Beginning Your Home Buying Adventure

Tired of renting? Sure, you don’t have to worry about home maintenance, but your money is going out the window every month with nothing to show for it at the end of your lease. Also, you can do whatever you want with your home, unlike any rental agreement.

Searching the internet will give you an idea of what homes are selling for these days. If you are thinking of living in Johnson County, Kansas (JoCoKS) or Wyandotte County, Kansas (WyCoKS), you will want to use Deb Staley’s website, which is optimized for that.

Don’t waste time and frustrate yourself by searching multiple websites. They have the same listings, which come from the local Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Deb’s website is refreshed every couple of hours and has extra information about neighborhoods!

Don’t just fill out a form on a website to go look at a house. Chances are, this won’t work out. Since August 17, 2024, agents can no longer meet a buyer at a home without having a buyer agency agreement signed first. Learn more about that here.

The housing market is so competitive in our area. Make sure your agent works full time and can get you into a new listing before it is gone! Of course, you want an agent with experience and extra education.

You may already use a bank that is efficient at home mortgages. That’s a great place to start! Your agent can also recommend trusted, local banks and mortgage banks. A preapproval letter from a local bank will give you an advantage when making an offer on a home. Some sellers will not accept a preaproval from an online lender.

Your lender might preapprove you for more than you were expecting! That doesn’t mean that you have to spend that. Make sure you are comfortable with your budget. Of course, you will want to be a little flexible if you find a home that is outside of that number you had chosen.

You might be targeting a home location near your job or in a certain school district. Perhaps you need to be near family! Narrowing down the area is as important as the budget.

Figure out how much space you really need. How many bedrooms and bathrooms are needed? Do you need space for a home office? How many cars do you have? It is sure nice to be able to park them all inside.

Now, you are ready to view homes with your experienced, credentialed Realtor. You’ve finally gotten to the fun part! It is difficult (and confusing) to see more than a half dozen or so homes in one day. Try not to bring children or other people. They will distract you, I promise.

If a home meets most of your criteria, don’t hesitate to make an offer. Someone else might snatch it up before you even get a chance. That’s the reality of our tight inventory housing market.

Offers are formally written up on a form from our local Board of Realtors. The offer includes:

• Offer Price
• Earnest Money Amount
  (usually 1% of the offer price)
• Down Payment
• Financed Amount
• Amount the seller pays the buyer’s broker
  (RE/MAX Realty Suburban in our case)
• Closing Date
• Possession Date
• Details of your financing
• Inspection Period
  (usually 10 days)
• Home Warranty
  (yes or no)
• Any special additions or conditions
• List of addendums to the contract
• It’s a lot. That’s why our contracts are 16 pages long.

You’ve made an offer and it was accepted. Congratulate yourself. Next up, earnest money deposit. 

The sales contract states the deadline for earnest money to be deposited with the title company. It is usually 3 days. We always work by calendar days. Often, this can easily be deposited online, but it can be just as easy to take a (personal) check to the title company.

The inspection process is detailed here.