9 Steps to Owning a Home

A Step-by-Step Guide for Seattle-Area Homebuyers

Buying a home involves a lot of moving parts, but the process becomes easier to understand when you break it into manageable steps.

Whether you're buying your first home or haven't purchased one in many years, I'll help you understand what to expect—from preparing financially and getting pre-approved to searching for a home, making an offer, and reaching closing.

Step 1 — Define What You're Looking For

Before searching listings, take some time to think about what you want from your next home.

Consider your preferred location, property type, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, commute, outdoor space, parking, and other features that are important to you.

It can be helpful to separate your priorities into needs and wants. Your priorities may evolve as you begin touring properties and learning more about the market—and that's completely normal. The goal isn't to create a perfect wish list. It's to establish a useful starting point for your search.

Step 2 — Understand Your Financing and Get Pre-Approved

Before seriously shopping for a home, it's helpful to understand your potential financing.

A mortgage pre-approval can help you evaluate your potential purchasing power, estimated monthly housing expense, down payment, closing costs, and financing options.

The process generally involves reviewing information about your income, employment, credit, debts, assets, and available funds. Depending on your circumstances, you may also be asked for documents such as:

• Recent pay stubs
• W-2s
• Tax returns, when applicable
• Bank and investment statements
• Other documentation relevant to your financing

Starting early can also give us time to identify and address documentation or financing questions before you're ready to make an offer.

Step 3 — Start Your Home Search

Once you have a clearer understanding of your priorities and financing, it's time to begin exploring properties.

I'll help you identify homes that fit your needs and priorities and arrange showings for properties you'd like to see.

As we tour homes, we'll look beyond the photos and listing descriptions. We'll consider the property's layout, condition, location, features, and other factors that may be important to you. You may also discover that some of your original priorities change after seeing homes in person. That's part of the process.

Step 4 — Understand the Local Market

Seattle isn't one single housing market. Conditions can vary considerably by neighborhood, property type, price range, and individual property characteristics.

When you're interested in a home, I can help you review information such as:

• Recent comparable sales
• Current competing listings
• Asking price
• Days on market
• Property characteristics
• Available market activity
• Other information relevant to the property

This information can help provide context as you decide whether a property is right for you and how you may want to approach an offer.

Step 5 — Choose the Home That's Right for You

Finding a home isn't simply about checking boxes on a wish list.

By this stage, you'll have a better understanding of the market, the homes available in your price range, and which features matter most to you.

Before deciding to make an offer, we'll review the property and available information carefully. The decision to proceed is always yours. My role is to provide information, answer questions, and help you understand the considerations involved.

Step 6 — Prepare Your Offer

Once you've found a home you'd like to purchase, we'll discuss how you want to structure your offer.

A real-estate offer involves considerably more than the purchase price. Depending on the property and circumstances, we'll discuss items such as:

• Purchase price
• Earnest money
• Financing
• Inspection
• Appraisal
• Closing date
• Seller concessions, when applicable
• Other contingencies and terms

I'll also help you review relevant comparable sales and current market conditions so you have useful information when deciding how you want to proceed.

Step 7 — Negotiate and Reach an Agreement

After your offer is submitted, the seller may accept it, reject it, or respond with a counteroffer.

If the seller responds with different terms, I'll help you understand the proposed changes and discuss the options available to you.

Negotiations can involve price, closing date, contingencies, credits, repairs, or other terms of the transaction.

You'll decide how you want to respond. My role is to help you understand the choices and communicate your instructions throughout the negotiation. Once both parties agree to the terms and the contract is signed, the transaction moves toward closing.

Step 8 — Complete the Loan, Inspection and Other Due Diligence

After you have a signed purchase agreement, several important activities may begin at roughly the same time.

Depending on your transaction, these may include:

• Completing your mortgage documentation
• Loan processing and underwriting
• Home inspection
• Appraisal
• Title and escrow work
• Reviewing property disclosures
• Satisfying applicable financing and contract requirements
• Obtaining homeowners insurance
• Preparing for closing

This stage requires coordination among several parties. I'll help you keep track of important real-estate milestones while your mortgage professional works with you on the financing requirements.

Step 9 — Final Review, Signing and Closing

As closing approaches, your lender, escrow company, title company, real-estate professionals, and other parties involved in the transaction work toward completing the remaining requirements.

You'll receive closing documents to review, including information about your final loan terms and the funds required for closing.

You'll also generally have an opportunity to conduct a final walk-through of the property before closing.

Once the required documents are signed, funds are received, and the transaction is completed and recorded, ownership transfers according to the terms of the transaction.

Welcome home.

Where Are You in the Process?

You don't need to wait until you're ready to make an offer to begin preparing. Choose the starting point that best fits where you are today.