The Real Estate MarketPlace

The Saga of the Homebuyer

      You’ve decided to take part in the American Dream by purchasing a home in the Fort Hood Area. Congratulations! There are a lot of reasons you should be buying a home. You won’t be paying to a landlord now, so each payment you make will be going towards a home that will eventually be yours. Also, in this area your mortgage payment will usually be lower than the rent on the same home. You’ll be able to take advantage of tax laws that allow you to fully deduct mortgage interest payments and property taxes from your income when April comes next year.  Finally, you’ll just feel better knowing that the roof you’re sleeping under belongs to you!

    We want to sincerely thank you for choosing us to help you with the process. We’ll use our expertise in finding you the best possible home for your budget, and you can take comfort in the fact that we’re very good at our profession. Throughout the home buying process, you’ll be working with a team. With other agencies, you generally work with one agent—and that’s how we used to do it—until we found a better way. With our team, you’ll find us more reachable. We’ll have more time to devote to your home search, so you’ll be able to compare as many homes as you’d like. Little things won’t slip through the cracks when it comes to your loan and closing, because we have someone dedicated to your file. The Franks Group is dedicated to serving your needs better. Yeah, we know that sounds like shameless propaganda, but in all truthfulness this can mean a better home, at a better price, with better terms, faster than it would normally happen, with a much smoother closing process. Not bad, eh? Okay, we’ve tooted our horn enough here. Back to the saga.

    There are several steps to purchasing a home. This is an important time in your life, so we’ll go through all the steps now so you know exactly what to expect…

Step 1: Decide to Buy a Home

    Haven’t we done that, you ask? Yes you have. Now it’s time to examine that decision and make certain it’s the right one. We can help in that. You see, it’s not always best to buy a home. We’ll be the first ones to tell you that—even though we don’t get paid to do so. A lot of the decision rests on how long you’ll be in the area. We recommend that our Clients own their home a minimum of three to five years. The reason for this is that it costs a lot to sell your home, and you’ll probably need time for your home to grow in value enough to sell. So…make sure this is what you want to do. Our goal is to completely satisfy you in the homebuying process, and that’s tough to do if you shouldn’t have bought a home in the first place! Take the time here to fill out the MarketPlace ProfileÓ so we can know how we can best serve you.

Step 2: Pre-qualify for the Mortgage Loan    

    This is a big step for a few reasons: you’ll know in advance if there will be problems with your loan, you’ll look with full confidence that once you find the home you want—you’ll be able to get it, and your offer will look much more convincing to a seller if it has a letter of pre-qualification attached to it. We can help you with this process. We know the questions to ask, and where to go to get the best loan for your situation. We have to warn you here: working with a bank is not usually too much fun. It may feel like they’ve turned you inside out with questions, but take heart! This is in your best interest. It’s better to know you’re qualified by asking a lot, than guessing you’re qualified by not asking enough. You will need two years’ tax returns, bank statements, and pay stubs for this process. After you are pre-qualified, the fun begins in the next step…

Step 3: Find Your Home!

We both get to do some work here, and this is where we really excel. If you’ve given us an idea of what you want through the MarketPlace Profile, then we’ll prepare a list of every home that fits your criteria. With us, you’ll never need to guess if you saw everything you should have. Our team system allows us to spend as much time as you’d like in the search for your new home. So you will have the chance to see them all. Ideally, we’d like to spend enough time with you so you can see several homes at a time. Depending on what is most important to you, we’ll line up all of the homes that may be interesting. You will have a full printout of every home you’re seeing. Bring a clipboard and take notes! This is serious, and even though our memories are legendary, you won’t want to forget the advantages to each home you’ve seen. After you’ve seen them all, it’s time to make a decision—this will be your new home!

Step 4: Offer, Counter-Offer, Contract!

    When you’ve found the home, it’s time to get to the serious business of making it yours. The beauty of most pre-owned homes is that everything is negotiable. You can look at it and say, “Your price isn’t bad, but we need new carpet and repairs” or “We’ll take it as-is, but we need a better price.” We’ll help in the negotiations (we do it often) and let you know what’s reasonable and what’s not. We’re good at our job. You’re in the care of professionals, so relax during this process.

     After deciding what you want, we’ll write an offer together. The sellers and their listing agents will look at the offer, and they can accept it, reject it, or counter-offer (try to make a compromise). After both parties have agreed to final terms, the offer becomes a living, breathing contract. This contract spells out all of the terms of the transaction, and will be used by the banks, agents, and title companies to help in closing on your new home.

Step 5: Loan Approval, Paperwork, Etc.

     This is all of the “behind the scenes” work that we will be doing on your behalf. An appraisal on your new home will be ordered to show that your home is worth the money that you and your lender are paying for it. A survey and termite inspection will be ordered. An inspection should be ordered for the home (we’ll talk to you more about this). Repairs, if needed, will be estimated, scheduled, and done. We can help in you getting homeowners’ insurance, as well as helping with a homeowners’ protection plan. During all this, the bank will process your loan, and turn it over to an underwriter who will, based on your financial information, approve your mortgage.

      When all of this is arranged, the title (or closing) company will order a title commitment. An attorney examines the title for the home. The title company then organizes all of the documents in order to close the transaction at the time and place designated in the contract. The Franks Group, who has a person dedicated to the task, does all of this on your behalf.

Step 6: The Closing!

     The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and angels sing at the closing of your home. You, the seller, each of your Realtors, and the closing agent will meet to sign the documents necessary to change possession of the home. Don’t worry, there aren’t any bankers in pinstriped suits waiting around—in fact, the closings are usually pretty casual. All problems should have been addressed in step 5, so the closing should be smooth sailing. What a day! You become a homeowner as you sign the documents, and the title company records the appropriate papers with the county. Congratulations are in order, because you are now living the American Dream!

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That's it for the Saga of the Homebuyer. You can see from here exactly what you're getting yourself into once deciding you want to purchase a home, and we hope you can also tell how we can help you better (we're pretty sure about this) than any company in the area. Pick up the phone and call us today at 953-5911 (local) or (800) 959-2766 toll-free to set up your no-obligation appointment to start the process for yourself.