a a trusted guide to navigate you through the process is a big deal. And that’s why you need a, a buyer broker that’s that that knows, knows how to do it.