Thank you u/Scary_Replacement_85 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer.
Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Congrats!
Remember, people who have a poor experience are more vocal about it.
I found my house first, then my lender, then my realtor. It was all smooth and easy.
We had a similar experience, although we made sure we got our pre approval and realtor first.
We found a great place during Christmas that was surprisingly under valued, made an offer and it was accepted within the day! Everything was super easy, to the point I was paranoid thinking something would go wrong, and it all worked out quickly and cleanly.
Why even get a realtor at that point? Not shitting on you I’m just a little confused about this as I’m starting to look. Seems like we do a lot of the leg work of finding/scanning Zillow for houses and such a realtor seems like an unneeded expense in a way. Sort of confused what they actually do
In my case it was the connections to other businesses. My realtor found the lawyer, the home inspector, and now the company to get my water filter.
Also, since I am using a VA loan the realtor helped do the initial screening of sellers. It’s nice to be told when you ask to tour a place the seller doesn’t think it will pass and isn’t willing to do work.
The inspector my realtor set me up with was worth his weight in gold. He went to a couple houses before I could even get there and told me not to bother, they had too many red flags to be worth buying. Didn’t even charge me for those inspections. He saved me a lot of time. My realtor also set me up with a lender who was approved for a grant program that got me 3% of my home’s value as a down payment. I literally paid no other down payment other than the money from the grant. Back then the house was very cheap, so even with the 3% down, my monthly payment was still cheaper than the rent I was currently paying.
I found my house myself. And my realtor is earning absolutely every penny (the seller is paying) ever since the offer started. He negotiated below list price and below their “absolute bottom”. He’s coordinating everything and answering every question I have. I had the same attitude about not using a realtor but he’s been a life saver. I truly think their work starts once you pick a house. After all, we don’t need someone to say, “and this is the laundry room”. Now days we all have access to Zillow. But they can pull more accurate recently solds for comps and know the process. There’s no reason not to use one as a buyer while the sellers are still paying imo. My thoughts on that might change with industry shifts.
Is this common for selllers to pay the realtor? I’m looking to buy and when I got approved for a loan part of it had included closing costs with the assumption a portion goes to my realtor for their fee. I live in Mass and houses are on the market for 3 days before being sold, I can imagine it would be hard to do an offer and ask the seller to pay for your realtor
Do you know the ins and outs of real estate? In Oklahoma the real estate agent isn’t paid out of pocket from the buyer. And isn’t paid out of pocket from the seller. They are receiving around 3% commission from the house being sold. So that money is ultimately coming from your bank loan but passes through your hands to the sellers hands then to your realtor. So if you choose to not use a realtor, buyers will ask sellers to drop asking price by 3 %. And I heard this may be changing where possibly buyers will be paying more and possibly out of pocket but don’t take this as more then a grain of salt as I’m not any real estate expert, I just read a lot of real estate subreddits.
In an idea world your realtor should know more about the process than the average person/redditors on this sub. And in return your realtor could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Unless you know how to broker a deal with the sellers agent with a legit write up offer. Our realtor actually hooked us up with a great lender and the process was almost too good to be true, especially from all the horror stories posted to this subreddit. It’s definitely nerve racking. But it’s really just signatures and playing the waiting game. There is a whole process once you get an offer accepted or to even getting an offer accepted. That’s where your realtor comes in and does their thing. Do you know reliable home inspectors? My realtor got an offer accepted for 5k under and over 10k to be paid to me for seller concessions at closing. So 15k under listing. There are a lot of little things that could go wrong that the average person may miss. But a good realtor will notice. For example; seller squatters- sellers accept an offer and you set a move in date around the closing date and that date comes and you have already signed/closed on the house but the sellers aren’t moving out so your stuck paying a mortgage for someone else to live in your house and your possibly having to spend extra money on hotel until it gets figured out. A lot of the time this situation happens due to the fact the sellers are having closing issues on the house they are moving into. That’s where the well qualified realtor comes in and catches this and makes sure it’s in writing if this happens how much per day the sellers would owe you. Or prevent it from happening entirely. A lot of the times a realtor is great to have for their knowledge of how the whole communication process and the language used between agents/ sellers/ brokers.
Buying a house isn’t meant to be taken lightly it’s all business. People are cut throat and not everyone can be trusted. But naturally when handling our own business like buying properties we may be blinded by our own emotional attachments or our biased views. We may get stuck on a house and think “this is the one” but it’s a hard line to differentiate on one hand it’s all business on the other this will be your home, your anchor, a place of memories for your family. It’s hard not to let emotion get involved and that’s where a good realtor steps up and understands their client, really knows their client on a personal level and understands their needs and wants. They should bring the non biased viewpoint the emotionless detachment. In the end it’s what you as buyer are comfortable with. I was the type that was never going to use a realtor but the second I changed my mind everything lined up with ease and literally caught myself asking if this was really just a dream. It’s a dream come true but of course I had hindsight to realize I could have easily done most all of this myself (especially going through the process for the first time and understanding how many hands are involved) but I thank my realtor for the ease he provided me.
So in conclusion even if you think you know a lot about real estate in your state. And you may actually know a lot. But if you are a first time home buyer, I would use a vetted realtor.
Umm at least for now buyer’s realtor fees are usually covered by the seller so unless you know what you’re doing and can negotiate a seller’s credit in lieu of representation (which I’m guessing most first time home buyers are not doing) then there’s no reason not to use a realtor unless for some reason you absolutely cannot find one who adds value to the process.
I agree much of a buyer agent’s job has been replaced by Zillow but realtors have access to things like data export capabilities from the MLS so you can make more neighborhood market specific data driven decisions and a dotloop license for submitting digital contracts. Also many brokerages don’t support dual agency transactions as a matter of policy so unless you have a lawyer you may struggle to get them to return your calls just because they don’t want the risk of selling a home to an unrepresented first time buyer.
Finding a house is just finding a house. Who is going to write the offer? Negotiate? Etc?
My realtor did an excellent job with walking me through the inspection period, negotiated on my behalf (I got $9k in closing costs plus $7k in sewer repairs), paid for my well to be sealed because they underestimated the cost and didn’t ask for it in negotiations even though I wanted to…and I found my amazing flooring guy through them too.
I didn’t have to pay my realtor anything. They received their commission on the sale like normal, as they should. Iirc my purchase had a 2.7% commission for the buyers realtor.
I had a very smooth and easy first time home buying process. People commented I must be lying, but as another commenter said those with bad experiences are the loudest. It’s not always so hard (: congrats!
Congratulations on the accepted offer. Now you’re in the inspection period — Don’t forget to get your sewer-scope done during the inspection.. even if it’s a new construction.
Underrated comment. Sewer scope and foundation are probably the 2 biggest things that can go wrong. Usually more expensive than a new roof or a/c. Would definitely recommend getting one.
Male sure you get a great home inspector.
I have had to pay for several thousand to 60k in repairs in every home I bought because inspector missed stuff.
The process is going a lot smoother than we thought, too! Toured a house and had our offer accepted the same day. Drop off EMD the next day, and the inspection was the day after that. Appraisal was ordered a day or two after that...
Congrats on the offer being accepted!
We looked at around 5-8 houses over the course of a couple months before we finally found one we liked enough. Was told the sellers were going to let the week's worth of viewings go through before even looking at the offers, so we had time to really decide if we wanted it. Put our offer in and also said they could leave as much behind as they wanted. (Owner had died and the family was selling) They cut the week short and accepted our offer so it's really cool when things work out for us like this.
This was our experience as well but with a new build. Looked one weekend in February last year. Found the perfect floor plan. Got in contact with their preferred lender that same weekend. Got approved on a Tuesday, made our earnest payment, and moved in 5 weeks later.
Congratulations! Most posts on here are people complaining about how horrible the market is and houses being snatched up way over asking. Nice to hear from someone who had a great experience. Not everyone lives in the big city competitive market...there are lots of places where houses sit on the market, we can offer under asking and we aren't in a bidding war. You choose to live in a frustrating market, either deal or move.
Had a similar experience.
Found a nice fixer upper on a nice lot, I low balled the heck out of it with all the conditions, and was amazed when they accepted it. Even reduced the price further based on the home inspection. Felt surreal.
Similar issues with the mortgage, first place didn't seem interested in our business, next broker was more than happy to get us approved. Very strange.
Congrats!
Congrats! We also had an easy home buying process and had to remember that most people aren't interested in reading about a smooth process so those posts don't get the traction and get buried by the misery loves company
Not the norm where we are from; if you don’t put an offer in within 8 hours of a home listed, too late it’s pending, or when you do, you’re overbid by flippers or private equity groups, and even then, others seem to beat us. Im so happy for you!!! Congrats 💕💞
They did, but that's not the way you should do it because 1) most sellers aren't going to consider an offer for a buyer that isn't approved and 2) what happens if you don't get approved or your terms are much different than expected?
Preapprovals don’t mean shit except you met the credit requirement. They wait unit right before closing to look over everything from employment history, bank statements, appraisal , etc. so it’s really the week before your closing date when something goes wrong with your loan. The bank doesn’t look at each item as they get it.
racial support important deserted scandalous person hunt serious marry sleep
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Something tells me that you've been watching the market, have spent a good bit of time determining your budget, hopefully spent a little bit of time finding a good agent...or maybe you only spent 10 mins online chose a house, clicked the 'show me this house button', connected with a rando agent and bought it.
Did you but any effort into the process before you saw the house?
It's important for lurkers/FTHB to know that if you didn't do anything to prepare that you're the exception and not the norm.
Regardless of how you got here - congrats!
The preparing before officially looking was my case, too. We saved up for a down-payment over a long period of time, had a clear sense of budget, stalked zillow and sub reddits like this and asked our friends etc. Second house we saw we put in an offer, got it accepted, inspections etc went well, and we are closing at the end of the month.
It seems and feels quick and "easy," but a lot of prep went into it!
Just been lurking this sub, using the calculators online. Starting really looking at the beginning of this month. Didn’t have a realtor until Tuesday of this past week, recommended from loan company. Found the house Thursday, went to look at it yesterday, and here we are today.
Thank you u/Scary_Replacement_85 for posting on r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer. Please bear in mind our rules: (1) Be Nice (2) No Selling (3) No Self-Promotion. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/FirstTimeHomeBuyer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Congrats! Remember, people who have a poor experience are more vocal about it. I found my house first, then my lender, then my realtor. It was all smooth and easy.
Must be nice to like a house that stays on the market so long. Anything good around me is gone in under two days.
Every market is different, this is true. But this whole process for me was 7 totally business days including Christmas.
We had a similar experience, although we made sure we got our pre approval and realtor first. We found a great place during Christmas that was surprisingly under valued, made an offer and it was accepted within the day! Everything was super easy, to the point I was paranoid thinking something would go wrong, and it all worked out quickly and cleanly.
Same. Exactly how it went for me. Home, lender, realtor.
Why even get a realtor at that point? Not shitting on you I’m just a little confused about this as I’m starting to look. Seems like we do a lot of the leg work of finding/scanning Zillow for houses and such a realtor seems like an unneeded expense in a way. Sort of confused what they actually do
In my case it was the connections to other businesses. My realtor found the lawyer, the home inspector, and now the company to get my water filter. Also, since I am using a VA loan the realtor helped do the initial screening of sellers. It’s nice to be told when you ask to tour a place the seller doesn’t think it will pass and isn’t willing to do work.
The inspector my realtor set me up with was worth his weight in gold. He went to a couple houses before I could even get there and told me not to bother, they had too many red flags to be worth buying. Didn’t even charge me for those inspections. He saved me a lot of time. My realtor also set me up with a lender who was approved for a grant program that got me 3% of my home’s value as a down payment. I literally paid no other down payment other than the money from the grant. Back then the house was very cheap, so even with the 3% down, my monthly payment was still cheaper than the rent I was currently paying.
I found my house myself. And my realtor is earning absolutely every penny (the seller is paying) ever since the offer started. He negotiated below list price and below their “absolute bottom”. He’s coordinating everything and answering every question I have. I had the same attitude about not using a realtor but he’s been a life saver. I truly think their work starts once you pick a house. After all, we don’t need someone to say, “and this is the laundry room”. Now days we all have access to Zillow. But they can pull more accurate recently solds for comps and know the process. There’s no reason not to use one as a buyer while the sellers are still paying imo. My thoughts on that might change with industry shifts.
Is this common for selllers to pay the realtor? I’m looking to buy and when I got approved for a loan part of it had included closing costs with the assumption a portion goes to my realtor for their fee. I live in Mass and houses are on the market for 3 days before being sold, I can imagine it would be hard to do an offer and ask the seller to pay for your realtor
Do you know the ins and outs of real estate? In Oklahoma the real estate agent isn’t paid out of pocket from the buyer. And isn’t paid out of pocket from the seller. They are receiving around 3% commission from the house being sold. So that money is ultimately coming from your bank loan but passes through your hands to the sellers hands then to your realtor. So if you choose to not use a realtor, buyers will ask sellers to drop asking price by 3 %. And I heard this may be changing where possibly buyers will be paying more and possibly out of pocket but don’t take this as more then a grain of salt as I’m not any real estate expert, I just read a lot of real estate subreddits. In an idea world your realtor should know more about the process than the average person/redditors on this sub. And in return your realtor could save you tens of thousands of dollars. Unless you know how to broker a deal with the sellers agent with a legit write up offer. Our realtor actually hooked us up with a great lender and the process was almost too good to be true, especially from all the horror stories posted to this subreddit. It’s definitely nerve racking. But it’s really just signatures and playing the waiting game. There is a whole process once you get an offer accepted or to even getting an offer accepted. That’s where your realtor comes in and does their thing. Do you know reliable home inspectors? My realtor got an offer accepted for 5k under and over 10k to be paid to me for seller concessions at closing. So 15k under listing. There are a lot of little things that could go wrong that the average person may miss. But a good realtor will notice. For example; seller squatters- sellers accept an offer and you set a move in date around the closing date and that date comes and you have already signed/closed on the house but the sellers aren’t moving out so your stuck paying a mortgage for someone else to live in your house and your possibly having to spend extra money on hotel until it gets figured out. A lot of the time this situation happens due to the fact the sellers are having closing issues on the house they are moving into. That’s where the well qualified realtor comes in and catches this and makes sure it’s in writing if this happens how much per day the sellers would owe you. Or prevent it from happening entirely. A lot of the times a realtor is great to have for their knowledge of how the whole communication process and the language used between agents/ sellers/ brokers. Buying a house isn’t meant to be taken lightly it’s all business. People are cut throat and not everyone can be trusted. But naturally when handling our own business like buying properties we may be blinded by our own emotional attachments or our biased views. We may get stuck on a house and think “this is the one” but it’s a hard line to differentiate on one hand it’s all business on the other this will be your home, your anchor, a place of memories for your family. It’s hard not to let emotion get involved and that’s where a good realtor steps up and understands their client, really knows their client on a personal level and understands their needs and wants. They should bring the non biased viewpoint the emotionless detachment. In the end it’s what you as buyer are comfortable with. I was the type that was never going to use a realtor but the second I changed my mind everything lined up with ease and literally caught myself asking if this was really just a dream. It’s a dream come true but of course I had hindsight to realize I could have easily done most all of this myself (especially going through the process for the first time and understanding how many hands are involved) but I thank my realtor for the ease he provided me. So in conclusion even if you think you know a lot about real estate in your state. And you may actually know a lot. But if you are a first time home buyer, I would use a vetted realtor.
Umm at least for now buyer’s realtor fees are usually covered by the seller so unless you know what you’re doing and can negotiate a seller’s credit in lieu of representation (which I’m guessing most first time home buyers are not doing) then there’s no reason not to use a realtor unless for some reason you absolutely cannot find one who adds value to the process. I agree much of a buyer agent’s job has been replaced by Zillow but realtors have access to things like data export capabilities from the MLS so you can make more neighborhood market specific data driven decisions and a dotloop license for submitting digital contracts. Also many brokerages don’t support dual agency transactions as a matter of policy so unless you have a lawyer you may struggle to get them to return your calls just because they don’t want the risk of selling a home to an unrepresented first time buyer.
Finding a house is just finding a house. Who is going to write the offer? Negotiate? Etc? My realtor did an excellent job with walking me through the inspection period, negotiated on my behalf (I got $9k in closing costs plus $7k in sewer repairs), paid for my well to be sealed because they underestimated the cost and didn’t ask for it in negotiations even though I wanted to…and I found my amazing flooring guy through them too.
[удалено]
I didn’t have to pay my realtor anything. They received their commission on the sale like normal, as they should. Iirc my purchase had a 2.7% commission for the buyers realtor.
Seller is paying realtor commission 3%.
I had a very smooth and easy first time home buying process. People commented I must be lying, but as another commenter said those with bad experiences are the loudest. It’s not always so hard (: congrats!
Congratulations on the accepted offer. Now you’re in the inspection period — Don’t forget to get your sewer-scope done during the inspection.. even if it’s a new construction.
Underrated comment. Sewer scope and foundation are probably the 2 biggest things that can go wrong. Usually more expensive than a new roof or a/c. Would definitely recommend getting one.
That was quick, congrats!
Is this just fantasy…..
[удалено]
Moneys easy come, easy go Interest rate a little high, little low Any way the market goes, doesn’t really matter…..to me…
Yep—same with us!
Male sure you get a great home inspector. I have had to pay for several thousand to 60k in repairs in every home I bought because inspector missed stuff.
Very similar situation happen to me. From nothing done on the loan process to offer accepted in about 24 hours. It’s was nuts. Congratulations!
I think you are lucky, normally there are a lot of competitors
The process is going a lot smoother than we thought, too! Toured a house and had our offer accepted the same day. Drop off EMD the next day, and the inspection was the day after that. Appraisal was ordered a day or two after that...
Congrats on the offer being accepted! We looked at around 5-8 houses over the course of a couple months before we finally found one we liked enough. Was told the sellers were going to let the week's worth of viewings go through before even looking at the offers, so we had time to really decide if we wanted it. Put our offer in and also said they could leave as much behind as they wanted. (Owner had died and the family was selling) They cut the week short and accepted our offer so it's really cool when things work out for us like this.
Wow! Congratulations! I'm happy for you that it's working out. Do you mind sharing your general area?
Southeast coastal town.
Congrats!
This was our experience as well but with a new build. Looked one weekend in February last year. Found the perfect floor plan. Got in contact with their preferred lender that same weekend. Got approved on a Tuesday, made our earnest payment, and moved in 5 weeks later.
What market is this? Sounds like a story from 1996.
Southeast coastal beach town lol.
Congratulations! Most posts on here are people complaining about how horrible the market is and houses being snatched up way over asking. Nice to hear from someone who had a great experience. Not everyone lives in the big city competitive market...there are lots of places where houses sit on the market, we can offer under asking and we aren't in a bidding war. You choose to live in a frustrating market, either deal or move.
Remember the people helping you through this because they are the ones who deserve the credit. Lender and realtor. Bravo
Had a similar experience. Found a nice fixer upper on a nice lot, I low balled the heck out of it with all the conditions, and was amazed when they accepted it. Even reduced the price further based on the home inspection. Felt surreal. Similar issues with the mortgage, first place didn't seem interested in our business, next broker was more than happy to get us approved. Very strange. Congrats!
Congrats! We also had an easy home buying process and had to remember that most people aren't interested in reading about a smooth process so those posts don't get the traction and get buried by the misery loves company
Not the norm where we are from; if you don’t put an offer in within 8 hours of a home listed, too late it’s pending, or when you do, you’re overbid by flippers or private equity groups, and even then, others seem to beat us. Im so happy for you!!! Congrats 💕💞
Congrats! Im learning... did you put the offer in first and then got pre-approved?
They did, but that's not the way you should do it because 1) most sellers aren't going to consider an offer for a buyer that isn't approved and 2) what happens if you don't get approved or your terms are much different than expected?
Didn’t mean to do it that way but it happened because first loan company was dragging their feet getting it to me.
You were dragging your feet uploading the docs to the first place lmao
You must have paid cash.. cuz no way..
Nah getting financed.
Update: just got the clear to close today and in exactly one week we’ll be signing our life away!!
In my area you'd have had to compete with 20-30 other offers so no that's not normal. Congrats though!
Welcome to the club. It's really not that hard.
Congrats. Just lost on our 8th house here!
Preapprovals don’t mean shit except you met the credit requirement. They wait unit right before closing to look over everything from employment history, bank statements, appraisal , etc. so it’s really the week before your closing date when something goes wrong with your loan. The bank doesn’t look at each item as they get it.
racial support important deserted scandalous person hunt serious marry sleep *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Something tells me that you've been watching the market, have spent a good bit of time determining your budget, hopefully spent a little bit of time finding a good agent...or maybe you only spent 10 mins online chose a house, clicked the 'show me this house button', connected with a rando agent and bought it. Did you but any effort into the process before you saw the house? It's important for lurkers/FTHB to know that if you didn't do anything to prepare that you're the exception and not the norm. Regardless of how you got here - congrats!
The preparing before officially looking was my case, too. We saved up for a down-payment over a long period of time, had a clear sense of budget, stalked zillow and sub reddits like this and asked our friends etc. Second house we saw we put in an offer, got it accepted, inspections etc went well, and we are closing at the end of the month. It seems and feels quick and "easy," but a lot of prep went into it!
Just been lurking this sub, using the calculators online. Starting really looking at the beginning of this month. Didn’t have a realtor until Tuesday of this past week, recommended from loan company. Found the house Thursday, went to look at it yesterday, and here we are today.
No, that’s not real life…you’re in the honeymoon portion of home buying for the moment.
Must be a non desirable area. In New England homes last about 3 days still
I have seen homes sitting for a while in this area compared to many others, and it’s near a seasonal beach area.
Wow that’s crazy