Good morning friends! This is Ellen Pitts, your Raleigh and Cary area Realtor.
Today we're talking about five things buyers do that cost them money.
These homeowner mistakes are things you do not want to have on your buying a
house checklist. We're talking about it right now so stick around to learn more!
This is Ellen Pitts, your Triangle area realtor. I bring you videos that help you
save time, money and frustration in the buying and selling process and also
videos to help you love living in the Triangle, highlighting all the great
things we have to do in the Raleigh area! So if you're thinking about buying or
selling or you just want to learn more about the Raleigh and the surrounding
areas, you'll want to subscribe to my channel for more videos. Let's dive in
today's topic. The first thing that buyers do that costs them money is not
getting pre-approved for a loan. First you need to understand a few things about the
pre-approval process. Different lenders mean different things when they say
pre-approval. One might mean asking you how your credit is how much you make and
if you have any outstanding debts. Without pulling credit or doing any
independent investigating about you, the buyer, a lender can tell you you're
pre-approved solely based on your memory of your financial picture. Not a good
idea. Even if your memory is perfect, what if you've been the victim of identity
theft and there's stuff on your credit that you're oblivious to. Do you really
want to find that out after you've put down a non-refundable deposit and paid
out of pocket for your inspections? You don't want that. Trust me that you don't.
Before you make an offer on a house you always want to have completed the
following steps. First you want to fill out the lenders application. Have the lender
pull your credit and write you a letter with the amount you are approved to purchase
Some people stop here, but it's really important to take the next step before
you make an offer on a home. The next thing you should do is submit all the lender
requested paperwork. This is going to be things like your tax statements, your
w-2s, your employment verification... Once you get under contract for home it's
very easy to get lax and the paperwork because, face it, you've started packing
and things get chaotic once you're in moving mode. Remember that you're not the
only person getting a loan. When your paperwork goes to underwriting there's a
stack of other people's paperwork in front of you. If you wait too long to get
your paperwork completed you will not close on time. A late closing always
costs you money. There are storage fees for storing your moving truck, there are
extra nights in hotels and there is lots and lots of stress. Get your
paperwork in and through underwriting before you make an offer on a home.
Number Two: Not Getting a Survey. You should always get a survey when buying a
home. The purchase contract we use in North Carolina says that it's the
sellers obligation to sell the property without any encumbrances. When you're
buying a home the seller is responsible for fixing it if anything that belongs
to them is encroaching on a neighbor's property.
Recently I was involved in a transaction where the house was
encroaching on the neighboring property it was supposed to be no LESS than 25
feet from the property line and it was 23 feet from the property line. The
neighbor had the right to force the seller to move the house. You can watch
the video to see how it turned out here. If there's some kind of encroachment
issue on the property you want to know about it when you buy the property
and it's not your responsibility to fix it, not when you or a neighbor sells and
you are now liable as the homeowner. Number Three: Financing Furniture Before
Closing. I know, I know. New life, new house... new furniture. But
wait! If you finance furniture or anything else for that matter... the new
car, your kids college education, an engagement ring... you could lose your new
home and this is why. Remember all that paperwork we talked about earlier? Your
pending approval was based on your financial picture at the time of
approval. But if something in that financial picture changes, i.e.,
you take on a new debt, you're no longer approved for that loan. And if it's the
day before closing, guess what, your loan is going back to underwriting. There's a
little bit of a grace period in the contract in case you can't close on time
but if your approval takes longer than that period the seller may decide it's
better or not to wait, especially in a competitive market or if they have
backup offer to begin with. Never make large purchases when you're in the
process of buying a home. Number Four: Choosing the Wrong Lender. There are
certain lenders that I'm familiar with that, when I see a pre-approval come
through my email I just think... Oh, no. It really is a bad idea to use cost as the
only factor in choosing a lender, or any professional for that matter. Of
course cost is always a factor in the businesses that we use but it should never
be the only factor. When businesses cut costs too much it
can mean that they have to run lean on manpower. In these situations the lenders,
underwriters and processors might have a larger number of transactions per person
to manage which means phone calls can go unreturned and it can just take longer
to get your loan to closing. Which means it may be more likely for your loan to
be dropped. I was once the listing agent for a property where the buyer
used one of these lenders. We tried to convince them to use a different lender
from the beginning, but the buyers were set on using this particular lender. They
put all their decision power on the cost of the loan rather than the whole
process. Three days before closing after many unreturned phone calls we learned
that the package had just gotten to underwriting and the loan was not approved.
Always consider recommendations and online reviews when choosing a lender.
Number Five: Not Considering your Realtors Advice. Sometimes people who
haven't had a good experience with a Realtor think that the only thing an
agent does is unlocking the door to show them the home. But the real value in an
agent is the experience and expertise they bring with them when challenging
situations arise. And they almost always do. Buying and selling a home is a
complicated process and there's many places where things can go wrong, some of
which you have heard about in this video. I understand that many people have had
a bad experience with agents in the past and believe me I've had my own
bad experiences before I became a Realtor. But I promise you there are many
good, trustworthy and competent agents out there to choose from. The key is to
choose someone that's a good fit, that you know you can trust, and that you feel
good talking to. Thanks again for watching. I hope you learned something
today and if you like this video would you mind sharing it with a friend have a
great day!