Greetings. Our current rental agreement is up in early March. We've
found a home that we love. Is now too soon to begin the purchase
process? What's the typical time frame between pre-approval/contract,
and moving in?

Thanks in advance!

wrote:

Greetings. Our current rental agreement is up in early March. We've
found a home that we love. Is now too soon to begin the purchase
process? What's the typical time frame between pre-approval/contract,
and moving in?

Thanks in advance!



I think you'll barely make it.

Without detailing all the things that can (and do) go wrong,
I would get going immediately. It could even be wise to
sweet talk the landlord into giving you the option to
rent month-to-month JIC.

Jim

Friend of mine listed her house on the second of the month, and sold
it, found a home, and moved by the end of the same month. So yeah, it
can be done quickly but i'd go ahead and start things now. If it
closes early you can get in there and paint or whatever.

The holidays is a good time to be buying cause NObody is buying. Also
it's a buyer's market.

If this is your 1st home get some fricking advice from parents or
friends who've been through it already. You need an inspection and IMO
an attorney. You need real help in making an offer, in terms of comps.

Thanks so much for the input. I will plan accordingly! :-)

wrote:
Friend of mine listed her house on the second of the month, and sold
it, found a home, and moved by the end of the same month. So yeah, it
can be done quickly but i'd go ahead and start things now. If it
closes early you can get in there and paint or whatever.

The holidays is a good time to be buying cause NObody is buying. Also
it's a buyer's market.

If this is your 1st home get some fricking advice from parents or
friends who've been through it already. You need an inspection and IMO
an attorney. You need real help in making an offer, in terms of comps.

You can specify whatever closing date you want. Talk to the seller's
agent. This time of year, a good contract from a reliable buyer would
be desireable even if it pushes the closing out that far. Depends on
the market, of course.

The only issue I can think of is there is no way you could get a rate
lock for that long. Seller might want a preapproval at a higher rate
if they think the rates will increase by then.

Either way, 1 month is about as quick as you can get everything done, 2
months is still normal from start to finish, so 3 months isn't that far
from norm.

-rev



wrote:
Greetings. Our current rental agreement is up in early March. We've
found a home that we love. Is now too soon to begin the purchase
process? What's the typical time frame between pre-approval/contract,
and moving in?

Thanks in advance!

"The Reverend Natural Light" writes:

You can specify whatever closing date you want. Talk to the seller's
agent. This time of year, a good contract from a reliable buyer would
be desireable even if it pushes the closing out that far. Depends on
the market, of course.

The only issue I can think of is there is no way you could get a rate
lock for that long. Seller might want a preapproval at a higher rate
if they think the rates will increase by then.

Either way, 1 month is about as quick as you can get everything done, 2
months is still normal from start to finish, so 3 months isn't that far
from norm.

-rev

Good advice here from Rev. This matches my experience.

I'd start by getting loan pre-approval from a mortgage broker you can
trust. Then I'd get in with a buyers agent or realtor buddy to have
MLS listings sent to you to you can familiarize yourself with some
markets and what's out there. You can't be too informed before it's
time to start looking at houses and pondering offers. The longer
you wait into the dead of winter, at least in the rust belt, the more
motivated buyers become. Pulling the trigger in January or so should
be the goal. If you don't have a property to sell, you can be a
very desirable buyer if you have the ability to close a deal in under
30 days, particularly for properties that have been sitting on the
market for a long time.

But, you could start looking actively now. There are buyers out there
now who'd be more than happy to credit you 2 or 3 months of whatever
your rent is at closing to make a deal happen now.


Best Regards,
--
Todd H.
http://www.toddh.net/