How much time does it take to buy a house

Owning your first house can bring euphoria to your heart. At the same time, buying a house isn’t something that can be done instantly. So, you may wonder, how long does it take to buy a house?

Researches about the houses you want to buy are important, especially if you haven’t surveyed the places and this is the first time you buy a house. Yet, other aspects can also determine how long does it take to buy a house.

Through this article, we’re going to let you know the step-by-steps you should do, so you can have the answer of how long does it take to buy a house.

First of all, follow this step:

Get A Preapproval

A preapproval means you’re serious about buying a house and prepared for the amounts of money you’re going to borrow. When you apply for a preapproval online or offline, your lender will assess your income, credit histories, and current debts. 

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advises you to get assessed by at least three different lenders. You can also ask real estate agents for recommendations on trustworthy lenders.

It usually takes 3-5 business days to get a mortgage preapproval. You can speed up the preapproval processes by answering lenders’ questions completely, submit all documents, and respond to their contacts (usually by phone or e-mail) on time.

Research On The Houses

So, after getting preapproval, the next step you should do is to research every single house choice. This step is divided into two: Browsing on the houses’ selections and surveying the houses’ locations.

As in the process of getting a preapproval, you can consult real estate agents for the houses of your choice. Your agents can also include contingencies in their offers, which serve as protection to your offers. 

From there, you can make a list of the houses that you want. Most people need 3-5 days to narrow down the lists. Then, allow yourself around 1 week to 4 months for the next sub-step: Surveying the houses.

When you survey the houses, make sure you take time in viewing the inside and the outside of your houses. You’ll also need to pay attention to the red flags in the houses, such as plumbing or electrical issues, carbon monoxide, defective gutters, and more.

Decide On The Offer And Negotiate

Now that you’ve decided on the house you want to buy, the next step that you should do is to get an offer letter from your agents. An offer letter consists of the house’s price, closing costs, repairs needed (and how much), and more of the relevant detail. 

Depending on the agents you choose to communicate with, contingencies will also be included in your offer letter. Some agents will also recommend you to write a personal letter to the house’s seller. When you do so, you should also attach the offer letter.

The seller then will have to accept or reject the offer letter. Alternatively, they can also make an offer that is different from the ones in the offer letter. These are when the negotiation processes between you and the seller begin.

In this step, you’ll normally need 1-2 months. The more difficult the negotiation process, the longer you’ll take time in this step. When you succeed, you have to go to the contract and put in some deposits.

Prepare For Your House’s Closing

Closing is the most important thing when you consider buying a house. After all, when you’ve closed the orders and contracts, you will get access to your house’s keys.

At the same time, closing is a process that you need to prepare in advance. Most people need around 10-45 days for each of the closing preparation steps. The sub-steps included in this step are appraisals, underwriting, and home inspection.

The home inspection is a process when you see if there are any unwanted surprises in your future house after you sign the purchase agreement. Typically, you have 10 days to inspect the house, even though this differs based on the laws of the states you’re in. After you complete the inspection process, wait for around 24 hours until a week to get the inspection report.

After you inspect your house, the next thing you should do is to wait for the professional to determine your house’s worth. It usually takes a week for the third-party appraiser to come to your house. Three days after, you can expect your result to come in.

This leads to another sub-step in the closing preparation step called underwriting. It is the process when your lenders match the estimated worth of your house with your financial conditions at times of the underwriting process. Income, assets, and debts, are three main things that your lenders will look at in doing the underwriting process.

The underwriting process can last the longest of all, which is around 30-45 days. If you experience major changes from the times you get preapproval to the ones in this step, then, you can expect this step to be delayed.

Brace yourself: This is the step that probably needs more documents than the others. Yet, once you’re all set, you can get other documents. The closing disclosure that contains the loan details, fees, closing costs that you need to pay, and other terms and conditions, is one of them.

Now that you’ve done all the steps to buy a house, you’re ready to sign some documents for your new house. At some points, you’ll also need to pay closing costs with a cashier’s check instead of the non-allowed personal checks. Voila! Now, you get the keys to your house. 

So, those are the four steps that determine how long does it take to buy a house. 

If you look at each of the steps, you’ll see that you need several weeks to months in completing each of the steps. This also depends on the documents you have and the financial conditions you’re experiencing. 

This is the answer to the question: How long does it take to buy a house? We hope our article helps you.