Thinking about buying a home? You have come to the right place to educate yourself about what is required to successfully buy that dream. With the right information you will be equipped to seamlessly navigate through the process.
PREQUALIFYING: The home buying process begins with qualifying for a loan. Meeting with a mortgage professional at Escala Financial, we will review your particular situation and discuss your loan options. This includes discussing your family’s budget and expectation for monthly mortgage payments. Once we evaluate your monthly budget, down payment and credit, we will know your home buying budget. You can then start to look for homes that fit your budget. If by chance you are not ready to purchase a home, our mortgage professionals will provide you an “Action Plan” that you can follow to get you purchase-ready in the future. We will periodically contact you to check in your progress.
LOAN APPLICATION: Once you’ve identified a property, made an offer and had it accepted, we now go forward with the Loan Application and attain approval for your chosen financing option. There are lots of forms to fill out and sign but don’t worry, we’ll explain it all in a way you can understand and feel comfortable.
APPRAISAL: An appraisal will need to be performed on the home to make sure it is acceptable to the lender as a guarantee for the mortgage. The lender will want to make sure that the purchase price of the property is supported by sales of similar homes around the neighborhood and that the home is in reasonable condition.
CLEARING CONDITIONS: It is usually necessary to verify certain parts of your loan application such as employment status, salary details, tax filings which will be done during the time you are “in escrow”. We will also need to secure adequate fire insurance and verify that the title of the property you are purchasing will be clean after the close of escrow. During this time, you are working with your Real Estate agent to inspect the property and make sure that it is in a condition that meets your approval.
CLOSING: Leading up to the close, the lender and the escrow company will prepare documents to sign. These include the note (which outlines the terms of your loan), the deed of trust (the document recorded on the title of the property which secures the note) and a lot of other documents which are required by law. After you’ve signed these documents and sent over any remaining funds required from you to close escrow, it should be only a few more business days until the home is yours.
