I am starting to think about buying a home, especially since the buyers market is great, how do I get started?

I own five properties currently. Here's some advice for you.

Start off by going to the website of any big realty company in your area. You will be able to search properties by price range and location, etc. See if you can find anything that interests you. (I live in a condo myself and I think that's a great transition to ownership because you have no outdoor maintenance to worry about.)

I wouldn't bother with an agent until you've spent a lot of time browsing home listings in your area and gotten a feel for what you like and what you want. When you're ready to actually go see houses, you need two things:

1. An Agent
2. A mortgage broker.

To Find A Good Mortgage Broker:
You want an independent mortgage broker--- not one affiliated with a particular lender like Wells Fargo, etc. Independent mortgage brokers work with many different lenders, and can play them against each other to get you the best deal. Google Mortgage Broker in your area and see if anyone has a good looking website. Then call and see who sounds good to you on the phone. Tell them you are a first time buyer and want to be prequalified. They'll handle the rest.

To Find a Good Agent:

Ask people you know who've bought a house lately if they liked their agent. Look in the paper at the real estate ads and see if anyone clearly specializes in the area you want to buy. You can also call any big real estate company and tell them you want to work with someone who knows whatever area you want to buy.

My biggest advice is do not use friends you have who are agents, unless they are full time, experienced, successful agents. There are a lot of part-timers who are desperate to close deals to make money and they will not do a good job helping you negotiate the best deal.

Trust me on that. I made that mistake the first time I bought and it will be years before the market catches up to the amount I overpaid.

Good luck in your search!

Start by having the same job for at least three years and having saved enough to put 20 percent down for a down payment. Make sure you have good credit, or else you will pay through the nose for your loan. Once all of that is in place, select a lender. You may want to try a service where loans compete for your business. Do your research and go through a reputable company. You will need to get a pre-approval before you start shopping, so you know how much house you can get for your money.

As you start to search, remember that location is key. Find something reasonable in the best neighborhood where there is low crime and good schools.

Work with a trustworthy realtor. Take your time and don't let anyone pressure you into making a decision. It is one of the biggest decisions you will ever make, so think through everything. Take notes as you view properties on the listing sheets. You also may want to take a camera or video, so you can go back and look at it for reference at a later time.

Remember--you can always change the house, but you can't change the location of the house!

Good luck!

Get pre qualified and then get an agent. Try to go for a home auction if you can..I know that 400,000 dollar homes here are going for about 180,000 at home auctions.

The first thing you want to do is select a loan officer. I woudl suggest shopping around- talk to atleast 2 people and see who can give you the best rate and who you feel the most comfortable working with. The mortgage broker will explain to you your true purchasing power. Then once you know the price range of the home you can afford, contact a real estate agent to help you with finding the home for you. What I would do is visit a few different open houses until you find an agent that you click with. Do not let an agent rush you into anything. take your time and find the deal you are looking for.

first go to the bank and see how much house you can afford

they'll give you your top number that you can afford a decent mortgage at a certain rate.

be aware I would search for homes LOWER than their estimate.

A realtor will want to show you homes that you can afford. They are not going to want to waste their time looking at homes you cannot afford.

contact a real estate agent.

Get pre-qualified for a loan.

check your credit!!!!!
wait a while and improve your score and save up some money....to use or just to save in case something goes wrong after you buy your home.... like illness or job loss
find a GOOD mortgage lender ....... you want a flat interest rate!!
find a GOOD Realtor

First thing you need to do is get in touch with a realtor. They usually have a lender they work with. The lender will call you and get some information, and run the basic numbers to figure out how much of a loan you can afford. Then the realtor looks for houses in your price range.

Make sure you tell the realtor that you're a first time buyer...so they can walk you through everything.

The way I got in touch with a realtor is I jus started looking at houses. When I found one I liked, I called the number...and they set me up from there.

Scout where you want to buy, get a big down payment, and lock in a good realtor then a bank with a decent rate.

definately find a GOOD agent.. a goos one will walk you throught the process

First you have to decided in what aria and then do a lot of search to get the right one with the right price.
you can check http://www.johnres.com/

I would get pre qualified first. Go to your credit union or a reputable mortgage company in your town. You need to see what you budget for before looking at homes you fall in love with but cant afford. Yes, it is definitely a buyers market. If you have great credit (720+), ask that the seller pay all closing costs and see if they will throw in money towards your down payment. There are plenty of bank foreclosures out there as well so look for those. Be firm with people. If you feel that you are getting screwed some how don't jump in...take your time. There are plenty of good homes out there. Good Luck!

Find some Realtor and talk to them, Or if you have relative who has economical knowledge talk to them,

You dont like in England do you? Cause if so where have you been? too many people wanner do it and there refusing people now
if not then go on some site and itll explane there

Make sure you have enough money for a down payment, decide how much of a home you can afford, select the area in which you would like to live, then talk to a realtor who will help you find what you want.

You need to get qualified for a loan first. That way you now which price range to look at. You may want to shop a bit for the best rate, especially if you have good credit. Then contact a realtor - try to find someone that a friend recommends and has a proven track record in the neighborhoods you are interested in. Look at atleast 15 houses before making an offer on a house. That way you will feel like you have seen enough to know what is out there and get exactly what you want. Once you find the house you can't live without I recommend going online to the county website and looking at the taxes on the home and what the last buyer paid for the house. That way you know if you have room to low ball the seller. Buyers' market or not - no one can sell their home for less than they paid. When you make the offer always make it contigent upon passing the inspection.

Good luck!

"e", You've made a good choice asking questions before taking that first wrong step. Here are some suggestions.

1. Check your credit. You can check for blemishes and errors on your credit at annual credit report dot com. That website allows you to check all three credit reporting agencies.

2. Read more about the buying process. The more knowledge you have the more you can tell if someone is giving you false information or overcharging you for services. HUD is a very good place to start. Another answer contain a link. They also provide Housing Counseling services for renters or buyers from third party providers. They usually charge a monthly fee.

3. Do some research for a real estate agent. Most of the Internet savvy agents can be found on The Active Rain Real Estate Network.

4. Get some mortgage quotes. They are required to give you a good faith estimate. HUD offers a search for local lenders. Or, you can ask anonymously on Zillow.com. This is a new service, so be careful.

5. Work with a Buyer's Agent. Most States require real estate professionals to work for the benefit of home sellers unless they are under a signed Buyer's Agency agreement or contract. This can be for one house, one day, or a specified period of time.

6. Always use your cell phone or an unlisted land line on forms. I also suggest creating a throwaway email address when filling out any forms for information. About.com or RealEstateABC can also provide additional information about real estate related transactions

Good luck, yes lenders have tightened credit guidelines.

Big Question!!!!

Check your state laws for real estate, print them out and read through them, highlight things you don't understand and spend the time looking it up. Knowing the law of real estate will be very helpful when dealing with realtors. Try this link to find the laws for your state.
http://realestate.findlaw.com/homeowners...

www.hud.gov, offers lots of information for first time homebuyers. Here is the home buyer information from HUD.

http://www.hud.gov/buying/index.cfm...

When considering a loan, consider an FHA backed loan.

http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page?_pagei...

Don't forget to ask about Down Payment Assistance.

http://www.nehemiahcorp.org/

Check into the real estate licensing board for the state of Florida, they should have lots of information available to you.

http://www.myflorida.com/dbpr/re/frec.ht...

Also, look over the forms and be sure you know which ones should be used, what they are used for and what it should read in your favor. Read over them and if you don't understand them read them again. Ask someone you know who has bought a home if they can help you understand what some of the things on the forms mean.

I especially like to include this clause on any contract for home purchase. It lets you out of the contract if anything from the inspection comes up that you don't like.

This contract is contingent upon the buyer having the right to engage a professional inspector to determine the structure and condition of the house. The inspection shall be conducted and the contingency concluded within five working days from the date of acceptance of this contract. The inspection report must be satisfactory to purchaser, or all deposit monies will be immediately refunded and all contract obligations considered null and void.

You can get more information by searching on google. Read as much as you can and don't take this lightly. Purchasing a home is a huge step and is the biggest expense most people have in their lives. So when you do it, do it with lots of knowledge.

Now, I just want to share some information with you that I have learned from experience. I don't know if this applies because I have purchased a home only in Texas. So take it as simple advice.

1. You chose a realtor to represent you. You like him/her they seem trustworthy. Consider yourself in this situation. A home is being offered for $100k, you think you can get it for $90k (for whatever reason or no reason at all) your realtor says the seller won't take it or bla bla bla, bottom line, it's not enough. Explanation: The realtor gets 3% commission on the SALES price. If you get the home for $90k, that's less money for her/him then if you bought it for $139k. Got it?
2. Disclosure. If you have a realtor or not you can call any listing agent and ask for a copy of the disclosure. You should do this as one of the first steps in the home buying process, don't take no for an answer, it's your legal right to see the disclosure. If they continue to refuse, then move on, if they won't show you the disclosure there is probably significant problems with the home. (a disclosure states everything the owner knows of that are problems with the home. You want to know this before you waste time writing a contract or hiring inspectors). Realtors can be nasty people (most are nice) so be prepared to get nasty if you have to.
3. Special provisions. There should be an area of the contract that has special provisions where you can add information about things you want that are not otherwise addressed on the contract. For example, I included the above clause reference inspections. I included that the seller was to participate in the down payment assistance program, I wrote that I wanted the seller to leave all the kitchen appliances (get serial numbers, model numbers if you can, if not take some pictures when you do the initial viewing of the property. Use your camera phone or bring a regular camera, realtors don't usually care about you taking pictures,). Write anything else you can think of that you want added to this area that is not otherwise on the contract.
4. Once you are familiar with the forms, and if you know which ones you will need to fill, you don't have to have your realtor do them for you, you can fill them out and ask that your realtor review them. They usually don't like this because they wan't to convince you what it should say. The fact is YOUR offer is YOUR offer. Not your realtors offer, she/he is not paying for the home you and your sig. other are. The seller however, does not have to look at the contract so it's sort of a losing battle with realtors. Your contract has to go to your realtor, to the sellers realtor and then to the seller, if it gets that far. (remember were talking commission here for the realtors). What I have had many speculations of is that the seller says, "i want this much money for my home, don't bring me anything that is not at least this much." The sellers agent writes the contract to show exactly what the seller wants and it is kept on file. When an innocent prospective purchaser sees the home and likes it and makes an offer the offer never goes past the sellers agent unless it is at least CLOSE to what the seller wants. A realtor will tell you, you can offer whatever you want. That is true, but that offer has to get past the agents which is not likely unless it is close to what the seller wants. So whatever happens, the buyer is always screwed unless they are very experienced buyers and have lots of cash or something is significantly wrong with the home.
5. No one is going to look after your interests as well as you.

Some other things you are going to want to check into is the tax rate/annual taxes for the property you are wanting to purchase. Go to your county appraisal district web site and search the property you are interested in by address. It should give you the amount of taxes owed (if any) and how much it is. Take the total taxes for a year and divide it by 12, add this amount to the payment. You also want to include the cost of homeowners insurance. Go to the yellow pages and look up insurance companies in the area, you usually get a better deal then the ones outside of the area who aren't real familiar with the area. Ask for an estimate then add a few hundred to that. Then divide by 12 and add that to your payment also. Some communities have home owner association fees. Mine are $480/yer divided by 12 and added to the payment. If you get an FHA loan you will have a hazard fee, make sure that gets added to the payment also.

When you decide on a price, down payment, how much of your costs the seller is willing to pay and ask your lender for a good faith estimate. Do this before signing the contract so that you can be sure you know how much it's going to cost you monthly. Be sure it has all things in it such as taxes and insurance etc. Check the bottom line to see how much you are going to have to bring to closing, if it is to much as your realtor to increase the costs the seller is to pay so that you can bring to the table what you want to bring and no more.

Talk to your realtor, don't be afraid to ask questions and lots of them. A realtor is not an attorney, he/she is a licensed professional. They can answer questions but they can not give legal advice. Before actually signing with someone be sure you speak with the agent, spend some time with them, and try to find out how trustworthy they are. But stay on guard. I once had a realtor I thought I could trust and when we hung up from the phone she forgot to hang hers up. I heard everything she was telling another realtor about me and what I had said and it was not very nice. So beware and be careful and remember, your pretty much on your own when it comes to looking out after your own interests.

You and your boyfriend/fionce can purchase a home together, it does not matter how you do it, as signer and co-signer or as investors or whatever, just be sure that the title has both of your names on it. The FHA web site has lists of preferred lenders for FHA loans, after being turned down by several loan companies, i went here and found someone and got approved no problem.

Also check to see the flood zones for the area you are buying in. You can search flood zones by address at,

http://www.floodsmart.gov:80/floodsmart/pages/notFound.jsp

Good Luck and have fun doing your research. You might find out you want to go into real estate and know more about realty then the agents do.

Hello, I am a realtor and to answer your question. First go to 3 differeny mortgage lenders and shop your rates. If you are buying a home that is in the qualifying amount for FHA, then that loan will hold a great rate with as little as 3% down, they even have down payment assistance programs. Get a pre-approval letter from one of them. It can be done in the same day. Then contact an agent with your specific wants. Remember that you will most likely end up sacrificing one thing for another unless you have unlimited funds. Just keep in mind what is the most important to you. Find an agent that will ALWAYS answer their phones. Have the agent show you a long list of homes, pick 6-8 of the homes to just drive past on your own. (this will eliminate allot of the homes without even seeing in them) then choose the 3-4 that are definate possibilites, have your agent show you through them then pick one and put in your offer. Put in a lower number but not too low that they reject it, just low enouph for them to counter back. If they are motivated ask them to pay your closing costs and maybe some other allowances. Good luck I hope this helps. P.s. if you are in UTah my e-mail is teesha@cbstgeorge.com

Auctions may not be the best place to shop...the auctioneers usually have "plants" in the audience to bid up the price. If you must go, make sure you know how much a reasonable substitute house goes for in the area and don't exceed that price, don't get caught up in the "frenzy" of an auction. There will be a better "foreclosure" house hitting the market tomorrow.... Look for the best SCHOOL district you can buy in to and get in there.... Stay away from sleazy mortgage brokers.

Edit: NONSENSE, stay away from mortg brokers; they place your loan with the lender that's gonna give THEM the biggest reward for screwing you the hardest. They could give a damn about finding you the best rate & term!!!....Youre better off comparing rates on the Internets through sites like: bankrate.com and remember....

find a good realtor and ask their advice on a good mortgage broker. so you know you get a good one.

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