Buy My First Home

If you are going to buy your first home, you need to know exactly what steps are needed in purchasing a home.

Not only do you need to find the perfect home to buy, you also need to find a good real estate agent - a real estate agent you can trust. You need to find a good mortgage broker, a reliable construction company, in case extensive remodeling is necessary.

If you plan to buy a home, visit these links and get all the information you need to buy a house.

Costs of Buying and Selling Real Estate

There are many costs in a real estate transaction.  This is a list of some of those costs.

Real Estate Appraisal
(Southern California) In today’s market there are very few properties on the market and plenty of buyers. This holds true, most especially in the first time buyer market. If it is listed below $300,000 it will most likely have many offers. As many as fifteen offers are not unusual if the property is a nice property that is priced at market value.

Escrow and Title Fees

Different companies charge different amounts.  Some charges are more or less the same from company to company.  One company may charge less on the base fee but will charge more on the Loan Tie-in (a fee charged by escrow companies to cover the extra administrative work needed to process more than one loan, as in a 2nd Trust Deed). As a result of the difference in base fee vs loan tie-in fees, there is little variation between companies unless they are “in house” escrow companies.  “In house” means a company belonging to a large real estate firm.  Those are often significantly higher than outside escrows.

Home Inspections

Home Inspections

SHOULD BUYER BE THERE?  For Home Inspections

Buying a home is, for many people, the single most important investment they will make in a lifetime.  It represents the place you intend to live for many years to come or an investment that you hope to see a good return on.  For this reason it is very important to hire a fully qualified home inspection company.  There are many excellent home inspectors and some that are not.  It is always a good idea to ask your real estate agent, friends or family to recommend one.