First-time home buyers can understandably be a little confused. They’re not sure what steps they have to follow in order to get where they want to be, or even where to start. So today, we’re breaking things down one step at a time. 

Step 1: Get Pre-approved

This is the most important step in order to start the search process. If you find a home you love and put in an offer without getting pre-approved, you will unfortunately get rejected in a market this competitive.

Since a pre-approval states how much a bank will lend you for a given mortgage, it’s the best way to show sellers that you’re qualified, serious, and ready to close the deal.

Step 2: Book a Buyer’s Consult

It’s extremely helpful to meet with an experienced broker who can explain everything that’s about to go down.

You want to know what closing costs look like, what your budget should look like, what you can expect for condo fees, dealing with undivided versus divided condos … everything that is associated with the actual buying process.

Step 3: Start Booking Showings

Once you’re pre-approved and armed with some knowledge, you’re going to start visiting homes. Your broker will typically send you properties online so you can start scanning, and after you’ve decided on a couple that you like, you’re going to start planning visits for those properties.

In the current market, sellers will often do showings on Saturdays and Sundays, then start taking offers on Mondays or Tuesdays. Once you’ve seen a property that you’re very interested in, you’ll have to start drafting an offer almost immediately.

Step 4: Draft an Offer

The one thing to do before jumping into an offer is getting sold comparables for that property to understand what it’s actually worth.

Once it’s time to write the offer up, you’ll have to decide which conditions you want to see met. Typically, we include conditions for an inspection document review, financing, and potentially a certificate of location or other various clauses that we use in order to protect our clients.

After that, you wait to see if your offer is going to be accepted or not.

Step 5: Negotiate

In the case of multiple offers, you’re only going to have one kick at the can. They’re going to look at all the offers and decide who’s best – that’s it.

If there are no other offers on the property and it’s just you, you might start going back and forth in terms of counter-offers. It might sound like a crazy thing in this market, but we still do see it once in a while.

Step 6: The Post-acceptance Rush

From the moment you have an accepted offer, the clock starts ticking.

You’re going to have a certain amount of days to do your inspection, to get your financing in order, to do a document review. And again, address any other clauses that you may have included in your purchase offer.

Once you’ve gone through the inspection, reviewed all the necessary documents, and gotten your financing approved, you will waive all conditions and therefore declare yourself satisfied.

During this process, you may have gone back to renegotiate certain things. You may have decided to walk away from the property along the way. But if you do realize all conditions and you’re happy with them, then that’s great!

Step 7: The Waiting Game

It’s time to wait until the notary date in order to actually sign for the property, start paying your mortgage, and get the keys to the home.

Sometimes, there is a bit of a delay between the notary date and the occupancy date. In our experience, this phase should take between zero to seven days.

Now, sometimes the seller needs to stay in the home for a little bit longer. That’s okay, too. We’ve seen sellers stay in a property for one month all the way to six months, because they were still looking for another property.

What we do in that case is called a rental adjustment. We tell the seller how much they’re going to have to pay us in order to stay in that home. More often than not, we just charge them capital and interest – our mortgage payment plus our insurance fees and taxes on the property, as well as condo fees if applicable.

Step 8: Moving In

After that, congratulations! You have a home to furnish, enjoy, and call your own.