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Hello all. I am a first time homebuyer. I have no idea on the length of time it actually takes for a house purchase. My lease does not end until May 2018, but I am scared that if I wait too late that prices will soar in the summer. I have talked to my leasing office and was informed that if I break my lease that it would be one months rent and a relet fee of 1738. The only debt that I have right now is a car payment which is 93.00 a month and the balance is about 4,200 dollars. I also plan to utilize a 1st Time Home Buyers program that will assist with downpayment and closing costs. I am looking for a condo and not a SFH.
Your first step is to begin to speak with lenders to get an idea of what you can afford. Be sure you tell them you want to purchase a condo. Some loan types cannot be used for some condos.
As for the length of time, it will depend on the local market conditions. Assuming a normal marekt, sometime in January I would start going to a few open houses to begin to understand the market and to meet some potential realtors. Also start asking family/friends for realtor and lender recommendations now. Interview them over the next couple of months.
If I wanted to move by May 2018, I would have a contract in place by mid-March/April. This will depend on when your lease ends in May and if you are willing to pay for a month or so of rent if you close before the lease end. It's kind of rare that there is not a few weeks between closing and your lease ends.
Along those same lines, leave yourself some wiggle room on the closing date. If your apartment lease is up on May 31, don’t write a purchase contract to close on May 30. Make it May 10 or 15. Closings have a bad habit of getting postponed. Try to avoid Friday closings, too.
We cannot say that enough. If you are buying in Washington State or some areas in California, sellers won't consider some of the first time bond loan programs, they will have many other options with other buyers.
Find a good loan officer, someone that can offer the bond programs, USDA, and even some grant programs that should be re-funded with the new year. There are small, community banks that work with the FederalHome Loan Bank. (Another reason for city/state, we could suggest a bank).
The length of the home buying process depends. Unless you are having an unusual situation, it shouldn’t take more than two full months, at the longest. This is putting in an offer to the day you become the owner. Things that cause delays are waiting on appointments to pass for the appraiser and the inspector. Another thing that causes a delay is the inspector finding problems and how long it takes to get those problems fixed.
If you are worried about working around your lease, without fees, see if your landlord offers a month to month lease. Some apartment complexes offer this at an added cost to the monthly rent. This would allow you to do this, should you need to go over the exit time of your lease.
I highly recommend investigating condo ownership to the max. I owned a condo as a first time home owner. I wish I had chosen a single family home instead. Condos breed a lot of potential problems. Some people love them and have good experiences, but it can be a crap shoot. Although your mind is on buying, you also have to think about the resale issues when you want to move.. Condos run into issues with resale because they cannot take FHA or VA loan holders if their condo complex is not approved to take them. It isn’t all about the unit. In.addition, some conventional loans want to know the condition of the complex and the condo books before processing the purchase. Things may have been fine, when you bought, but have deteriorated by the time you wanted to sell. In addition, a complex with too many rentals can kill a purchase. Condos are as good as the people who live there. One year, it might be fine. A few years later, it may be a poorly run headache.
Normally after you find a place you like and have been preapproved for a loan it should take about 45 days to close.
That's is there are no other problems say with the inspection is bad or if the appraisal comes in low, that can kill the deal.
You also have to deal with the HOA so that's another step that a single family home buyer may not have.
Regarding the first time homeowner programs make sure they have funds and they offer it for condos and for the location where you want to buy. I know I looked into such programs and they were limited in my area as to city limits and some of the local programs didn't have current funds anyway.
The length of the home buying process depends. Unless you are having an unusual situation, it shouldn’t take more than two full months, at the longest. This is putting in an offer to the day you become the owner. Things that cause delays are waiting on appointments to pass for the appraiser and the inspector. Another thing that causes a delay is the inspector finding problems and how long it takes to get those problems fixed.
If you are worried about working around your lease, without fees, see if your landlord offers a month to month lease. Some apartment complexes offer this at an added cost to the monthly rent. This would allow you to do this, should you need to go over the exit time of your lease.
I highly recommend investigating condo ownership to the max. I owned a condo as a first time home owner. I wish I had chosen a single family home instead. Condos breed a lot of potential problems. Some people love them and have good experiences, but it can be a crap shoot. Although your mind is on buying, you also have to think about the resale issues when you want to move.. Condos run into issues with resale because they cannot take FHA or VA loan holders if their condo complex is not approved to take them. It isn’t all about the unit. In.addition, some conventional loans want to know the condition of the complex and the condo books before processing the purchase. Things may have been fine, when you bought, but have deteriorated by the time you wanted to sell. In addition, a complex with too many rentals can kill a purchase. Condos are as good as the people who live there. One year, it might be fine. A few years later, it may be a poorly run headache.
Good advice about condos. We bought one 3 years ago...don't regret it at all. Ours is run very well, but yes, some can be poorly run.
I will say, at least at ours, probably 60-70% of the owners are retired (or close to it) and paid cash. So many buyers of condos don't have the mortgage hassles.
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