San Diego Home Buyers
Buying a home in San Diego is no easy task, that's why you need a professional real estate agent to assist you with everything from house hunting to negotiating the offers and counter offers, to coordianating all the inspections and services. We're here to guide you through the entire procress from start to finish. Whether you're just getting started or your ready to place an offer, we're here to help guide you through the process. We put together a step by step guide to help you learn how to get started so you can be prepared when you're ready to purchase a home. The process really involves only 3 simple steps, you should follow them in order to get the best experience when you decide to buy a home in San Diego County. Like anything else, if you skip a step, you'll be set back or disappointed later on, so be sure to start from the beginning.
- Step 1 - Loan Pre-Approval
- Step 2 - Search San Diego Homes
- Step 3 - Make An Offer
Step 1 - Find Out What The Banks Will Lend You
You may be thinking "I know I can get the money" and want to skip this step, but this is actually the most crucial step of all. Not knowing how much money the bank will lend you and how much it's going to cost to get that financing, you'll just be setting yourself up for disappointment later on. Lending guidlines change on a daily basis, one loan program that is available today, could be unattainable for someone who qualified for it the previous day. Also, your payment is based on your credit score, how much money you make, how much debt you have, and your debt to income ratio just to name a few, so it's important to know before you start looking at homes what purchase price will give you a payment that your are comfortable with. This will not only help you narrow your search, but it also puts you in a better position to get the best deal on a home. Currently in the San Diego real estate market, if you want to make an offer on a home you need to have a pre-approval letter with your offer. It usually takes anywhere from 2 days to 1 week for a lender to get you a pre-approval letter, so if you decide to look at homes before you start looking into financing, you risk losing that home to someone who was smart and got their pre-approval letter up front before they started looking at homes. So getting a pre-approval letter from your lender is step number one. To get started now and find out how much the bank is willing to lend you, click here and fill out the form, someone from out team will contact your shortly.
Step 2 - Begin Searching For and Previewing Homes
Congratulations on completing Step 1, by taking the time to go through this step, you have already saved yourself thousands of dollars and your now a strong buyer because you have cash in your hands. That's right, a pre-approval letter is just as good as cash. Now is the fun part, we get to start searching for homes. But first, we like to sit down with you and ask you a few questions about what your needs are so we can start searching for the right type of home for you in the area you want to live. San Diego real estate agents have a database that we share real estate listings with each other, this gives real estate agents the ability to search for every single property in San Diego County based on the criteria your looking for in a home. This database of homes is called the Multiple Listing Service or MLS for short. You can find a basic version of this on Realtor websites and is a good way to watch everything on the market. We have the San Diego MLS available to you to search for homes for sale, view pictures, virtual tours, property descriptions, room sizes, save your favorite properties, and send yourself newly listed homes for sale directly to your email. All of this is available to you at no cost or obligation. Whatever method you should choose to search for homes, the best idea is to review the listing information and choose several homes you're interested in and then drive by them to take a look at the exterior and the neighborhood. If you're still interested in seeing them, contact us and we'll set up an appointment with the seller for you to view the homes for sale that you're interested in.
Step 3 - Write an Offer and Negotiate The Best Price and Terms
Now that you've found the perfect home, it's time to make an offer to purchase. Before you get started with the offer though, your real estate agent should search for and print out a comparative market analysis which simply compares the home you're interested in to comperable homes that have sold in the last 6 months to evaluate how much the home is worth in the current market. Depending on the type of market you're in, you agent will help guide you in determing the price you offer. Now you're ready to write up the offer! As soon as your offer to purchase has been completed, your agent will present it to the sellers and either three things can happen, they will accept your offer, counter your offer or reject your offer. It's your agents job to convice the sellers to accept your offer the way it is, but more times than not, the seller counters your offer. If this is the case, you just keep going back and forth until everyone agrees on a set of terms and the price. Once your offer is accepted by the seller your agent will open an escrow account and schedule, coordinate and follow up with all the service providers that are involved in the process, keeping you well informed along the way. As soon as all inspections have taken place and your loan is approved and money sent to the seller, the home is yours and you're ready to move in!