Ernie Hills

First Time Buyer's Guide

Step 3
Hopefully you will have been able to calculate the GDS without too much difficulty.
Now you need to talk to an agent to decide on whether there is anything that you can buy.

This is important to me as an agent because you can do the next step once you have talked to an agent. The agent will assess your financial position relative to the marketplace and give you some ideas as to what you can buy for the money that you have at your disposal. Once the agent has done his/Her preliminary work, that agent, (if they are any good), will send you back to your financial institution for what is known as preapproval.
This is a written commitment by the institution that they will approve your purchasing a property up to a certain price at a certain mortgage rate under certain terms for usually 60 to 90 days**.
Armed with this written commitment you will now be able to pursue the task of purchasing a home with the confidence of knowing that you can afford what you are trying to buy.

** Some institutions will put some restrictions on your purchase, so review these with your agent so that there will be no last minute hitches when it comes down to the crunch of buying and ultimately closing the deal.**

Now you are ready to go looking at properties. Look at a lot of properties.
The first few times that you go out with and agent decide that you are just looking to gain a better prospective,  NOT to buy the first thing that you see. If the agent asks you to put in an offer, run away and look another day.
If it is the best bargain in the city,  too bad. Real Estate Agents have a reputation of being able to convince people that what they should buy is the best bargain in the world.  Most  agents are reputable, and most will go along with your desires.  If you are not comfortable, tell your agent.  If your agent is becoming too pushy, tell him/her to back off.  Most will get the picture.
 

There are as many reasons for buying as there are buyers.

The first thing to decide is:

Do you want a "fixer upper " or do you want something you do not have to do anything to except move in??
 

Ernie Hills 00.