Home Buyer Insight
Buying a home can be an overwhelming process, but with the right agent/team on your side, things will go much more smoothly. Our goal when working with buyer clients is to empower them with information and to provide guidance, advocacy and counsel. We want to make buying a home a wonderful experience from start to finish. Listed below are some basic steps in the home buying process along with some commonly used Arizona real estate forms. We also offer a free home buyer’s guide that can be downloaded from our Resources page.
Key Home Buying Steps
- Determine your home wish list which will include at minimum, number of bedrooms and baths, square footage, amenities such as a pool, location and price range.
- If a home loan is needed, find an outstanding lender with plenty of experience and a proven track record. You will want to obtain a loan pre-qualification form before looking at homes. We can provide a list of highly qualified lenders upon request–you can also find an excellent lender on our home loan page.
- Find an experienced real estate agent with excellent references to represent your best interests in the home buying process. There are lots of great agents out there, but we’d like to think that our service, experience and high level of client care sets us apart.
- Once you have discussed your housing needs with your agent and have a completed loan pre-qualification form, it’s time to begin searching for your dream home. Ideally, your agent will set-up an automated multiple listing search for you, but you may also set-up your own search on a site like this one. The advantage of having an agent set-up your search is that the experienced agent will know exactly how to set-up the search to yield the most accurate results.
- After finding the right home, your agent will provide comparable sale data in order to determine a fair offering price. Of course, the offering price is based upon many other factors such as current market conditions, buyer motivation, competing offers, etc.
- Your agent will draw up the purchase contract and other addenda needed to submit a complete offer and then the negotiations begin.
- Once your offer is accepted, your agent will open escrow with the accepted contract and an earnest money check.
- The inspection period begins on the first day after contract acceptance and generally runs for 10 days–although the time period can be negotiated.
- Within the inspection period, the buyer may remove the inspection contingency, cancel the contract or furnish the seller with a Buyer Inspection Notice and Seller’s Response form.
- If a loan is involved, the appraisal will often be ordered after successful completion of the inspection period though some buyers elect to order the appraisal right after contract acceptance.
- According to the state approved purchase contract, the home must appraise for at least the contract price. If the home appraises for at least the contract price, the buyers loan file will be submitted for final underwriting.
- Once the loan has been fully approved, loan documents will be delivered to title and the buyer will sign the escrow and loan documents. The lender will fund the loan after approving the signed documents and the escrow officer will release documents to be recorded at the Maricopa County Recorders Office. In Arizona, ownership takes place upon recordation of key documents.
- Your Luxe agent will deliver the keys to your new home!
Key Buyer Documents
- Real Estate Disclosure & Election–this forms sets for the relationship between the buyer and the agent.
- Residential Purchase Contract–this is the main document used to purchase a home in Arizona.
- Buyer Advisory–this is a catch-all disclosure used to address items that a buyer might be concerned with when purchasing a home in Arizona.
- HOA Addendum–if there is a homeowners association with more than 50 units, this is the document used to disclose important facts about the HOA, who pays for costs associated with the HOA and more.
- Market Conditions Advisory–this form is used to advise buyers that real estate markets go up and down.
- Buyer Inspection Notice & Seller’s Response–this is the form sent by the buyer’s agent which outlines requested repairs or provides notice to the seller of cancellation or acceptance of the property without repairs.
- Pre-Qualification Form–this form is completed by the lender and gets submitted with the buyers offer to provide assurance to the seller that the buyer is qualified to purchase the home.
There are many other documents that might be needed when purchasing Arizona real estate, but the above covers the basics. If you have any questions about the home buying process, please contact us. We are here to help!
