The home buying journey can be a rollercoaster of emotions. You could see countless homes before finding one you want to put an offer on.
You could also have your offer rejected, resulting in you needing to do the process all over again. Once you’ve had an offer accepted on a property, it’s natural to feel elated and excited.
First-time homebuyers mightn’t know what to do next, however. When you’re buying a home for the first time, everything will naturally be new.
Before closing on a house, you’ll need to do a few things. While they may be unexpected, they should be straightforward.
Once the formalities are taken care of, you should be in your new home quickly and easily.
Buying A Home: Top Things To Do Before Closing On A House
Get The Contingencies In Place
Before buying a home, you’ll be expected to do several things before closing. These are known as contingencies, which can vary from purchase to purchase.
Some are more common than others, however. These include:
● Building Inspections: Building and pest inspections are one of the most common contingencies to have in place. These focus on ensuring that the property is in the expected condition. It’ll also highlight any damage and similar issues.
● Financing: Perhaps the most obvious home buying contingency, this lets you back out of the purchase if your mortgage falls through.
● Appraisal: It’s recommended that you hire a third party to appraise the property. By having this contingency in place, you can back out of the deal if this appraisal comes in at a lower value than the purchase price.
There can be multiple other home-buying contingencies to have in place, although the above are the most common.
Obtain Final Mortgage Approval
Once you’ve put a downpayment on the property, you’ll need to get final approval on your mortgage. While you might’ve already received preliminary approval, you’ll still need to go through this extra step.
The underwriting process should be relatively quickly, but needs to be gone through before you get your mortgage. It focuses on ensuring you haven’t made any false claims about your finances.
It essentially focuses on ensuring you can pay off your mortgage. During this process, they’ll check your:
● Home Appraisal
● Credit Score
● Financial Portfolio
Provided you’ve been honest about your finances, you shouldn’t have any problems with this.
Do A Final Walkthrough
In most home buying contracts, you’ll find a clause letting you perform a final walkthrough of the property. That occurs within 24 hours of the house closing.
When you’re doing this, you should make sure that the property is in the condition you agreed to. That’s where many of your contingencies come into play.
That’s especially true if your building inspection highlighted any issues that need to be addressed. Should everything meet your expectations, then you’re ready to go ahead.
Clear The Title
When you buy a home, you’ll need to change names on multiple things. That’ll involve clearing the title on official deeds and having your name put in.
It’s the process of confirming the purchase of the house on public land records. While this takes effort, there are more than a few reasons to do this.
The most notable is that it’ll protect you against legal claims of ownership in the future. Your mortgage lender will also typically need a title search as part of the closing process.
You’ll need to work with a title company to do this for you unless the real estate you’re working with offers it. You’re able to choose which company you work with for this, however.
Once this has been taken care of, it’s time to close the sale. With that, you’ll need to bring the necessary documentation to the closing meeting.
That typically includes:
● Government-Issued ID.
● Home Inspection Reports.
● Contract.
● Proof of Homeowner’s Insurance.
● Any Bank-Related Paperwork.
After that, the property is legally yours.
Buying A Home: Wrapping Up
Buying a home for the first time can be an exciting journey. It can also be a stressful one. That doesn’t stop once you’ve had an offer accepted.
You’ll still have several hoops to jump through. They can be straightforward, once you’re aware of them in advance.
After taking care of them, you shouldn’t have a problem moving into your new home. The relief and excitement you feel then will be more than worth it.
