Buyers PageBefore you go forward, ask yourself do you Need a home? Or do you Want a home? Sit down and look at your overall financial picture. Ask yourself questions like,
"How would buying a home now benefit me?" "Can I afford the monthly payments, property taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage insurance?" "Will I have six to nine months of payment reserves in the bank just in case something happens?" "Look at your job, your company, your industry, are you certain your job will continue?" Why Do We Care So Much? We're different. We don't sell homes for the commission checks. We want you to keep your home, and afford your home. We never want any of the homes we sell go into foreclosure. Once you buy from us, you will buy again, and again, and again. You will refer all your friends, and family to us. So if you are ready to buy a home in Solano County, we're ready to get started! THE 7 STEPS OF HOME OWNERSHIP FROM START TO FINISH Step 1, LOAN APPROVAL Before we can look at any homes, you must be pre-approved. If you are pre-approved, have your lender fax or email us a copy of your "DU Findings", Proof of Funds, Approval Letter, and Credit Scores. They will know what this means, they can email it to us at info@mygpsagent.com or fax us at 707-759-4021. If you are not pre-approved, shop around for a lender that you know and you trust. If you would like to use our preferred lending partner: http://www.707456refi.com Once you are pre-approved, our preferred lender will email us a copy of your full approval. If you want to know what it takes to get approved for a mortgage loan, you need to have decent credit. Decent meaning, at least a 640 Fico score, no late payments in the last 12 months, a two year job history, and at least 3.5% to 5% down payment. Your debt ratios shouldn't exceed 31% - 36%. If you wonder what a debt ratio is, its the amount of total debt you have versus your total gross income. To keep it simple, if your total gross income is $3,000 per month, the maximum debt the lender wants you to have is $930 - $1,080 a month. Step 2, FIND A HOME Congratulations, you made it to step 2. Your pre-approved, you know what your payments are going to be, and your ready to start looking at some homes for sale. Let us explain the current market. I'm sure you are aware, most of the homes for sale are either "banked owned", or "short sales" Short Sale means the bank / investor will accept an amount lower than what is owed on the loan. The best way and fastest way to get into a home is to buy a banked owned home (Can close in 30-40 days), or a regular sale. Depending on the investor, some short sales can take anywhere from 45-180 days to close. In order to find the home you are looking for, you will need to complete our buyer profile form. This form lets us know what type of home you are looking for. You can complete the form online by clicking here. Step 3, VIEW THE HOMES Simple, contact us, and we will make arrangements for you. Please let us know the eight digit MLS #. We will contact the listing agent of the property and make sure the property is still available. Depending on your type of loan, there are some homes that you won't qualify for for. For example, if you are approved on an FHA loan, properties that have bedroom / bathroom add ons without permits may restrict FHA financing. If this is the case, we will notify you. Also, most fixer uppers don't qualify for FHA financing. The public information you see on the home listing most likely will not tell you this information. Step 4, SUBMIT AN OFFER Simple, contact us We don't like wasting paper here, all of our offers are done electronic. Some bank are not accepting e-signatures, don't ask why, but if this is the case, we can have an agent assist you with the paperwork. You can tell us things like, "I want to bid, $250K, with $6,000 closing cost" We will prepare the paperwork and email it to you for signature. We will take your DU findings, credit report, proof of down payment, copy of deposit check and send it off to the bank. HOW MUCH TO BID? Well, we can give you data of the listing price vs. selling price. You will notice most of the properties sell no more than 3% within their listing price. So, if you want to bid $60K for a home that's listed at $90K, data shows you probably won't get the home. What may happen next is a re-bid process, "highest and best" is what they call it. Think of it as your "final answer" Do you want to change your bid, or do you want to keep it where it is? I think its a ploy to get a few more thousand dollars out of the deal. Your first bid should be your last bid, don't worry about getting outbid, if you do, no big deal, move on to the next property. If you bid on a short sale, it may take as little as 10 days to get an answer, and as long as months....Now the new thing they have is "pre-approved" short sales. These are supposed to make the short sale process faster, since the listed price is what the bank / investor wants. If your bid is accepted, lets move on to step 5, if not, your stuck at step 4. Step 5, OFFER ACCEPTED, INSPECTIONS This is great news. You are in contract to purchase a home, this is where most of the action is. First thing is we will have to open escrow and deposit your check to hold the property. This money goes into an escrow account and will be applied towards the money you need to bring in to close. The escrow amount usually is anywhere from $1,000 to 3% of the purchase price, depending on what the bank requires. Remember, you usually have about 10 days to do all your inspections on the property for Bank Owned, and about 17 days for a Short Sale and Regular Sales. What inspections to get? Most of the time you should order all 3 major inspections. Home Inspection, Termite Inspection and Roof Inspection. What's its gonna cost you? Depending on the size of the home, the home inspection usually runs you about $300, termite will run you about $100, and a roof inspection will run about $85. Your looking about $500 ballpark. Click here to view a sample video at the Termite Inspection. Once you get all the reports back, review them and make sure you know what you are getting into. Remember, the seller will NOT do any repairs on the home, unless they are required by federal law. (Water heater braced and strapped, working smoke detectors, etc). If you buy a regular home, we can try to ask the seller to do some repairs, but its not a guarantee. Below, you will find companies we have used in the past that we trust. Home Inspection - Use Robert Garcia @ 1st Class Home Inspection. Their website is http://www.1stclasshomeinspection.net View Sample Home Inspections Sample Report 1 Sample Report 2 His phone number is 707-299-6843. They upload the reports online, so you can view them from any computer. You can also view them from your mobile device as well. Termite Inspection - Use Zap Pest Control. Their website is http://www.zappest.com They have been in business for over 30 years and know what they are doing. Roof Inspection - Use Affordable Roofing Their website is http://www.affordableroofing.biz For 30 years, Affordable Roofing has been providing Bay Area clients with roofing services and products at affordable prices. Owner Guy Tigner has 36 years experience in the roofing industry. Once you approve and review all the inspections, we will have to remove our inspection contingencies. Meaning, you are satisfied with the property condition and ready to move forward. If for some reason, the property needs a lot of work, you have a right to back out of the contract within 10 to 17 day time frame. You will get your deposit back. Yes, but you lose your $500 that you put in for inspections. Usually within 7 days, you will receive your disclosures. Because the bank never occupied the property, they don't have to disclose items because they have no idea about the property. So its very limited as to what information the bank will provide to us. Step 6, LOAN CONDITIONS, LOAN DOCS Now, we wait for the lender. You will work with your lender and provide them items they may need to update your file. Lender probably already ordered an appraisal, as long as your appraised value comes in at or above your purchase price, were ready to go. In the event the appraised value comes in below the purchase price, we got a problem. Who will come in with the difference? Will the seller reduce the price to the appraised value? Or will you have to come in with the difference? Each seller is different, and each deal is different. The answer is who knows? If everything is ok, you sign your loan docs at the title company. By this time, your loan officer has already explained the terms of the loan to you so you know exactly what type of loan you have, what your payments are, and the interest rate. Sometimes the loan officer is at the signing so if you had any questions, you can ask him / her directly. Usually after after signing loan docs, we will do a "final walk" with you at the property. At the "final walk" we make sure the property is in the same or better condition you seen it the first time. If any repairs were requested, (most bank owned homes are "as is") then we would verify these items were corrected prior to closing escrow. Step 7, LENDER FUNDS, "ON RECORD" After you sign your docs, lender will review everything. If all looks good, they will wire your loan money to the escrow company. The escrow company will sort out all the funds, pay who they need to pay, and give the seller the rest of the money. Once Solano County records the official documents, escrow will be notified. Escrow will call our office and say the magic words, "we're on record" What this means is you get the KEYS, and you move in. So, if you are ready to buy, and you are looking for a company who is down to earth and high tech, give us a shot. Call us at 707-636-4REO and speak with an agent now! Or contact us anytime. Have more questions? Don't forget to check out our FAQ for Buyers. |
