Welcome to every realtors’ ‘How to buy a home’ page. First you do this, then you do that, and; well you know how this goes. Truth is, you don’t need our page to tell you how to buy a home. A simple Google search will give you plenty of information on the basic home buying process. We’re not going to waste your time with that. We are going to tell you how WE are going to get you that dream home. 

This first step is to get pre-approved, no surprise there. However, we make it easy because George is a mortgage professional. Within 24 hours of a consultation with us we can get you pre-approved and provide insight to what your actual budget should be. 

While most agents focus on the dollar amount of your purchase, it is much more important to break down the cost to your optimal monthly payment. This is the first secret to being a great buying agent for you. Every property we present to you is evaluated individually for monthly cost parameters and value. Our analytics break down monthly property expenses and then assess a ‘value’ to the home purchase. This value breaks down the ratio between expenses and equity. As a homeowner, you want more equity than expenses. Equity is an asset, expenses are liabilities. We help you maximize assets and minimize liabilities. 

For example, say you get a general pre-approval for a $400,000 purchase. Great. But you need to go deeper and examine the optimal monthly payment to go along with that purchase price. Say this brings you to a desired monthly payment of $2,300. Let’s compare two properties. Property A costs $380,000, and your mortgage payment along with insurance and taxes comes to $2,300 per month. You’re thinking perfect, right? Well, lets look at property B. Property B is listed at $425,000 and the mortgage, taxes and insurance brings the monthly payment to $2,200 per month. Which is the better value for the buyer? Property B is because there is more value in this property and fewer expenses. This is one example how the Triano Tsemeberlis Team gives you an edge in the buying process. There is so much more and we can’t wait to share all our strategies with you. 

After we are able to hyper-focus our property searches to highlight the perfect home for you, in your budget, maximizing your asset and minimizing your expenses; the next step is the negotiation for purchase. In this highly competitive market the better negotiator wins the home. When you find that perfect property and decide it’s time to pull the trigger the first thing we do is decide how much you SHOULD pay for that house. As master property valuators we are always objective in your offer, eliminating emotion that can lead to bad purchase. 

Now we are ready to make that offer, but not quite yet. We make that initial call to the listing agent first to establish a good rapport and dig deeper into the seller’s motivation and any other variables besides price they would like to see met in a sale. These variables are called contingencies. Check out our other blog post to get more knowledge about contingencies. 

Now that we have submitted our offer and it is accepted these are the steps to complete in order to actually close on the deal and transfer ownership to you.

  1. Attorney Review – legal jargon is clarified and all terms in the contract are agreed to. Completed with 72 hours of submission of signed purchase agreement. After completion of attorney review you are ‘Under Contract’.
  2. Initial Deposit – sometimes referred to as Earnest Money. This is the dollar amount you agree to initially deposit, held in escrow, and can be no refundable if you rescind the contract outside of the agreed terms. Normally submitted 72 hours about completion of attorney review.
  3. Scheduling Inspection – Within 14 days after going under contract.
  4. Second Deposit – This is when the remainder of your down payment is submitted to escrow, normal 10 day after the initial deposit.
  5. Lender orders the appraisal – An appropriate appraisal will allow the lender to move forward with a commitment to finance the purchase of the home.
  6. Mortgage Commitment
  7. You receive your loan estimate. This includes the loan amount, monthly payments / costs, and the amount of money you need to bring to the closing table.
  8. Title Search – Your attorney will hire a title company to ensure the title in ‘clean’ and not ‘clouded’. In New Jersey you will receive a Bargain and Sale Deed With Covenants. This simply states that the person you are purchasing the home from is the actual owner and there are no other encumbrances such as owed taxes that would prevent the title from transferring to you. The seller also pays this transfer fee.
  9. Closing Disclosures – Once you clear the title you are on your way to closing. Your lender will present your closing disclosures no fewer than 3 day prior to your closing date. These closing disclosures must match your initial Loan Estimate, other than minor, reasonable discrepancies to be determined, by law, in order to proceed with closing.
  10. Closing – You come to your closing with all required monies, sign off on required documents, and ownership can transfer to you (title transfer). Your deed will be registered in your respective county within a few weeks of closing. 

This is a comprehensive summary of the entire purchase process. We pride ourselves on the details and hope we have clarified any questions you might have had regarding this process. If you think you are ready to begin your home buying journey schedule a consultation with us today.

Contact us at:

Phone: 732.820.7823Email: jasontriano@compass.com