If you’re interested in purchasing property, you might be wondering, “how long does it take to buy a house?” Home buying is a lengthy process even when everything goes smoothly, and can easily become longer and more complicated with every potential hiccup.
To help you better prepare for the process and save time, here are some key tips for your home purchase:
Obtaining full preapproval from a mortgage lender is essential to a smooth home buying process. Not only does preapproval show you’re highly motivated and qualified to buy a house, it helps you confirm how much you can afford to spend.
To get mortgage preapproval you’ll need to provide info about your assets, bank statements, income and credit history. The mortgage lender can provide a loan estimate within a few days.
A mortgage preapproval letter essentially locks in your financing, given that your financial situation doesn’t change drastically before you actually close on a house. Unless you are buying with a cash offer instead of a mortgage, it’s a good idea to avoid taking out additional loans or other activities that could affect your credit report until the purchase is final.
A real estate agent can make your home search much easier and quicker. Using their unique resources, they can help you find the perfect house in your price range while allowing you to spend time on other important parts of the process.
Real estate agents have access to the local multiple listing service, which often includes listings that aren’t readily viewed by the public. They may also know of upcoming listings not yet on the market.
Hiring a real estate agent to help you buy a house has many advantages, but one of the most significant is saving you time on your house hunting. Once you find a listing you’re interested in, an agent can coordinate with the seller for open houses and next steps for moving forward.
These are only a few of the critical things to keep in mind when planning to buy a new home. The process can be long and complicated, but the more you know about the major steps, the better prepared you will be to handle any potential delays in your home buying timeline.
Susan Shuxian Hu has been a dedicated realtor serving in Silicon Valley since 2010. With great passion, outstanding negotiation skills and due diligence, she has helped many buyers and sellers in their real estate needs. Living in West San Jose for more than 14 years, she has broad knowledge in Cupertino, West San Jose, Los Altos and Saratoga. She has enormous patience working with buyers and never tired of showing all possible properties that may fit client’s needs. Clients appreciate her best service to their satisfaction. She specialized in luxurious real estate purchase in Los Altos, Cupertino, Saratoga and Palo Alto. She also helped friend and past client’s referral working in San Francisco, Foster City and far reached Bay Area.
Susan Shuxian Hu was graduated in East China Normal University in Shanghai with bachelor and master degrees in Bio science. She came to US in 1989 and earned her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics in Texas A&M University in 1996. After one year of postdoc in Southern Florida University in Tampa, she moved back to Orlando with her family and started working in Lucent Technologies. In 2002, Susan moved to California, Silicon Valley joined a start-up company. Since then she worked in high tech Corporation till 2009. Driven by her dream job pursuing, she found her passion working in sales by helping people in real estate after one year of education in De Anza business and real estate law study. Since then, she has been serving many people in Bay Area for their real estate needs.
With bilingual advantage, she has been actively working with Chinese immigrants as well as local engineers and residents. With rich high tech background and connection with Chinese community, Susan has served in luxurious real estate in last a couple of years.