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Buying a home in Asheville NCBuying a home in Asheville NC Are you thinking about purchasing a home in Asheville? Here is your quick step by step guide. Step 1: Your first step is to get pre-qualified by a lender of your choice. If you prefer, Beverly-Hanks has a mortgage department that can help you with this. This is the first most important step; this will help you determine what you can afford to purchase, down payment and closing costs needed. Step 2: Once you know what you can afford, the next step is to determine and secure your down payment along with closing costs, home inspection fees and other related fees (your Asheville Realtor® can help you determine these costs). Step 3: Once all that is in order, you can now start shopping for Asheville real estate. The first place I would start is the Internet at www.ashevillerealestate.com; this will help give you a feel for pricing, styles, areas, school districts etc... Step: 4 Based on the information you found on www.ashevillerealestate.com searching for homes, you can now sit down and think about what you are looking for and prefer in a house; price, area, size, bedrooms, bathrooms, how far from work, school districts, do you want a fixer-upper, age of home etc... You will find a large inventory of Asheville real estate to pick from. fIf you are short on cash you may not want to tackle a fixer-upper this could rob you of any available cash that you might have (and it always costs more than you think). Step 5: Once you have a list of your search criteria, you can now hire a Realtor®. The Realtor® will go over agency relationship with you by explaining the "Working With Agents Brochure" and the "Buyers Agency Agreement". The Realtor® will then begin to work with you and start looking up properties for you to view based on your search criteria. Agency relationships in a nut shell: Please read the pdf file "Working With Agents" It is a NC law that Agents provide you with this brochure and explain it to you at first substantial contact. For Buyers; until there is a signed Buyers Agency Agreement between the Buyer and Agent, all Agents work for all Sellers, so please do not give any information to any Agent that you would not want a Seller to know. An agent can still take you out and show you properties without a buyer’s agency agreement and they can also fill you in on comparables, statistics, public records, material facts and so on. But once you have an agreement signed then the agent works for you and may be able to provide you with more pertinent information, if available. Also the Asheville area agent will put more effort into finding a buyer a property if he/she knows that the buyer is loyal and not running around with several different agents. In a Dual Agency situation the agents works for both parties and must treat both parties equally/fairly. With Beverly-Hanks you can opt out of the buyer’s agency agreement should you not be satisfied with the agent for any reason. The buyers agency agreement with Beverly-Hanks is a win win situation for both buyer and agent. In addition, in order to submit an offer the agent has to have a signed buyer’s agency agreement, failing which the agent cannot submit an offer for you. Step 6: Once you have agreed upon a short list of properties with your Realtor®, it is now time to make appointments and start viewing properties (the fun part). Step 7: Once you have narrowed it down it will be time to take that second/third look and decide which home you would like to make an offer on. Step 8: Once you have found the house you would like to put the offer in on, your agent will meet with you and discuss everything about the house with you, HOA fees, the property disclosure, any covenants and restrictions, municipality regulations, bylaws, and what all will go into the offer you are presenting to the seller; purchase price, earnest money deposit, closing date, interest rate not to exceed a certain rate, financing contingency, inspection contingency and any other contingencies you feel necessary to add. Your closing date has to be well thought out and your closing date should correspond with your rate lock in period, giving you enough time to obtain financing, any time restraints on your existing situation e.g., existing lease, deposit tied up in a CD and so on. As far as contingencies the more you add, the less desirable your offer becomes. Our normal closing time in Asheville is about 30 - 40 days. IMPORTANT, if this is a foreclosure property you can expect a closing time frame anywhere from 2 to 6 months. Your agent will go over all of this with you. Step 9: Negotiating the offer - Once you put an offer in you may receive acceptance or you may receive a counter offer from the seller, it could be limited to a counter on one item or a combination of items, such as countering the purchase price, the closing date, it could be anything in the offer. The buyer can also counter the sellers counter offer. This can go back and forth until such time as there is an agreement or in some cases no agreement. Step 10: Understanding the contract - A quick summary of the Offer and Acceptance; The contract starts off with identifying the property in question, stating what fixtures are included in the purchase price, what personal property may be included, the purchase price, amount of earnest money deposit, financing contingency with details on interest rates and amount being financed, the loan obligation that the buyer agrees to perform and the buyers right to terminate, flood hazard disclosure, if applicable, property must appraise at a value equal or exceeding the purchase price, property taxes and HOA dues to be prorated, buyer to pay for all buyer expenses associated with the loan and closing, home warranty if agreed upon, evidence of title, buyer has received a signed copy of the property disclosure, home inspection and radon contingency, cost of repair contingency, closing date, possession, and so on. Your agent will discuss this and more with you. Step 11: Once you are under contract you will have certain responsibilities and deadlines to adhere to; application to the lender, providing lender with all necessary items in a timely manner, obtaining homeowners insurance, title insurance, home inspection, radon, water and wood destroying insect report, repair agreement, if necessary, communication with the closing attorney. If you find terms on the contract that you need the definition for view our real estate glossary. Step 12: Negotiating inspections: Once the buyer has completed the home inspection and all other inspections and the reports shows items that are in need of repair the buyer will convey this to the seller with a written repair agreement. The seller has the option of agreeing to the repair request, not completing any repairs or both parties agree to do a partial list of repairs or both parties agree to not do any repairs. What ever both parties agree to is fine but if the buyer is not in agreement to change from the full repair list and the seller will not agree to the full list of repairs then the buyer has the option to terminate the contract and all earnest monies will be returned to buyer. Step 13: The buyer has the option of picking a closing attorney; this can be any real estate closing attorney the buyer wishes to use. Due to the deed and other paper work having to be recorded locally I would definitely suggest using a local attorney. Step 14: Let's assume that both parties agreed to the repair agreement, the lender has approved the loan, all contingencies have been met, your deposit is ready to be wired to the attorney, you have your homeowners insurance in place and you are a few days from closing. Step 15: A few days before closing the buyer and agent will receive a settlement statement from the attorney. This statement will list all of the items and funds paid in and out for this particular real estate closing transaction. Your agent will go over this with the buyer prior to closing, if there are any changes to be made, the agent will notify the closing attorney. Step 16: Congratulations you just bought yourself a new home! The above is just a quick summary with some of the key points included. This does not represent the entire contents of an offer or contract, please contact your professional Realtor® and/or attorney and they will go over this with you in its entirety. For more information you can also visit Asheville real estate (FAQ's) frequently asked questions and answers for buying and selling your home.
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