Buying a Denver area Home | Information for Metro Denver Home Buyers
Buying a Home anywhere in the Denver area can feel overwhelming. There are over 15,000 Denver homes for sale in the Metro area alone. Not to worry, the vast majority of the 15,000+ homes probably don't have most of the criteria you are looking for in a home. :)
Buying a home in the Denver area follows a pretty straightforward process.
1. Financing
2. Search for Homes
3. Viewing Homes
4. Writing an Offer
5. Under Contract
6. Closing
7. Moving in!
1. Financing your Denver Area Home Purchase
MORTGAGE / HOME LOAN
It is strongly encouraged that you talk a lender first if you are going to use a mortgage or a home loan to finance your home purchase. Talk to a lender even before you start looking at homes. Having a lender run you the numbers - to see what you comfortably want to or can spend monthly on a mortgage payment gives your a clear idea about price range of houses you should be looking at. The lender will show you different mortgage options available to you so you can choose what best fits your situation.
The lender will write a letter, called a lender letter, which tells the seller that you are pre-qualified or pre-approved for a home loan up to a certain amount. This letter is requested by sellers to accompany the offer to purchase their house. It is important to have this lender letter ready and e-mailed by your lender to your agent, when the agent is writing the offer to purchase.
Your agent will talk with your lender and work closely with him/her an all issues pertaining to the financing of the home. However, your agent is typically not a lender, so you will need a lender or mortgage broker to process the loan for you. For more information about mortgages and financing Click Here to visit the financing information page.
PURCHASING WITH CASH
If you are purchasing with cash, you will need to provide a proof of funds at the time an offer is submitted. This could mean bank statements, a written statement from your banker or money manager etc. Some sellers may required further proof depending on the seller, after the initial proof of funds.
2. Search Homes for Sale
Once you have a clear idea on what price range you will be comfortable with the fun starts. You can spend as much or as little time searching for homes as you'd like. You'll see many different ways of finding homes on this site.
SmartSearch Homes for Sale
To make searching for homes easy and convenient for you, you can search for homes by SMARTSEARCH. These are pre-made searches to find homes for sale with many different criteria. Each home search page is made for easy navigation, for you, as you look for your new home.
You can also completely customize your search - Click Here to get started.
Save your Favorite Homes
Once you see some homes that you like, you can save them as your favorites. Create a Smart Home Buyer account to save these homes you like, to send them to a friend or family (or to us, if you'd like to schedule a showing). The account makes it easy to keep tabs of the homes you like and they don't get lost while you may be looking looking through many home listings.
Receive E-mail Alerts of New Listings
Sign up to receive e-mail alerts to immediately notify you of new listings that match the types of homes you are looking for. You receive new listings as the come on the market, straight to your e-mail inbox. The alerts give you instant notification of new listings of the day and also listings that had a price reduction that day. You can change your e-mail alerts at any time to closely match your wants and needs.
We can do the searching for you!
If you'd
rather
us search homes for you with the criteria you would like, we
can certainly do that! Just send us your request and we'll go to work
finding the available houses for you. We will also promptly e-mail you
any new listings as they come on the market that match your criteria.
3. View Homes for Sale
At any time when you find a home that you like and one that matches what you are looking for, you can schedule a showing with us to go take a look at the home in person. Our agents are available at any time to show you homes. It is often possible to get an appointment in a short notice but sometimes sellers request a minimum of 24 hrs notice before they allow a showing. Meaning if we call 10am Tuesday to set up the showing, you would be able to see the home 10am Wednesday the earliest. The required notice from sellers varies, sometimes you may be able to view a home with a short notice and sometimes it can take longer. It is good to have some flexibility when preparing to view homes in person.
Preparation to view homes - If you have several homes you'd like to see, you can e-mail us a list of those homes, and we will schedule them for the same outing.
4. Writing an offer
After you have found the home you want to buy it is time to write an offer to purchase the home. Your buyer's agent will do this for you. The offer is approximately 15 pages covering conditions, date and deadlines, financing, appraisal and much more. After the offer is completed you and your agent will sign it. Your agent will deliver it to the listing agent. The offer is submitted with a lender letter or proof of funds and with a copy of your earnest money check. Once an offer is accepted the original earnest money check is delivered to the seller's agent or the title company by your agent.
The offer specifies a deadline by which you are requesting a response from the seller. The seller may accept the offer, counter it (counter proposal) or flat out reject the offer. If there are multiple offers the seller may ask for your final and best offer in order to make their decision on which offer to accept.
5. Under Contract
Once the seller accepts your offer a flurry of things start to take place and this time period is called being under contract. Some other parts of the country call it being in escrow.
One of the first things for you, the buyer to do is to get an inspection of the home done by a home inspector.
The lender goes to work on their end, ordering an appraisal, processing the loans and the lender may request additional things from you during this time - papers to sign, documents etc.
The title company starts to prepare the title work, and your agent will keep track of everything during this time. Dates and deadlines are extremely important in midst of all of the pieces coming together.
If there is a Home Owners Association (HOA) you in most cases will receive a large amount of documents to review the HOA rules, regulations and so on.
The time under contract varies, typically use see 30-60 days.
One by one each items on the offer to purchase the home gets done. Some get completed without much hassle, others may take some negotiating and/or phone calls, leg work, pulling hair...
A closing date is specified on the offer to purchase the home. The title company and your lender will inform you how much money you will need to bring to the closing - your down payment. The funds can be wired to the title company or you may need to bring certified funds.
Much more happens during this time, there are many details to take care of and to make sure potential issues are prevented or dealt with as soon as they arise.
6. Closing
The closing is typically scheduled from 30-60 days out from the date of the offer to purchase the home, if financing is involved. Just a short time ago majority of closings happened around the 30 days, now expect to see longer time to get to the closing due to appraisal, underwriting etc. issues. If it is a cash purchase a closing can occur must faster, often within two weeks from the signed and agreed upon offer. A closing date agreed upon on the offer can be pushed back once under contract if any unforseen issues arise as long as both sellers and buyers agree.
Closing is where you will sign all documents required for you to become the owner of the property. In Colorado a title company will handle the closing for the buyer and the seller and it is typically done at a title company. Occasionally closing documents are mailed out for one party or the other, and sometimes sellers and buyers may sign the documents at different times. The closing can take anywhere from about an hour to a few hours, depending on variety of factors.
7. Moving in to your new Denver area home!
YAY! Closing documents are signed, loan documents are signed and you are toting along a large folder of documents and you have the keys to your new home. Depending the seller you may get the keys at the closing table, after everybody has signed the documents. Sometimes the possession date and time are different from the closing date and time. Some sellers may ask for 24-72 hrs after the closing prior to giving you possession of the home. When you do get the keys, you can start your move to your new home.
Note about Denver's Best Buyer's Agents.
Buyer's agent acts as your agent in a home buying transaction with your best interest in mind, and having a buyers agent is NO COST TO YOU. Seller's agent i.e. the listing agent has a fiduciary duty to the seller and will at all times look out for the best interest of the seller. Having a buyers agent represent you, and go into the battle for you (yes, it can happen) gives you a much better position when it comes to getting the purchase to the closing and the best deal possible for you. This goes if you are buying from an individual owner, a bank or a builder. Our agents are experienced, knowledgeable and will handle any situation that may occur during the whole buying process. We wish each and every home purchase would be a smooth and easy one, frequently that is not the case. There can be issues with appraisals, underwriting, inspection, etc. your buyer's agent is there to address any and all issues that may arise with your best interest in mind. This is what we do for a living, our expertise is to help you to get the home you want and for the best possible terms.
As your buyers agent, we'll help you through the process of buying a home in Denver area from start to finish.
We service all Denver Real Estate, Including but not Limited To Highlands Ranch Houses, Centennila Homes for sale, Greenwood Village Luxury Homes, Lo Do Lofts and Condos, Cherry Hills Luxury Real Estate, Denver HUD homes, Castle Rock homes, englewood Homes, Lakewood Foreclosures, wheatridge Homes, Aurora houses, Parker Co. Homes on land, And so much more. Contact us now to see any home at any time.
303-955-4220
Contact Kenna Real Estate 303.955.4220
