3 Must Dos For First Time Home Buyers

3 Must Dos For First Time Home Buyers

Congratulations! You are purchasing your first home. It’s exciting. Maybe you have been waiting for this for a long time. You have spent several weeks, months, years looking for a house. It’s the single most important, and maybe the most expensive asset in your portfolio. Now you need to invest your time in getting the right team in place. So you made an offer and it was accepted – what next? Here are three steps you must take to protect your most valuable asset.

1. Hire an independent attorney. Somebody who knows the potential issues involved in real estate transactions. There is nothing routine about buying a home you and your family will live in for years and probably worth several hundred thousand dollars. Your attorney should be advocating your interest all the time, should be willing to explain the issues to you and must be reasonably accessible to you, the client.

2. Hire a competent engineer. Under New York law, you are pretty much out of luck pursuing the seller for any faults you may find with the house after you purchase the property. The onus is on you, the purchaser, to make all the necessary inspections and ensure what the state of the property is that you are buying. A good engineering inspection will reveal to you any structural or cosmetic problems with the house. This allows you to either budget for it in the coming years or attempt to negotiate a few hundred to a few thousand dollars off the accepted price. It is worth keeping that option open.

3. Educate yourself about the different loans offered and the fees associated with financing the loan for your property. Most buyers will ask about the rate for their loan and their inquiry will stop there. However, ask them what other fees are involved in financing this loan. Ask about points, extension fees, processing fees, underwriting fees, and any other fee associated with the loan. It is critical you ask these questions prior to filing an application and then confirm that the good faith estimate conforms to what was initially said to you.

It’s important to have the right team in place and ask the right questions. Do your homework. Having an experienced and competent attorney represent you is not only good business sense but can possibly save you from future litigation and possibly hefty legal fees. If you need representation, give us a call so we can timely and adequately protect your interests.