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Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

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jmc912
Valued Member

Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

My husband and I are looking to buy sometime before the year is over... We have never bought a home before so I don't really know how the process works... I have a few questions:

-Should we use a realtor? 
-How do you find a good realtor? (already asked friends/family, no recommendations)
-Can you work with more than 1 realtor? Or is that a big no-no?
-Is the process for finding a foreclosure different than a normal home?

We will probably try to get 100% financing through Navy Federal so we can have some money to furnish our home. However, should we be looking for other lenders as well?

-How do you find a lender? Is that something your realtor can recommend?
-Do people usually shop around for lenders?

A few stats: We are looking to buy in Northeast Florida (North of Jax), Have decent/average credit (Both of us around 760.... his was at 500 at the beginning of the year and I did major repairs to bring him up to 760), No car loans, student loans, or credit card debt. Hoping to buy on just my husbands income, I haven't been working (by choice) for a year. Last year taxes he made about $68k, on top of that, had $32k on non-taxable per diem (he has been traveling for work a lot). I know they probably won't count the per diem into his income. 

Thank you so much in advance, I'm sorry if these are really stupid questions! I just don't know much about the process.

Message 1 of 6
5 REPLIES 5
kimmiller112
Frequent Contributor

Re: Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

Those are really good questions.  You need to work with one real estate agent - they work on commission so you can't really have more than one agent working for you.  You mentioned foreclosures - if you are considering buying a house that is in foreclosure or a short sale, you need to make sure that the agent you decide on is very familiar with those kind of sales as some aren't and will steer you away from those kind of sales.  But keep in mind that a foreclosure or short sale will take longer to close on as there will be negotiations between the bank and you and sometimes the banks take a while to decide whether or not to accept the offer that you submit.  A regular home sale is a lot quicker.   If you are looking to buy something within the next month or two, a foreclosure/short sale won't work for you, but if you have a lot of time, then it is possible that you could end of with a good deal on a foreclosure/short sale.   If the area you are looking in has a real estate publication, you may want to look through it and see what agencies have foreclosures/short sales listed as they would have realtors that are familiar with these kind of listings.   Make sure that they know the market well and have been doing real estate for a while.

 

Before you start looking at homes, you want to get pre-qualified so that you know what kind of price range you need to be in.  There is nothing wrong with going through Navy Federal.  Contact someone from their mortgage department and get your pre-qualification.  They may have recommendations on realtors too.  Realtors usually can recommend a lender also, so if you find a realtor before you get pre-qualified, you may want to consider that option.  What you don't want to do is to contact a bunch of lenders because each one will do a credit pull to pre-qualify you.  100% financing wasn't an option for me, so if that is something you are looking for and Navy Federal has that option for you, that may be the lender you want to use.

 

I am single and make an annual salary of $60,000.  I was pre-qualified for a new build going through the builder's lender (they are paying part of the closing costs) for $260,000 which is the price of the house plan and lot that I wanted.  I have a car loan but no student loans or credit card debt.  My middle score at the time I did my formal application was 681.  I am doing an FHA loan and putting 3.5% down.  I have been in underwriting for two weeks and am anxiously waiting to hear from them.   I live in an area where real estate is expensive.

 

You sound like you are in good shape.  The credit score and income sound fine.  Good luck and don't be afraid to ask questions during the process.

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Message 2 of 6
jay_s
Valued Member

Re: Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

Once you have identified the towns/neighbourhoods you want to buy, look for LOCAL realtors. Go and interview atleast 3 realtors if you have no recommendations. Ask them for a market analysis of the area. Give them your requirements and have them pull up listings and see if they do a good job of trying to give some background on each listing.

Make sure the realtor you choose shows you more than one house and explains the pros and cons of each. Don't go with realtors who are pushy and claim that market is on a surge and you need to buy fast. You want to extra careful in selecting the house you want to live.

At this stage, have the realtor show you comparable recent sales and decide for yourself if you want to make an offer and the price for offer,. Do not blindly offer what the realtor asks you to. Make sure you get the recent sale data and do an assesment for yourself.

Also, get pre approved before going to the realtor. You can do that in your local bank or credit union. This should give an idea of what you can afford and what your payments will be.

Message 3 of 6
jmc912
Valued Member

Re: Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

Thanks both of you so much for this invaluable advice. 

I have contacted a few realtors and really there is only one that has been helpful in responding with information. However, he kind of tried to steer us away from buying a foreclosure because he said it's a really messy process. The area we are looking in has a TON of foreclosures so I'm thinking we may be able to get a better deal if we go with one. 

We don't mind fixing something up, as I'd like to purchase below our budget anyway. Also, we aren't really in a rush to buy, just within the next 6 months and I know interest rates are going up so the sooner the better. 

The difficulty is that we are 5,000 miles away from our buying location and we won't be back there until December. It's hard getting someone to work with us given the distance. For example, there was a house we really like but it only had pictures of the outside, so I asked the realtor if he could get more pictures or a floor plan or something and he pretty much just said we had to see it in person. Well, we are stranded out at Pearl Harbor so that's not exactly a possibility. 

I see lots of listings online for foreclosures and it tells you to see the listings to go to realtytrac.com and you can view them there. How would I find someone who specializes in foreclosures? The realtor I've been talking to doesn't seem too familiar with them. Every foreclosure I see online directs you to that website. 

Thank again everyone

Message 4 of 6
adymax
Contributor

Re: Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

 Don’t buy a house if you are 5K miles away. Buy it when you get home. 

Message 5 of 6
jmc912
Valued Member

Re: Getting started in the home search- Need guidance!

I know, we are trying to avoid buying a house unless we have actually seen it. 

 

It is very hard to find a realtor to help us when we are in this situation. Very frustrating. If we saw a few properties we were interested in I may be able to fly there for a weekend, but at this time nothing is really jumping out at us and all of the foreclosure listings have no pictures or info so I don't know if any of them interest us. 

Message 6 of 6
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