Guide to Buying Your First Home: Assembling Your Home Buying Team

Find out how to put together the team you need to help you buy your home

Home buyers need to assemble their home buying team before they start making offers on houses. Once you start bidding on a property, events move quickly and you may not have time to select who you need if other bidders also want the same home.

Home buyers need five key people on their home buying team, and in many cases these professionals work with a team to insure you get the best service. These team members are:

Realtor - Select a Realtor who you feel can best understand your housing needs and who best knows the particular area where you are searching for a home. Your Realtor will most likely ask you to sign a buyer broker agreement which means that you agree to work with them for a specified period of time. Your buyer broker Realtor will get paid at your closing out of the proceeds of the transaction by the seller along with the listing agent, so it does not cost you anything to work with your Realtor.

Loan Officer - Your Realtor will not take you to see homes for sale until you have found a mortgage loan officer at a bank, mortgage banker or mortgage brokerage (See: "Where Should I Get My Mortgage Loan When I Buy a Home"

Attorney/Title Agent - An attorney or title agent (often referred to as closing agents) should be selected before you start making offers. In many areas, Realtors have standard form contract agreements for buyers but buyers do not realize that those documents are legally binding contracts. Also, your attorney can help identify any title problems early on in the process so you do not waste time on a property that may have too many liens for the seller to be able to sell. Your closing agent will quote you a price up front but usually does not get paid anything until closing. If a closing agent does do a title search on your property but you do not close, you may be billed about $200 for that service, but otherwise nothing is owed to the closing agent unless you close your loan.

Insurance agent - Your insurance agent can help you identify if your property will have problems getting insurance and help you estimate the cost of that insurance. Finding out if your home is in a flood zone is key to getting accurate insurance rates.

Your most important team member

Of course, if you are married, the most important team member is your spouse. If you are not both on the same page then no amount of professionals will be able to get your transaction done. Make sure you and your spouse if you have one agree upon what you are buying and how much you are spending.

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