Home Buying 101: From Mortgages and the MLS to Making the Offer and Moving In, Your Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home

by Jon Gorey

Overview

Learn all the ins and outs of buying a home and give yourself an advantage in the real estate game with this essential house-buying guidebook.

Buying a first home can be both exciting and nerve-wracking. Will you qualify for a mortgage? Is your dream home achievable? How do you make sure your offer will beat others? Don’t worry—now you can arm yourself with the information you need to know before you begin the hunt!

In Home Buying 101, you will learn all the skills you need to find the right house at the right price, with financing that fits your budget. Full of nuts-and-bolts advice and organized in an easy-to-read format, this book will teach you all the basics of:
-Deciding the right time to buy
-Getting your finances in order
-Choosing a realtor—or going solo
-Assessing neighborhood/comps
-Deciphering the MLS/reading the listings for clues
-Buyers’ vs. sellers’ markets
-Types of mortgage loans
-Property insurance
-Making a smart offer

With the help of this guide, you’ll learn how to find the house of your dreams at a price you can afford!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781507217405
Publisher:	Adams Media
Publication date:	02/15/2022
Series:	Adams 101 Series
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	199,797
Product dimensions:	7.10(w) x 5.40(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Jon Gorey is an award-winning freelance writer covering real estate, home improvement, travel, family, and personal finance. Based in Boston, Jon writes most frequently for The Boston Globe and The Boston Globe Magazine, as well as his real estate and home improvement blog, House & Hammer; other notable bylines include Apartment Therapy, Mommy Poppins, and Boston Magazine. Jon has received a dozen awards from the National Association of Real Estate Editors (NAREE), including the President’s Gold Award for Best Freelance Collection in 2019.

Table of Contents

Introduction 8

Chapter 1 Are You Ready to Buy a Home? 10

Why buy a home? 11

What it means (and costs) to be a homeowner 15

Home buying readiness checklist 19

It's okay to keep renting 22

Chapter 2 Figuring Out the Down Payment 25

What's a down payment, and how much do you need to save up? 26

Saving for a down payment 29

Other down payment sources 35

Low- or no-down-payment mortgages and down payment assistance 39

Chapter 3 Readying Your Finances 43

How much home can you afford? 44

Evaluating your financial situation 47

Why your credit score matters, and how to find yours 50

How to improve your credit score 53

What is your debt-to-income ratio? 58

How to tackle your debt 61

Chapter 4 Understanding Mortgages 65

How do mortgages work? 66

Preapproval versus prequalification 70

What you'll need to apply for a mortgage 74

How rates impact your purchasing power 78

What are points? 81

What is PMI? 84

What are closing costs? 87

Comparing loan estimates to find the best mortgage 91

Why and when to lock in your interest rate 94

Chapter 5 Assembling Your Team 97

Who's on your side? 98

Working with a buyer's agent 101

Finding a good lender 105

Hiring a home inspector, insurance agent, and attorney 108

Meet the other team 113

Chapter 6 Location, Location, Location 116

Why location is the golden rule of real estate 117

Take a community-first approach in your home search 121

How to scout and research neighborhoods 125

Scouting from a distance 129

Chapter 7 The House Hunt 134

Determine your must-haves versus nice-to-haves 135

Single-family, condo, or multifamily? 139

Understanding condo documents and bylaws 145

New construction versus existing homes 149

How to search with intent-and intensity 154

Why you should tour fifty homes 159

Understanding major home systems 163

Things you can change, and things you can't 169

Chapter 8 Making an Offer 173

You love the house-now what? 174

How much should you offer? 178

Deposits and timing 181

What are contingencies? 184

Negotiation and counteroffers 187

Tips for navigating buyer's and seller's markets 192

Chapter 9 Your Offer is Accepted: The Countdown to Closing 199

The home inspection 200

The home appraisal 204

Purchasing home insurance 209

Title insurance, attorneys, and other odds and ends 213

The final walk-through 216

Closing time 220

Chapter 10 Moving, Renovations, and Homeownership 222

Tips for packing and hiring movers 223

Which renovations to do before you move in-and which can wait 229

General tips on home improvements 233

New homeowner checklist 239

Home maintenance schedule 243

Index 251