The market for residential real estate has seen a massive boom in the last two or three years. 2020 alone saw more than 5.6 million homes sold. While this boom has benefitted homeowners a great deal, home buyers are often left at loose ends as bids often come in on homes within days of going on the market.
For the potential homebuyers, though, there are other key questions on most of their minds. One of the biggest questions for first-time homebuyers is how long does it take to buy a home.
If you’re pondering the length of the home buying process, keep reading. We’ll break down the usual home buying timeline.
Figuring Out Your Budget
While this should go on every home buying checklist in the number one slot, it’s often something people don’t consider until much later. Figuring out your budget is partly a personal consideration and partly a factor of what a mortgage lender will offer.
You should sit down and really crunch the numbers to understand what size of a payment you can afford. Be honest with yourself since you’ll shell out that amount month after month for years on end. Then, gather up your financial paperwork in terms of pay stubs, taxes, and get prequalified for a mortgage.
All of that tells you what you can reasonably afford. If you’re diligent, most people can wrap that process up in around a week or two.
Finding a Home
Before you get into buying a home, you must first find a home. You can search listings online in your area or your target area. That will often let you know how reasonable it is for you to move on your current budget.
If you struggle to find a home, you may want to enlist a realtor on your behalf, such as Searchnwa.com. A realtor can often find deals that aren’t listed yet, which improves your odds.
While you can typically secure a realtor in a couple of weeks, the search process itself can go fast or slow. You should allocate at least a month or two for that process.
Buying a House
Buying the house is a multi-stage process that involves an initial bid, negotiation on price, inspection and appraisal, potential negotiation about repairs, and then finalizing a bid. That process can take several weeks.
Then, you must wait on loan approval, which can take a month or more. Then, you must deal with the closing where you sign the paperwork.
All in, this part of the process routinely takes from one to two months.
How Long Does It Take to Buy a Home?
The question of how long does it take a buy a home doesn’t lend itself to a quick answer. That largely stems from the fact that parts of the process depend on people making choices.
As a general rule, you should assume the process will take anywhere from four to six months. That way, you won’t feel disappointed if the process takes a while.
Looking for more tips on buying a home? Check out the posts over in our Business section.
Read more: 9 Things to Look for in Your First Home
