Become A Real Estate Attorney
Q.My husband and I will (hopefully) soon be in a position to buy a house. He's a recent immigrant to the USA (from England), and hasn't bought a house here, and I've not bought a house in a long, long time. Can anyone recommend a book on the process of homebuying? Not on selecting which house to buy, but on the process of buying: mortgages (how to find the best one), points, home inspection, tax aspects, dealing with realtors, legal costs, title searches, etc. Sort of a "Homebuying for Dummies?" Or along the lines of: "The Frugalista's Guide to Homebuying?"
A.1. Interview agents and pick a good one right away. A good agent can save you a lot of unnecessary leg work. 2. GET AN EXCLUSIVE BUYER'S AGENT. Don't work with a seller's agent. They are required by law to represent the seller and must pass on any info you divulge to the seller. An agent that alternates between being a seller's agent and a buyer's agent is going to steer you toward homes that he/she lists. An exclusive buyer's agent is the best way to go. 3. Pick a real estate lawyer early on. Again, go by recommendations, and get someone who really does real estate work. 4. Get prequalified before you look for a home. No use lookingat $200,000 homes when you can only afford $140,000. 5. READ, READ, READ. I went to the local library and got out about 6 books: Homeology (by Kiplingers), The Home Buyer's Inspection Guide, Buyer Beware, a few for first time home buyers. The more you read, the more you know. 6. Shop around for mortgage rates. The funny thing is, we did almost none of this. We had been keeping our eyes on the market for about 6 months, so knew what a good price was, and was just getting ready to pick an agent. In fact we had worked a little with one but hadn't signed anything yet. Then we stumbled on the PERFECT house. Built by a small builder. He said if we didn't bring an agent, he'd cut us some great discounts on options (and he did). We checked all the references, walked the neighborhood and knocked on doors to talk to others who had homes built by him (they all raved about him, not a single complaint), etc. He gave us the name of his lender, who was so wonderful and easy to work with, we didn't shop around. We were going to get a real estate attorney to review the contract, but we got a copy and it was so simple, we didn't feel we needed it. We added some contingencies (things we knew to add since we had done so much reading), crossed some things out, and viola! We move in April 16! One other thing: get a home inspection. Make your offer contingent on a satisfactory home inspection. Especially with resale homes, you don't want to put an offer in, become legally obligated to buy the home, and then find out the foundation is shot.
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