First-Time Home Buyers: Success Guide

By Richard Phipps

First-time Home Buyer Success Guide was written with you in mind. It is uniquely positioned with information and offerings to enable your home-buying process, whether its your first home or second home. It even offers insights for real estate professionals.

It was developed to provide information and insight that may not be necessarily available within the time constraints of a classroom. It guides through the home-buying process with precision and expertise that are unlikely to be found on any other resources. It gives you the benefit of resources pulled from experts with the combined total of more than a hundred years in real estate, and it is our expectation that these collective experiences, insights, options, and sometimes little known facts, even as it relates to negotiating cost in many parts of your purchase, including your mortgage. Information in this book, if applied during your home-buying process, should give you a significant advantage and create savings that you can use after purchasing your home to start making decorative improvements on your new home.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Sep 13, 2018
• ISBN: 9781984529190

Richard Phipps

Richard Phipps has spent more than 40 years in the business of real estate and is respected as a subject matter expert across the country. His interest with real estate started with his first acquisition in 1978 and has grown more exciting with each acquisition. He is the Regional Vice President for the National Association of Real Estate Brokers, (NAREB), Region 1, the New England State. He is the founder and managing Broker of CFS Realty & Management and Consumer Financial Services in Boston, MA. He is also a certified HUD Housing Counselor, public speaker, television producer and host. He was recognized by the City of Boston for his community service and tireless efforts directing partnership initiatives. He works diligently in this capacity to advance the cause of democracy in housing for all. Richard, was recognized by Barbados Cultural Committee of Boston (BCCB) as Person of the Year in 2007 and awarded for his cultural contribution on Education in 2017. In his free time, Richard enjoys his ministry, family, travel and working with At Risk Youth in his community as well as hosting a television program in promoting entrepreneur and homeownership.

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FIRST-TIME HOME-BUYERS SUCCESS GUIDE

RICHARD C. PHIPPS

Copyright © 2018 by Richard Phipps. 779815

Library of Congress Control Number:      2018906151

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Be advised that no offer is represented in this book were paid advertisement. The providers were identified because they offered unique products and services to enable the home buying process.

Rev. date: 09/11/2018

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

CONTENTS

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1

Your Vision of Home

Chapter 2

Location, Location, Location

Chapter 3

Selecting Your Home-Buying Team

Chapter 4

Watching the Market

Chapter 5

Home Inspections 101

Chapter 6

Mortgage Options

Chapter 7

Making an Offer

Chapter 8

Landlord-Tenant Relations Guide

Chapter 9

Closing the Deal

Real Estate Glossary

Net proceeds from the sale of each book will support charitable causes listed below:

• First-time home-buyer education programs / down payment assistance

• Postsecondary academic scholarships for university / college

• Academic scholarships for trade schools

LEGAL NOTICE

This book is intended for information purposes only. As a reader, you are responsible for how you use the information. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. You should seek this advice from competent, knowledgeable professionals such as real estate, legal, and accounting professionals, whom you will need as you pursue any real estate transactions.

The publisher has attempted to be as accurate and complete as possible in the creation of this report.

While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this publication, the publisher assumes no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretation of the subject matter herein. Any perceived sleights of specific persons or organizations are unintentional.

In practical advice books, like anything else in life, there are no guarantees of income made.

This book is not intended for use as a source of legal, business, accounting, or financial advice. All readers are advised to seek the services of competent professionals in legal, business, accounting, and financial fields.

FOREWORD

First-Time Home-Buyer Success Guide is a step-by-step guide for those new to home buying. The book deals not only with the home-buying process comprehensively but also other related areas such as legal contracts and moving into the home. Selecting the right location and selecting the home that matches your personality and lifestyle are important considerations that many books fail to consider. Furthermore, this book clearly identifies what to look for in a property and signals the warning signs, thus reducing the risk to the home buyer. The contents of this book give the home buyer the confidence and knowledge to house hunt successfully, with the minimum of risk.

The indicative content of the book includes:

Your Vision of Home

Location, Location, Location

Home Buying Team Selection

Watching the Market

Home Inspections 101

Mortgage Options

Making an Offer

Landlord-Tenant Relations Guide

Closing the Deal

The breadth of coverage and the level of detail make this a valuable home-buyer’s guide, and I would sincerely recommend that anyone new to home buying or is considering a purchase in the foreseeable future should get a copy immediately.

Congratulations on a clear and concise handbook for home buyers.

Dr. Gordon Bowen,

Visiting professor

PREFACE

For more than thirty years, I’ve had the privilege and opportunity to serve first-time home buyers at all socioeconomic levels, some of whom struggled to overcome many challenges including physical disabilities, which include mobility challenges, blindness, and hearing impairment, to become proud homeowners, although many of them had significant doubt as to the possibilities at the beginning of the process.

During the same period, from home purchase to home preservation (foreclosure alternatives), I’ve had to console many who, due to lack of knowledge, understanding, or support, made choices in which they lost a great deal of time, good-faith deposits, retirement funds, homeownership opportunities, lawsuits, and other damaging experiences they could have easily avoided with a little guidance and knowledge. This book provides such guidance and information.

Working with each individual or family was a learning experience. The observations gained from many are documented herein as a guide to make your home-buying experience as smooth and stress-free as possible. There are classes sponsored by government agencies, nonprofit organizations, and others that offer information for first-time home buyers. However, as a result of the limited time available in classroom settings, you may not receive all the information needed to make the best decision, and if you do receive it, much is forgotten over time. Oftentimes, the brevity of the class may leave many blanks.

This guide fills in many of those blanks that would otherwise exist, giving you the answers and guidance to make sound, practical decisions. Some components of the transaction may be controlled in part by something else, for example, the mortgage team. Therefore, timely responses, patience, time, and a good transaction plan are an essential part of allowing the process to flow smoothly, culminating in the accomplishment of homeownership.

This First-Time Home-Buyer Success Guide has highlighted, for your benefit, a simple format with checklist processes, which you can use to reach homeownership on your own time, successfully. This book even walks you through the process of determining the size of the home you may need for your family based on what your budget will allow and helps you to make adjustments where necessary to accomplish your goals when it’s imperative to do so. This process takes into consideration the size of your family, the ages of the children, if any, and their needs. This book will help you eliminate the loss of time and money and minimize or eliminate any anxiety of frustration and as result increase your joy and excitement through the home-buying process while creating another happy, fulfilled homeowner with an exhilarating experience, which you would certainly be excited about sharing.

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CHAPTER 1

Your Vision of Home

T his is the first piece of advice: take some time to ponder the questions in this chapter to help you develop a vision of your home before actually purchasing your home. The purchase of your home will likely be the largest single investment you will make (by signing on to a financial obligation of about thirty years). It could be very difficult to live with the outcome if inappropriate or incorrect choices are made.

What is your vision of home? Is it a single- or multifamily house? Is it contemporary, colonial, American, or Victorian? Is your location urban, suburban, rustic, or rural? Do you want to be nestled among the trees or on the grassland, settled firmly along a lake, or nestled overlooking the ocean and a sandy beach? Is your home made of glass, brick, wood, steel, or stone? Is your yard high-maintenance, featuring a manicured lawn that requires mowing and watering, or is your yard low-maintenance with easy-to-care-for perennial plants?

Are your neighbors immediately next door, a few yards away, a couple of blocks away, or on other sites? Are your streets paved or rough and rugged? Is there a high traffic volume or low traffic volume? Are the roads broad and spacious or narrow and cramped?

Do you see animals outside the window? If so, what types of animals? Farm animals such as sheep, goats, cattle, and horses? Forest denizens like bears, raccoons, and skunks? Will you be disturbed by the neighborhood, barking dogs, or crying alley cats? Are there well-lit streetlights, or is the night’s only illumination by the moonlight or starlight? Do you hear birds chirping in your window in the early morning hours, or will your sleep be disturbed by delivery trucks passing by? Have you considered the weather? Are summer evenings cooled by balmy breezes, or are winters threatened by powerful northeasters?

Now that we’ve got a great picture of the outside, its setting, and environment, your imagination, which may be the greatest nation in your world, can now go to work pondering the inside of your prospective home.

How many bedrooms does it have, and how many bathrooms are there? In addition to the kitchen, is there a dining area, living room, and home office? Does your dream home include a music room, art gallery, mini theater, sauna, recreation room, and library? How about a man cave or lady’s lair?

What should the paint colors be? Bold and bright or whites and neutrals? What size rooms will you require: midsize or large? And what does that represent to you in terms of square footage? Will your room size comfortably accommodate the dimensions of the furniture that you intend to furnish your home with?

Your home should not only be a haven from the rest of the world but also be a safe place in which to function and enjoy life. Consider the size of your bedrooms and whether there is enough space to accommodate the dimensions of a double, queen-, or king-size bed, as well as other furnishings in the room.

Are the floors of your dream home vinyl, ceramic or stone tile, wood, carpeted, or laminate? What are the cabinetry, color, and materials used in your kitchens and bathrooms? Double vanity or single vanity? Formica or stone tops? What are the colors and types of appliances? Does your home have a basement or an attic? What would you use the space for, and how would you decorate it?

How will you keep your house warm during the winter and cool during the summer? All these and probably many more questions arise as you start to think of the home you would like to acquire and your family’s needs that must be met in the process while maintaining your budget. It is important that you give reasonable thought to all the above that might apply to you as you start your planning process.

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CHAPTER 2

Location, Location, Location

O ne of the greatest factors influencing the market price of