Purchasing a property

Purchasing a home should be a wonderful experience.  My job is to make sure your experience goes as smooth and as seamless as possible.  It should be a fun and an exciting experience.  The more enjoyable your experience, the more reason to refer me to your friends and family.

 Many people believe the first step is to find a home.  A good start; however, a lot of people don't know exactly what they can afford.   First step is to get a loan approval.  If you do not have a mortgage professional, please go to the partners page and select a lender.  Have them get you started on the process of getting your loan pre-approved.  They will let you know exactly what you can afford based upon your income, down payment, debt, and years of the loans.  These four factors will determine your interest rate.

While the loan approval is being worked on, we will get together either face-to-face or via email to discuss what you are looking for in a home.   I'll need to know what part of Houston are you interested in living.   What do you want in a home?  How many bedrooms, bathrooms, and minimum square footage.  How many garage spaces if necessary?  Do you want something traditional, modern, cottage or a ranch style home?  Do you want a town-home or condo?   Are you wanting to be near a particular school or in a certain school district?  How about living in a master planned community versus a non-restricted area of town?  Do you want a fixer upper to save a little cash and design your own way?  Let me get a feel for what you want in your home. 

I show properties as early as 9am to 8pm Monday through Friday, and flexible hours on the weekends. The goal is to find you a place to call home as quickly as possible with all the best due diligence taken before you place an offer on a house.  I will send you links to properties on HAR.com that are actively being sold.  I'll ask you to narrow down the listings to your top 5-8 for us to view immediately.  We can go out either same day or within a day or two.  We do this because the real estate market in Houston moves fast.  If there is a new home on the market and is nicely done, it may not last long.  A home there in the morning may be under contract in the evening.

Now that we've found you a home.  I will pull recent comparable houses that have sold over the last 90-180 days in the same subdivision or within a 2-5 mile radius.  Based on the comps, you will decide upon an offer for the house.  There are some negotiations going back and forth, but it doesn't take long to wrap up.  Earnest money is usually 1% of the sales price.  You will have an Option Period to take care of inspections of the property.  Option Periods are 7-14 days for $30-50 each day of the time period, on occasion this period can be extended.  An extension depends on the on the outcome of the inspection. The Option Fee will be credited to the closing cost unless the contract is terminated. Survey, who pays for it?  Hopefully the seller has a good copy of the survey, and it was not copyrighted.  If there is not a survey, be prepared to buy one.  It will range from $450-1000.00, depending on the property.  Do you want the seller to contribute to your closing cost?  This will allow you to come to closing with less money out of pocket.  As well as a seller can pay for a reduction to the interest rates, ask me how.  Decide when you want to close (30-45 days should be enough time).  Keep in mind everyone wants to close at end of month, try not to do the same. 

Once the seller has said they agree to all the terms on the contract, I will have you execute the contract, and collect checks for earnest money and option fee or you may wire the funds directly to the title insurance company.  Funds must be turned in immediately to the title company so they can get started on the title commitment.  If there is a lender is involved, you will sign a Third Party Addendum relating to your financing with dates you will need to have a final approval of the loan including the appraisal.  If you do not stay on time with these items, you can lose your earnest money.  I will be assist you and make sure lender stays on time as well.  There may be other addendums you will need to sign: Lead Base Paint Disclosure (depending if home was built prior to 1978), HOA Addendum, Sellers Disclosure, MUD Notice Disclosure, etc.

Please go to the Partners section of this website and select an inspector or inspectors.  Set up appointment as fast as possible to inspect the property.  You will need to decide if you want a Wood Destroying Insect Inspection (aka Termite Inspection).  Do you want extra inspections done by specialist; plumbers, roofers, a/c professionals, electricians, foundation repair company, etc.?  Inspections need to be done in a timely fashion so that we can get with the sellers to re-negotiate the items you may want addressed.  The seller may take the option to reduce the price, to compensate for repairs, or provide an allowance upon closing for repairs.  If no agreement is reached there is another option: execute a Termination of the Contract, and Release of Earnest.  Option Fee is then only portion lost and earnest money refunded.

Once past the Option Period, we will be in contact with lender to make sure appraisal has been ordered.  Go ahead and begin contacting utility companies and start moving over utilities (electric, gas, water, cable, internet, etc.  Contact movers, try to stay away from end of month and weekends.  Movers generally charge more for weekends and end of month because of high demand.  Hopefully the lender is on top of their game along with the Escrow Officer and your closing statement is correct within at least 3 days prior to closing. 

Set up after 10am so that we can walk through the house prior to closing.  We want to make sure everything is as you agreed on the contract.  Be at closing at least 10-15 minutes early.  Make sure to have your Cashier's Check ready for the closing the day before closing or morning of closing or make arrangements to have funds wired into the title insurance company.  Closing will take 15 minutes to an hour, depending on documents.  Make sure to have two forms of ID.  You'll sign a stack of documents that you will need to go over with the Escrow Officer, review the survey if applicable, then wait for lender to wire funds to the title insurance company so that the sellers can collect their funds, and finalizing the transaction.  Once funds have been received, the keys can be turned over to you.  You are officially a homeowner. CONGRATULATIONS! 

Tell all your friends and family of your great experience.