The very first thing you need to know about buying a home

A question that comes up almost daily is "How do I buy a home?"

Some folks will spend months searching for the "perfect" home, sizing up neighborhoods, locating the best schools, and well...wasting their time. Why would I consider all of these things - which are all part of the process of finding a home - to be a waste of time?

Money. The dream is there, but they haven't taken the very first step in the home-buying process. They haven't applied for a mortgage. Instead they are spinning their wheels looking for the perfect home - which by the way, doesn't exist. But more on that in a minute. Many times those wanting to buy a home are prodded on by well-meaning relatives and friends - who, many times - have incorrect information on how to go about buying a home.

Whether you buy or build your home, somewhere after moving in you'll realize that the home is missing something. It could be that you forgot to have the cable guy install more than one jack in each room. Or building your home too close to a property line, so that you can't install that swimming pool you always dreamed of having off the back porch. Or even that you dreamed of being prepared for power outages but forgot to install a Generac generator when the house was being built.

(That last item is from personal experience. It was talked about and researched and talked about some more. Everything lead to installing a natural gas Generac generator to protect us from those times that the electricity would fail and leave us to play dominoes by candlelight. And all of that research and talk were forgotten in the whirlwind of decisions that come about when you're having a home built.)

But I digress...the very first thing anyone considering buying or building a home should do is take care of where the money will come from. And how much.

You need to know that when you put in an offer to purchase a home - your perfect home - that you at least have a chance of getting it. And it must be in your price range.

This is a fairly straightforward process. You would approach your bank for a mortgage, or get some suggestions from a REALTOR, who works with several lenders all the time.

You apply for a mortgage. The lender will need several bits of information from and about you, such as: where you work, how long have you worked there, how much you earn, what bills you have, your credit score and others.

After the lender enters all this data into their system, they can then tell you two things. One, whether they can lend you the money or not. And two, how much money they can lend you.

The best lenders will also explain to you what you may need to do, if they can't lend to you today. They will outline the steps you need to take, so that in six months to a year, you'll be able to finally get that mortgage and your new home.

If your lender says anything that includes the word "qualified" - tell them you want to be approved, not just qualified. Qualified just means they think they know something about you. But you haven't actually been approved for a mortgage. (Getting approved requires you to provide documentation such as: pay stubs, tax returns, etc. The lender fully checks you out and approves you for a mortgage.)

When you're approved, the lender tells you for how much and sends you out into the world to find your home. In some cases, you can even lock in your interest rate. When you're just qualified, you're sent out and told that once you find something...give us a call. And we'll see if we can get you approved.

So remember...get fully approved for a mortgage, and then go find a REALTOR to help you find your "perfect" home, well almost perfect.

:)