Guide for Buying a Home in Massachusetts

A Step-by-Step First Time Buyer's Guide

Buying a home is one of the most exciting milestones of your life. To prepare yourself for this moment, you need to know what to expect during the process. This step-by-step first time buyer’s guide created by your agent will help reduce the stress of buying a home and help you enjoy the journey as much as possible.

Step 1: Research

Do you already know where you want to buy? If you want a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Which features do you like and dislike? What’s available on the market now? If you answered no to any of these questions, now is the time to start researching. In addition to looking for homes that interest you, also take note of any changes in asking prices. This could give you valuable insight into housing trends in specific neighborhoods and help you when the time comes to make an offer.

Step 2: Decide on Your Budget

Notice I said to decide on your budget—not determine how much the mortgage company will give you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for more than you’re comfortable spending, which is why you need to determine the monthly payment you feel comfortable with before talking to a lender. This likely includes doing a full household budget and taking into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or with roommates, you may overlook new expenses like garbage, water, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget.

Step 3: Get Prequalified

Just because you think you can afford a certain payment every month doesn’t mean the mortgage company will agree. Just as they may approve you for too large of an amount, they may also approve you for a lesser amount or deny you a mortgage altogether. Lack of time at a job, insufficient credit, past bankruptcies, or other financial issues can cause major problems when trying to secure a mortgage. Before you get your heart set on a home, talk to a mortgage professional to find out what amount you can qualify for. This will also be an advantage when you make an offer on a home, as some sellers won’t entertain offers from those who aren’t already prequalified for a loan.

Step 4: Choose a Real Estate Agent

Can you shop for, look at, and ultimately make an offer on a home without a real estate agent? Technically yes, but why would you when it costs you nothing for an agent like me to take much of the stress off your shoulders? Not only will I help identify properties you might be interested in, arrange showings, and ultimately handle the offer process, but I also have a knowledge of the market that you don’t possess. Finding the perfect home can be a daunting task, this is where my expertise and wealth of knowledge come into play. Let me show you around some homes that meet your dream home criteria so you can find the one that's right for you.

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Step 5: Find the Right Home

This should be the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). I will arrange showings of homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details. Turn light switches on and off, open and close doors, and run the faucets in various rooms. Don’t limit your inspection to the home itself. Make sure to take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.

Step 6: Make an Offer

Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. I will be able to help you negotiate if you receive a counteroffer and reach an agreement. At this point, the house will go into escrow.

Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

In most cases, your offer will be contingent on having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or large repairs needed. I can help you arrange this, and you can schedule it within days of making an offer. If there are no major issues, the process goes to step eight. If there is, you can renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed, or you can withdraw it.

Step 8: Select Your Loan

Now is the time to go back to the mortgage lender who pre-approved or pre-qualified you and choose your mortgage. You will be presented with various options based on your unique financial situation, including fixed-rate, variable-rate, 15-year, 30-year, or special programs such as VA loans or FHA loans. Work with your mortgage lender to select the option you feel the most comfortable with.

Step 9: Get a Home Appraisal

Your lender will have your new home appraised so they have their independent value of it. The appraisal is to ensure that all parties involved are paying a fair price for the house.

Step 10: Finish Paperwork

No one looks forward to all the paperwork involved in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Fortunately, everything will be arranged by your lender and title company and, when you’re finished, you’ll know you are the legal owner of your new home.

Congratulations!

After signing the final paperwork to complete the purchase, you are now the owner of a new house. It may take a few days for your loan to be funded once the paperwork has been returned to the lender, but once that check is delivered to the seller, you’ll be all set to move into the home of your dreams.

Testimonials

Gretchen S.

Rachel Lieberman went above and beyond helping my son and I find a home. Her communication skills are superior. On top of that, she is caring and giving with her time and expertise. I can not recommend her more! If you want to ...

Sarah G.

Rachel is super responsive, extremely helpful, and has great connections with people you need in the home-buying process (lawyers, loan officers, home inspectors). She helped me find a home I love, and I'm so grateful for it!

Kristine E.

I worked with Rachel to buy a condo in a tough sellers' market. She is a great partner in your real estate journey. She is patient and professional and goes out of her way to be thorough. When we weren't able to meet at an open...

Viet V.

Rachel was exceptional from start to finish. When we began working with each other, she was attentive, respectful and diligent. Rachel made the time to meet us at OH's and gave us the valuable information we needed to make our ...

Andrea N.

Rachel was truly incredible! We connected during a really difficult time in my life. She was so patient and kind. Most importantly, she listened to what I wanted and what I needed for myself and my two boys. She urged me to che...

Bryan K.

Working as a team with Rachel was fantastic - the communication was perfect, the effort was complete and the expertise Rachel has in Real Estate helped our clients secure an accepted offer in an extremely competitive environmen...

Antonia G.

Rachel is a highly knowledgeable, professional and personable realtor. As first-time home buyers, she patiently walked us through every step of the home buying process. She always made herself available to answer questions and ...

Adam R.

Five stars doesn't do it justice for Rachel. She was incredible start to finish. We couldn't have asked for a better and more seamless process in finding our new home, all thanks to her. Early into our first-ever meeting, we im...

Moira F.

Giving Rachel 5 stars feels like an understatement. We cannot recommend her enough. From the very start of the process, Rachel made us feel like her top priority and WA: always available to answer any questions we had. She is i...

Nixon M.

Rachel made our home buying process seamless. She is very knowledgeable and is very responsive during the different phases of the home buying process. She is a pleasure to work with and we recommend her to other home buyers.

Anthony B.

Rachel made the experience of buying our home so seamless. She gave us accurate and helpful market insight, remained promptly available for all questions we had throughout the process, connected us to other industry professiona...

Madeleine B.

Rachel has been a true pleasure to work with in selling my Back Bay condominium, as well as buying a house in MetroWest. She is knowledgeable about the market and sensitive to her clients’ needs. Her gracious, professional deme...

Tyler W.

Rachel was easily the most professional real estate agent I have worked with in my years of buying and selling houses. She was extremely patient and made this stressful process a breeze to go through. Unlike the vast majority o...

Joao S.

I just closed on my unit and I loved working with Rachel. She was amazing from the start, helping me identify the best units available that suited my needs and the location that I was looking for. Since it was the first time I ...

Betty L.

I have had the pleasure of working with Rachel this past year in assisting her customers in financing. Rachel is a true professional. She is available and goes the extra mile. She truly cares about the people she works with. Ra...

Daniel E.

Rachel got things done quickly and was very friendly throughout. She helped us with through a couple of issues that seemed impossible at first and was always patient and calm.

Keri B.

I am a first-time home buyer, and Rachel came highly recommended to me by a friend. She is incredibly knowledgeable, kind, savvy, and really just makes the process as pleasant as possible. It was easy to trust Rachel, and she m...

Amanda M.

Rachel helped us sell our home and buy a new one- a process that could be really complicated in the current market. Instead, she made the whole process so smooth and enjoyable! She has great knowledge of the local market and is...

Tait W.

Rachel is incredibly knowledgeable, thoughtful and responsive. She provided us with just the right amount of support and made a stressful process as manageable and painless as possible. We could not be happier with our new home...

Umesh S.

Rachel was recommended to us by a friend. From our very first conversation, Rachel took time to understand who we were, to understand our family's needs and our budget. She had a lot of patience with us, as we wanted to see man...

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