A4HB Homebuyer's Blog

2.2.3 What is the Focused Home Search?

What is the Focused Home Search? Now that You Have the Specifics You have thought through your alternatives, abandoned unrealistic goals, and tackled the trade-offs. Now, you can focus with confidence on specific types of housing in targeted neighborhoods and communities. At last, the “focused home search” can begin. Perhaps you have decided to look for a house with at least a one car garage and 3 bedrooms in south Boulder. Or maybe a house with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths in Louisville or Lafayette is more to your taste. On the other hand, your dream home might be a

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2.2.2 Tackle the Trade-off Decisions

Tackle the Trade-off Decisions Gathering Critical Information When you get serious about buying a home, you’ll tackle a series of trade-off decisions. They are often difficult, and sometimes agonizing. You’ll sort them out as you gather information from three areas of concern. Loan types and amounts you will qualify for. How much you can afford, what you are willing to spend, and the type of home you would like to buy. What types of housing are actually available, where they are located, and at what price? Bringing the Options into Focus First-time home buyers often experience some speed bumps in

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2.2.1 Locating Yourself in the Market

Locating Yourself in the Market Whether it takes you two days or two years to find a home, the search process involves two stages. The first step of the home search is locating yourself in the market. Once you’ve done that, then you can begin the focused home search. The location stage requires some significant soul searching and sometimes a reality check. Where Is My New Home? Often, the primary issue involved in “locating yourself in the market” is deciding on the physical location of the home. Even if there are no financial restraints, there will be questions regarding commuting

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2.1.3 Financing Your Home Purchase

Financing Your Home Purchase Be a Competitive Buyer In a competitive market, a successful buyer will choose a lender early on and get the loan process started. In addition to figuring out what you can afford and how you will finance your home purchase, starting on the loan process is critical in other ways too. Prepare to Make a Competitive Offer The Colorado purchase contract has a section where the buyer must specify the type and amount of the loan they are planning to obtain. This is because the loan type can affect the seller. Your loan type determines the

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2.1.2 Meet with Lenders and Real Estate Agents

Meet with Lenders and Real Estate Agents Interview Professionals To start the home buying process, meet with lenders and real estate agents. At a minimum, you’ll gain an understanding of the process and your available options. If, in the end, you decide that you prefer working on your own, at least you will have picked up some useful information. There are great resources available to you at little or no cost. Use them. Meet with a Lender During a one hour meeting with a loan officer, you should be able to find out how much you can borrow. A lender

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2.1.1 The Home Buying Process

The Home Buying Process Problems Buyers Encounter In many cases, home buyers lack a clear understanding of the home buying process or the roles of the people involved. Often, they just don’t understand the best way to get the process rolling and how to keep it going. Because so much is at stake, this can create a high anxiety level throughout the many steps in the process. These misunderstandings can cause buyers to waste a lot of time in a series of false starts before they move forward with a home purchase. Avoiding the False Start Examples of those false

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2.1.0 Educate Yourself About the Home Buying Process

Educate Yourself About the Home Buying Process Information is Power Like any other complicated undertaking in life, the home buying process has conventions, protocols and a vocabulary all its own. If you take a little time to educate yourself about the home buying process at the beginning, you will be way ahead of the game. There are whole volumes on the home buying process that deal with many of the issues discussed on our website. You can find a lot of information elsewhere on the web as well. The Freddie Mac website, for example, offers a simple but useful description

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