While the rea­sons for buy­ing a home vary greatly, the process is pretty much the same for all home buy­ers.  I’ve delin­eated the home buy­ing process into six dis­tinct stages.

Stage 1

Answer the basic what, why, when and where questions.

1. What can you afford to buy?
2. Why are your buying?
3. What’s your time table?
4. What’s most impor­tant to you in a home?
5. What’s most impor­tant to you in a neighborhood?

Stage 2

Search online, save your favorites, see the best homes in person.

1. Search all Seat­tle list­ings or by neig­bor­hood.
2. Receive results via cus­tom searches
3. We visit the most promis­ing homes together.
4. We dis­cuss the pros and cons of each home.

Stage 3

The what and how of the offer

1. Your offer states offer price, terms and conditions.
2. Seller can reply three ways: (1) ignore, (2) agree, (3) make counter-offer.
3. If you receive counter-offer you have the same three choices.

Stage 4

Mov­ing for­ward after reach­ing “Mutual Agreement”

1. Deposit earnest money
2. Con­duct gen­eral and spe­cial inspections.
3. Report inspec­tion results to seller with three options.
4. Title com­pany exam­ines title and issues reports.

Stage 5

Final­ize Financing

1. Get binder for home­owner inssurance
2. Amount and terms of your loan are finalized.
3. Lender issues “Good Faith Estimate”.
4. Lender con­ducts appraisal
5. Loan and appraisal sub­mit­ted for underwriting

Stage 6

Escrow com­pany man­ages closing.

1. You receive instruc­tions from Escrow
2. Exam­ine pre­lim­i­nary HUD statement
3. Sign a moun­tain of doc­u­ments at Escrow
4. Escrow allo­cates and dis­trib­utes funds
5. Trans­fer of funds is confirmed
6. County issues record­ing numbers

Ques­tions? Call Ger­hard at 425–891-8213 or use the Easy Con­tact at the top left.