The Home-buying Timeline – Real Estate Directory – Real Estate Agent Reviews

How long does the home-buying process take?

This one really depends on how picky you are and the type of home you’re looking for. I’ve shown a home to a buyer where they literally pick the first one I show them and they close 21 days later. You can always do a short sale but those can get complicated. I’ve shown buyers different homes for years, and they still don’t find the perfect one. I do want to remind you that nothing is ever final. A home is an investment that can admittedly fluctuate in value but it will never be worth nothing.

Enter the starter home. This is usually a smaller home with a few bedrooms/bathrooms, small yard, one car garage or no garage at all. As your family and needs expand you would be able to sell this type of home to someone else that needs a starter home and upgrade to something bigger or more in line with your expanding needs. The point is that whatever you buy now, you can sell later. Most people don’t start with their dream home; they work toward that in the future.

How Long will it take?

Now realistically, for most buyers, I would probably expect this entire home buying process to take anywhere between 45 days to 120 days, I found this to be normal for most people. Typically I see this as being a 30 to 90-day house hunt and then another 30 to 45 days to do all the inspections, get the loan and close on the property. So you have your agent, you’ve been pre-qualified, you know what you want, and you’re ready for the next step…

Let’s look at real estate!

When it comes to this, I recommend seeing everything on the market in your preferred area and price range. Take a Saturday or Sunday and go to a bunch of open houses for every home that meets your needs list. The more properties you see, the more you’re going to recognize the good properties when they come up and the best property that’s going to be the right fit for you. It also tends to be hard to commit to something when you don’t know everything else on the market.

I’ve shown some buyers the perfect home, but it happens to be the first one they see. And they don’t want to make an offer on it because they had no idea what else is out there, despite that being the perfect home at the best price. So because of that, you can’t have the best at something if you have nothing else to compare it to that makes it the best. So see as many homes as you can and this might also change your criteria of what you think you need. Maybe you go and see a home and you realize you don’t need this specific location you thought you did. Or maybe you realize you don’t need an open floor plan or pool. Perhaps you find out something else that you need, once you see it. So the more you see, the clearer you’re going to get with exactly what you want.

The home buying process can be tedious if you let it but remember that you don’t have to say yes to something you don’t feel good about. A home is an investment! Your agent should understand this and that’s why it’s important to find a fantastic agent right up front. Let them know your timeline and your goals so you can move on to the final step in this process…