Have you decided to buy a new home here in San Diego County and want to know what your next steps are? In this video, I’m going to walk you step-by-step through the process of buying a home in San Diego County. I’ll explain everything from finances to paperwork so you’ll know exactly what to expect.
Choosing The Right Agent
The most important part of the home buying process is preparation. This is because homes here in San Diego go fast, fast, fast. The very first thing you need to do is pick a great real estate agent. The reason why over 87% of all homebuyers in San Diego are represented by realtors is that number one, there’s no out of pocket expense, and number two, they keep you out of trouble.
How do they keep you out of trouble? Well, they’re going to answer important questions for you. Are you really making a good move? Have you considered all aspects of the inspection? Do you understand how the home buying process works? It’s your agent’s job to make sure you choose the best home for you. I don’t care where you buy, I care what you buy. If you’re happy with it and it’s a great investment for you, then I’m happy too.
Finding A Lender And Looking At Properties
After you get a good agent, it’s time to get a great lender. How you finance your home is extremely important—which is why you want to start working on that preapproval process with that great lender right away. Depending on the loan product that is right for you, we need to figure out what your down payment is going to be so that we can make sure we’re looking at the right things for you.
Now that you’ve got your financial ducks in a row, the fun part can begin. This is where we go and look at properties. It could take as little as one time, or it could take a year or more. It depends on you and your timeframe. Remember that when you’re buying a home, you’re not just buying a home. You’re also buying into the community as well. You want to make sure that that community serves your needs. Is it close enough to work for you? If you have kids, is it close enough to their school? Is it in the right school district that you want for them?
What about the actual house that you’re looking for? Does your budget match your realistic expectations? Once you find that home that speaks to you and that you love, it’s time to move on to the next step: submitting an offer.
Negotiations And Escrow
It’s your agent’s job to handle all the negotiations for you and get your offer accepted. Once you get your offer accepted, now we enter stage five, which is escrow. Now the real work begins. This is the part of the process where you are under contract but you don’t yet own the property.
Escrow is the time where we do all of our due diligence, like home inspections, title searches, the appraisal, and more. This is also when your loan application can be finalized since the last piece that they’re waiting for is your executed purchase contract. Once they have that, they go to town on doing their appraisal and working with the title company to make sure that they have a clear title.
The average time that an escrow takes from an accepted offer to closing in San Diego County is between 21 and 30 days. Just before the end—usually five days or so before the close of escrow—we’re going to schedule our final walkthrough. This is to establish that the property is in substantially the same condition as it was when you agreed to buy the home. It’s not a condition of the close of sale. The condition, rather, was the request for repairs, binding the seller to do anything that you agreed to.
This is just to make sure that everything has been done. If it hasn’t, it gives the seller a heads up to make sure that it gets done.
Closing On Your New Home
Once we finish our final walkthrough, we’re going to be in our last step: closing. That’s when you’re going to hear from the escrow or title company, and they’re going to arrange a time and place for you to sign your loan documents. The title company will take that title or send it electronically to the County Recorder’s Office. We’ll get an email confirmation that says, “You have confirmation and recording.” That’s when you officially own your home!
I hope this gave you a good idea of the steps that it takes to buy a home here in San Diego County. If you have any questions at all, or are excited to jump into this awesome pool of buying a home here in San Diego, please give me a call at (619) 925-2322. You can also text or email me and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible. I can’t wait to hear from you!