Florida First-Time Home Buyer Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Buyer's Guide

Buying a home is one of the most exciting milestones of your life. To prepare yourself for this moment, you need to know what to expect during the process. This step-by-step first time buyer’s guide created by our team will help reduce the stress of buying a home and help you enjoy the journey as much as possible.

Step 1: Research

Do you already know where you want to buy? If you want a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Which features do you like and dislike? What’s available on the market now? If you answered no to any of these questions, now is the time to start researching. In addition to looking for homes that interest you, also take note of any changes in asking prices. This could give you valuable insight into housing trends in specific neighborhoods and help you when the time comes to make an offer.

Step 2: Decide on Your Budget

Notice we said to decide on your budget—not determine how much the mortgage company will give you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for more than you’re comfortable spending, which is why you need to determine the monthly payment you feel comfortable with before talking to a lender. This likely includes doing a full household budget and taking into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or with roommates, you may overlook new expenses like garbage, water, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget.

Step 3: Get Prequalified

Just because you think you can afford a certain payment every month doesn’t mean the mortgage company will agree. Just as they may approve you for too large of an amount, they may also approve you for a lesser amount or deny you a mortgage altogether. Lack of time at a job, insufficient credit, past bankruptcies, or other financial issues can cause major problems when trying to secure a mortgage. Before you get your heart set on a home, talk to a mortgage professional to find out what amount you can qualify for. This will also be an advantage when you make an offer on a home, as some sellers won’t entertain offers from those who aren’t already prequalified for a loan.

Step 4: Choose a Real Estate Agent

Can you shop for, look at, and ultimately make an offer on a home without a real estate agent? Technically yes, but why would you when it costs you nothing for agents like us to take much of the stress off your shoulders? Not only will we help identify properties you might be interested in, arrange showings, and ultimately handle the offer process, but we also have knowledge of the market that you don’t possess. Finding the perfect home can be a daunting task, this is where our expertise and wealth of knowledge come into play. Let us show you around some homes that meet your dream home criteria so you can find the one that's right for you.

Our goal is to provide you with the most personalized service that is designed to help you buy your dream home

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Step 5: Find the Right Home

This should be the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). We will arrange showings of homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details. Turn light switches on and off, open and close doors, and run the faucets in various rooms. Don’t limit your inspection to the home itself. Make sure to take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.

Step 6: Make an Offer

Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. We will be able to help you negotiate if you receive a counteroffer and reach an agreement. At this point, the house will go into escrow.

Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

In most cases, your offer will be contingent on having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or large repairs needed. We can help you arrange this, and you can schedule it within days of making an offer. If there are no major issues, the process goes to step eight. If there is, you can renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed, or you can withdraw it.

Step 8: Select Your Loan

Now is the time to go back to the mortgage lender who pre-approved or pre-qualified you and choose your mortgage. You will be presented with various options based on your unique financial situation, including fixed-rate, variable-rate, 15-year, 30-year, or special programs such as VA loans or FHA loans. Work with your mortgage lender to select the option you feel the most comfortable with.

Step 9: Get a Home Appraisal

Your lender will have your new home appraised so they have their independent value of it. The appraisal is to ensure that all parties involved are paying a fair price for the house.

Step 10: Finish Paperwork

No one looks forward to all the paperwork involved in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Fortunately, everything will be arranged by your lender and title company and, when you’re finished, you’ll know you are the legal owner of your new home.

Congratulations!

After signing the final paperwork to complete the purchase, you are now the owner of a new house. It may take a few days for your loan to be funded once the paperwork has been returned to the lender, but once that check is delivered to the seller, you’ll be all set to move into the home of your dreams.

Real Stories, Real Results

See why our clients love working with us.

Michael G.

My wife and I have worked with Carly on two occasions. The first was to sell our vacation home, and the second was to buy a new one. Both times we had a great experience. Carly is very knowledgeable, professional, and personabl...

Luke W.

Carly did a fantastic job selling our home. She is always very responsive and goes out of her way to make sure the process goes as smoothly as possible. As a local of the area since birth, she knows everyone, which pays off big...

Collen P.

While we could have done without the missing UPS notarized overnighted paperwork (which was completely out of our hands), we would not have changed a single thing. Carly had photos of our home and listed our property within hou...

Anne H.

I can’t say enough about Carly Sostheim as a Realtor®. She goes all out to find a buyer, then to help you get together whatever the buyer requests once a contract is executed. She does all of the work for you with as little inc...

Will C.

Absolutely wonderful to work with. Excellent communication and hustle throughout the entire buying process. She was very helpful and had resources I didn’t even know I needed! I would love to work with Carly again and highly re...

Elizabeth H.

Carly was so easy to work with! I was nervous to sell my first home and was full of questions. She answered them all and never made me feel like any question was silly. She was always extremely responsive, no matter the day of ...

Kelly F.

We have worked with Carly several times, and she always goes out of her way to make the process as smooth and painless as possible. Whether buying or selling, she answers every question and is proactive to make sure everything ...

Karen B.

Carly was terrific in helping us sell my Mom's house, so when it was time to put our house on the market, there was no other choice for us! Carly worked with us to make sure we were able to highlight all of the great things tha...

Chastain L.

Carly is the best realtor we've ever worked with. She is so knowledgeable not only on real estate but also on the Panama City Area as a whole. She was able to answer every single question we had and was available to us every st...

Adam P.

Carly is one of the best in the business. She helped us get into our new home and sell our old one. The new home was a complicated buy since it was still under construction when we signed our contract. There were many moving pa...

Kurt B.

We have bought two homes in the last two years with the professional, insightful help of Carly! Hands down, she’s the best and a straight shooter!

Kirra O.

We have had the pleasure of working with Carly over the last 6 months, and she is nothing short of incredible. She doesn’t stop until she’s found what you’re looking for. She goes above and beyond from start to closing and is t...

Kelly H.

Carly is the best of the best! We couldn't have asked for a better experience! She and her team made the entire process of selling our home so easy and seamless from start to finish. Carly is extremely knowledgeable about the a...

Kim D.

My sister and I had the daunting task of selling our parents' waterfront house of 42 years. Having never lived in Panama City ourselves, we were not familiar with the market or how to price the home in an area without many comp...

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Buyer's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Buyer's Guide

Step 1: Research

Step 2: Decide on Your Budget

Step 3: Get Prequalified

Step 4: Choose a Real Estate Agent

Our goal is to provide you with the most personalized service that is designed to help you buy your dream home

Step 5: Find the Right Home

Step 6: Make an Offer

Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

Step 8: Select Your Loan

Step 9: Get a Home Appraisal

Step 10: Finish Paperwork

Congratulations!