Purchase Home

Start Your Research Early

Once you have decided to purchase a home, start searching Web sites, real estate listings in newspapers, and magazines. Print or take a picture with your phone of homes you are interested in. Find out how long they stay on the market. In addition, monitor any changes in the asking prices. This will give you a feeling of the housing market trends in your desired areas.

Contacting local realtor for their expertise is advisable. The realtor works for you to help you to find a property that fits your needs.

Decide How Much House You Can Afford

It is generally recommended that people looking for homes that cost no more than three to five times their annual household incomes. If you as home buyers plan to make a 20% down payment and have a moderate amount of other debt.

This decision should also be made based on your own financial situation. Use our  Affordability Calculator to see how much house you can afford.

Get Prequalified and Preapproved for credit for Your Mortgage

First, you need to know how much you can actually spend before getting serious looking for a home.

Lending hand Mortgage is your partner to get pre-qualified for a mortgage. You simply need to provide some financial information to our Mortgage Specialist, i.e. your income and the amount of investments and savings you have. We will review this information and tell you for how much mortgage you qualify. This gives you the information of the price range of the homes you should be looking at.

Find the Right Real Estate Agent

The right real estate agent will be an important partner when you’re buying a home. You receive from the real estate agent helpful information on homes and neighborhoods which isn’t easily accessible to the public. More so, their knowledge of the home buying process, negotiating skills, and familiarity with the area you want to live in will be very valuable.Finally, a real estate agent is compensated from the commission paid by the seller of the house.

Find Your Home and Make an Offer

Start touring homes in your price range. It might be helpful to create a list of features your home must have and take notes on all the homes you visit. Take pictures and videos!  You will see many houses! It can be become difficult to remember details about them.

Check out the details of each house, i.e:

• Test the plumbing by running the shower to see how good the water pressure is or how long its needs to get hot water
• Test the electric by turning switches on and off
• Open and close windows and sliding doors

Check out the neighborhood by :

• Check the maintenance and curb appeal of the other homes in the community
• Where are the schools, shopping centers, restaurants, parks, and public transportation located
• Go there during the rush hour to see how much traffic does the street get?
• Parking space

Take your time to find the right home.  It is a big investment you are going to make. Your real estate agent will help you to  negotiate a fair offer.  The agent will compare the value of similar homes in the same neighborhood. After you and the seller have agreed on a price, the house will go into escrow. During this time you complete all of the remaining steps in the home buying process.

Get a Home Inspection

Your offer should include a contingent on a home inspection of the property. The home inspector will check for signs of structural damage or things that may need repair. Your real estate agent usually will help you arrange this. The inspection will be completed in a few days. This inspection protects you and gives you a chance to renegotiate your offer or withdraw it without penalty if the inspection reveals significant problems on the house.

The home inspector will provide you and the seller with a findings report. You should ask the seller to fix anything on the property before closing the sale or a sales price reduction to fix it yourself. Before closing on the house, you will perform a walk-through of the house. This will give you the opportunity to confirm that the agreed-upon repairs have been done.

Work with Lending Hand Mortgage to Select Your Loan

Lending Hand Mortgage has a wide range of loan programs and a reputation for exceptional customer service. You will answer all your questions when you are purchasing a home. During this time you will have one of our experienced, responsive mortgage officers on your side to assist you. This will make the process much easier.

We know every home buyer has their own priorities when selecting a mortgage. Your priority may be in keeping your monthly payments as low as possible. Or you are more interested in making sure that their monthly payments never increase. You can also pick a loan because you are thinking to move again in just a few years.

Have the Home Appraised

The appraisal will inform all the parties involved that you are paying a fair price for the home. We will arrange for an appraiser. He will provide an independent estimate of the value of the house you are buying.  The appraiser will be a member of a third party company and is not directly associated with us.

Manage the Paperwork

We know, there is a lot of paperwork involved in buying a house. Lending Hand Mortgage will arrange for a title company to handle all of the paperwork.  The title company will make sure that the seller is the rightful owner of the house you are buying.

Closing on Your New Home

At closing, all of the paperwork required to complete the purchase, including your loan documents need to be signed. A few days later after the paperwork is returned to us your loan will be funded. Once the check is in the hand of the seller, you can pack and move into your new home!