Buying Your First Home

As a first time home buyer looking for Charlotte homes for sale, the prospect of owning a piece of Charlotte NC real estate is exciting to say the least. A home is an asset and a valuable investment for your future. For most first time home buyers, the purchase of a home is the largest investment they will make in a lifetime. You may have already started looking at Charlotte homes for sale on the web and found some properties of interest. But what’s the next step and how do you about purchasing your first home? Finding the home that fits your needs, wants, desires, and price range is only the tip of the iceberg. A typical real estate transaction involves hundreds of documents and is not contained to just a buyer and a seller, but also involves a lending process, an appraisal, inspections, a survey, a couple of agents, and attorneys.

You certainly have many questions on how to go about purchasing your first home in the Charlotte real estate market, such as what are the costs involved, how do you go about qualifying for home financing, how do you make an offer on a home and how much should you offer, how do you select a closing attorney and a home inspector. Buying your first home can quickly become an overwhelming process, but it does not have to be in you have the right real estate professional assist you through the entire process.

Your first step as a first time home buyer in Charlotte NC is to come up with a dream home wishlist of what the perfect home should be for you and where it should be located. You will also need to know your budget and examine your finances so you know how much money you have available for a down payment and closing costs. If you have minimum savings, you should consider a first time home buyer loan to take advantage of one of the many home ownership programs available in the Charlotte area.

The two main components of becoming a homeowner are finding the right home and getting a lender to loan you the money to buy it. Unless you intend to pay cash for the purchase of a Charlotte home for sale, those two components go hand in hand. With tightening lending guidelines, it is highly recommended that you contact a lender as early as possible to find out if and how much you will be able to borrow for the purchase of a home. The goal is to have a lender pull your credit, look at your income and debt, and based on the results, tell you the maximum amount you can borrow to purchase a Charlotte home for sale (this is your spending budget). If you qualify for home financing, the lender will give you a prequalification letter. Think of the prequalification letter as a proof to a seller that you can purchase his or her home. Being prequalified is of utmost importance and we recommend that you take care of it first before starting to look at Charlotte homes for sale. We have many lending partners in Charlotte NC offering a variety of loan products and programs. We can help you find a great lender to help you prequalify for a loan that is right for you. Prequalifying for home financing only takes a few minutes and can be initiated from our website. If you credit needs to be repaired, we can also help you with light repairs or refer you to one of the top credit repair companies in the nation.

Once you are prequalified with a lender, the fun part of the process begins – searching for the right home.

Our real estate expertise is focused on assisting home buyers in the Charlotte NC real estate market find and own all types of properties (previously owned homes, new homes, foreclosures, REOs, HUD homes, and more). The assistance we provide goes far beyond just finding you the right home.  We have expertise in various Charlotte home ownership programs, first-time buyer financing, down payment assistance programs and loan programs such as FHA, NC Bond, USDA and VA.

In partnering with you, we will assist throughout the entire home buying process and walk you through all the steps that lead to home ownership so you will never feel like you are alone. We will help you prequalify for financing, share information with you about down payment assistance and home ownership programs and negotiate purchase expenses on your behalf to minimize your out-of-pocket costs.  We will provide insightful market information on home valuations and negotiate the best deals to save you money with your purchase of a Charlotte home for sale. As a prospective first time home buyer, you will need your own exclusive real estate representation to negotiate the terms and conditions of your home purchase so that your interests are protected. Having us help you won’t cost you anything.  Our professional real estate services are 100% FREE to home buyers in the Charlotte NC real estate market and surrounding areas. Being represented by your own Buyer’s Agent is very important. After all, purchasing a home could well be the most important financial decision you will make in your lifetime. Making sounds decisions and knowing what you are signing will prevent you from making mistakes that you could later on regret.