Howdy All,

I'm looking to purchase my first home sometime in Q2 this year as my apartment lease ends early June; I assume this means I need to have a house selected by early May so the buying process can kick off and be completed by lease end. Would now be the time to proceed with getting a mortgage pre approval and to get in contact with a realtor (preferably an Ag) and begin my search? Any guidance on the correct order of operations as well as recommendations on realtors and finance pros would be appreciated.

I'm in DFW and am interested in the Forney area (potentially) as there seems to be decent schools with potential for property values to go up in the coming years. Open to other suggestions as well.

Ideally you want to close on the home a few weeks before your lease is up but not required. When you purchase your first payment skips a month. So buy 5/15/20 and first payment is 7/1/20. That can give you a cash flow gap to transition from rent to own. It also allows some time to physically move your stuff versus cramming all of in storage or a moving truck while you close.

I am mortgage and can pre-approve you for free. My contact info is in my profile. I have 17 years experience and take special care of first time Ags. As for realtor they usually want you to be pre-approved early starting the process to know they have a real buyer. What loan you qualify depends on a variety of data points but you can buy with a little as 3% down. But 5% is probably a better deal. So timeline is

Get pre-approved in the next 3-5 weeks.

Interview realtors and select one to work with.

Assume 3-4 weeks shopping for a home, I have no idea how hot your market is so could be longer.

Contract and close in 30 days.

As for expenses plan on one percent of the sales price as contract escrow deposit. Then home inspection of 400/450 and appraisal at 550 before closing. The rest is handled at closing.

What Steve said.

Also, I'll add, closings often get delayed for various reasons. Be sure to target closing at least 2 weeks, maybe 3, before you have to be out of your apartment. Make sure you find a realtor that will work to make sure you stay on schedule with title and lender.

Pookers said:

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Howdy All,

I'm looking to purchase my first home sometime in Q2 this year as my apartment lease ends early June; I assume this means I need to have a house selected by early May so the buying process can kick off and be completed by lease end. Would now be the time to proceed with getting a mortgage pre approval and to get in contact with a realtor (preferably an Ag) and begin my search? Any guidance on the correct order of operations as well as recommendations on realtors and finance pros would be appreciated.

I'm in DFW and am interested in the Forney area (potentially) as there seems to be decent schools with potential for property values to go up in the coming years. Open to other suggestions as well.

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With lease ending early June, your window for being under contract on a home is probably mid March to early May (assuming 30 day close). Keep in mind that if you go under contract in mid March you would typically close in April, and your first mortgage payment (in most cases) will be due June 1st. Since your lease us up early June, you don't have "double payments" that month. If you contract in April, closing in May, first mortgage payment would be due July 1. That's probably best case because it gives you time to move and some cushion.

I'd love to help. Feel free to reach out. Cody@MyRobinsonTeam.com or cell of 972-365-0432

Cody

I currently live in Forney. My advice would be to look for housing between 80 and 20 on the south side of town. The north side of Forney has more construction on newer houses, but there is more section 8 housing and lower income housing going up as well that will feed into the north forney schools. Overall we have been here since July of 17 and we love it. If you have questions on specific neighborhoods or builders let me know.

Thanks for the replies all, appreciate it.

Steve, would now be a good time to go ahead with the pre-approval or should I wait a couple more weeks? As I understand it, they are only good for a month or two and I'd like to limit any damage to my credit score via hard inquiries if possible. Either way I'll reach out to you when the time comes.

NTX, Thanks for the info regarding the Section 8 housing; definitely going to avoid that if possible. I might take you up on your offer for follow up questions regarding neighborhoods once I start looking at houses.

Cody, I'll follow up with you once I get the pre-approval stuff taken care of.

I would reach out to Cody and give him your buying parameters such as area, bedrooms/ bath, price range etc. he can set a push portal where new listings that meet your criteria by email link and you can start to see the market.

Give me a call and I can walk you through a way to price out a listing based on your financial situation. That way you can roughly assign a monthly cost to what you see online. I would pull credit in two or three weeks and pre-approve then. My letters are good for 120 days but that means closing in that time so 90 days to contract. I do think it's better to see early what credit looks like to make sure there are no mistakes and if so we have time to work on them.

Call nights and weekends. I do not do just banker hours

Pookers said:

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Thanks for the replies all, appreciate it.

Steve, would now be a good time to go ahead with the pre-approval or should I wait a couple more weeks? As I understand it, they are only good for a month or two and I'd like to limit any damage to my credit score via hard inquiries if possible. Either way I'll reach out to you when the time comes.

NTX, Thanks for the info regarding the Section 8 housing; definitely going to avoid that if possible. I might take you up on your offer for follow up questions regarding neighborhoods once I start looking at houses.

Cody, I'll follow up with you once I get the pre-approval stuff taken care of.

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Sounds great. I'm happy to get a direct MLS search set up for you so you can see what's out there. Just let me know.

Looking forward to helping you!

Cody

Hi Pookers- Congrats on starting the process for your first home. I'm an Insurance Broker in Dallas and would love to assist with quotes once you find a place. My username is my real name if you google that, all of my contact info will pop up.

Pookers,

Steve has you squared away on the finance side, but I would love to talk to you about Forney.

My contact info is in my profile.

Jeff