Transcripts
1. Lecture I Real Estate Buying Your First Home: Hello and welcome to your skill share course on buying your first hello. My name is Thomas initially and if I look excited, that's because I are excited that I love talking about real estate. Dora lot likes talking about real estate. So you know, people are either a by it or selling it or moving into it, or moving out of it, or thinking about reading it, or looking for another place. It never ends. After we leave this earth, somebody's got to sell your real estate or the wrench or real estate. It is a conversation that is an everyday conversation for all of us. I decided to create this course for that first-time homebuyer who's just kinda dipping their toes into the water. I am in fact a real estate broker. I started my career 20-something years ago, started off with residential properties and then after two or three years, I can't, you know, became attracted to the second home market. So I made that my niche selling to people like me older. If the ministers, you know, kids are out of college, we gotta look few extra disposable dollars and now we're ready to buy that second home. So that became my niche limb. That's what I've done now for the last 20 years. So, you know, even though I am no longer yeah. Listing and selling and going all around the globe with guns. I'm now teaching. I love it. I absolutely love it. And I love creating the content. I love it. My former clients still contact me, they steal, right? Mean a still call me Thomas Ina. I'm working with a realtor, but I've got a question. And you know, that's the last thing I wanna do is get in between you and your realtor. That's a no, no. This course is about arming you with information. As you move forward with thinking about buying your first home. We're going to talk about location. We're going to talk about your budget. We could have talked about pre qualifications that you may need with your mortgage lender. We're gonna talk about what if you decide you're going to pay cash? We're going to talk about home inspections, what you should look for. Tell you a funny story. As a real estate agent, I used to walk into a home and literally bring a blanket with me and I would lay down on the floor and I would look up at the ceiling because the ceiling tails the tail, especially on the second floor. You can look for water damage, you can look for wear and tear. You can look for infestation of little insects. You have to seriously get down when you're about to buy oh, whether it's new construction, I do this thing. I mean builders. Great. And yes, it's new, but everybody makes mistakes. So it's good to know the ends, the outs. When you have an opportunity, you can take a look at my bio. I am I can date right now, 63 years old. I'll be 64 in January. This is November 2020, were in the middle of a pandemic. And yes, I'm in my office creating this content as we speak. But, you know, clarity will come and light hopefully will return to some type of new normal. And if you are in the market, this is the time to start preparing and just being aware of what you need to know with buying your first home. So this course is all about the terminology, all about the focus that you're going to need to take buying a home the first time? No, it's not hard. But yes, there's a lot of terms. There's a lot of paper work involved. There's a finding that perfect marriage with your realtor so they understand what you're looking for and that what they are trying to sell. So welcome. And I am thrilled to be here. So let's get started and we're gonna talk about location, the case id, the cation, as well as a variety of other subjects. So again, when you have an opportunity, you can glance at my bio. I am, you know, my undegraded degrees in economics. My Masters degree is an MBA in finance. And I have enjoyed my careers in banking and finance and marketing and corporate relocation and of course, real estate. So I'm happy to be your instructor and write me anytime during the course of this content and this lecture. Okay? I'm here. You don't have to wait to the end of the class to write me. Just write me if you have questions. And again, congratulations, and I'm deciding to purchase your first home. See you in the next lecture.
2. Lecture II Selecting Your Realtor and Your Preferred Location: Hi, welcome back. Caught me by surprise. Thanks again for joining me in this lecture. We're gonna talk a little bit about your real Terre, a little bit about location. I've got my notes because I mean, it's expensive. So I'm going to be checking, making sure I'm covering everything I need to cover with you. Alright, first off, let's just talk about you first. You are, I don't know what age you are, but whatever it is, it's your first home. Or as I said, it might be your second home or your third. And this course will definitely help you get from point a to point B. There's no doubt about it. All I wanted to do is structured this course so that I'm having a conversation, feel a conversation so that as you grabbed Europe, Ben in your paper, you have your list for going down. Don't list for, you know, making sure you cover all the basis. Now this is your first time. It's not going to be perfect. Maybe it is. Maybe you've got deep pockets and you can buy a serious first. Oh, but I don't care if you get deep buckets or your pockets are shell. You still gotta look for the same exact things you have to purchase. Well, you have to ask the right questions. You have to be ready for your process of going out and looking for properties. Now, are you working with a realtor or are you not? Some of you. And now I got a bunch of arrogant glides through. They think they can buy on those on their own. I can read. I've got the internet. I know what's going on. You know, having a real is not just about that. Having your filter is also having a buffer between you and that seller. Because sometimes you know, you got things you want to say, but you say it to your realtor. So yeah, so I highly recommend you meet with one that too, but at least three relatives. Find one mirrors your values. Your core vision sounds corny, but it is important. This is going to be a marriage. You're going to be married to that real estate agent for at least three months, six months, maybe a year. And so it needs to be someone you trust you feel comfortable with. You can tell almost anything too and know for sure. And you know, you have the confidence and just the the integrity that's required when you're looking for your first home. Okay, so that's an important point. Find yourself a realtor that you trust. Interview three, ok, maybe a rookie. Sometimes they get that energy, they're out there, they're going interview someone has been in the business world moderate amount of pop time, maybe three to 537 years, and then interview a top producer. Okay, they're easy to find, they're easy to spot. You can go online and check the real estate companies in your city and their top producers are right there. So I highly recommend you interview three tiers, three layers of real estate agents. And that way you can make a good decision on where it is. You want to go and make your home search, okay? Now, location, this is going to be the first thing. You don't need a realtor to sign. What location you want to identify for your first home, you kind of injury and a bad you've been dreaming about it. You've been thinking about it. You been hoping and Brian Ford, you know, the neighborhood. Now the real question is, can you afford that neighborhood? That's always going to be our real cost. If you do a little bit of homework online, you'll find out whether you can or not. You know, if you're in the United States of America, we got Realtor.com. You can go on Realtor.com or Zillow or Redfin. We got a lot of websites where you can go and search the prices for that street. That area that you're looking for. Your location may be driven by your work. You may want to short commute. So maybe you don't care about your commute. You'll take the long commute in order to get the perfect column. You may have children, you may be thinking about school systems. So those are going to be factors. Location is very, very important. University cities are just wonderful places to buy real estate. If you happen to be in a city, that's a university town, obviously the real estate is going to be prime, are going to be close to campus night Tulsa campus meeting. A lot of considerations is that a teaching hospital town? It is. Is it a tourist town or are you looking for your first home? Like me in the country? I love peace. I love quiet. I like waken up to the sounds of birds sing in and go in the sleep to the sounds of crickets. Interlobar zone. When I was in my forties, I had no taste for living in the city. So location is important. Pay attention to what you're looking for. Be aware of your location, be aware of any new, say companies are coming to town was going to drive up the prices on your real estate. Be aware if new construction is going to be built behind a house that you're thinking about? Yeah. Yeah. Can you imagine new construction for the next three years behind you? So I'm going to highly recommend as you think about your location, cover the basis. Cover that basis. That's where your real estate agent comes in and she can do that search for you. Or you feel like physically going down to City Hall and check in and see what's on the grid for new construction. A new library and new office building is going in near you on nu rho nu telephone poses a going in near you on the ground. Electricity. If they're going to be eminent domain and they're gonna grab your front yard. I don't know. This is all about you thinking about where you want to be. It's not just about the ZIP code. It's what's going on around you in that zip code. Okay? So energy of those three realtors, and I leave you with that and know your location like the back of your hand. This course is all about empowering you to do the research and that whole groundwork boots on the ground work that you can do before you start pursuing your first-time. Okay, see you in the next lecture.
3. Lecture III Price Point Mortgage Lender vs Mortgage Broker Downpayment: Hello, welcome back to your skill share course on buying your first home. My name is Thomas seen as shielding and of course, you know, I am your instructor. So let's get started. Today we're gonna talk about P&L, your price point. We all have been doing are also going to talk about cash versus a mortgage. And we're going to talk about your down payment, okay? Three separate time topics. Let's talk about price 0.1. Alright? Let's assume me 9a to an eight smooth that's ambitious. But it everyday, you might average Ross fun or you might have a parent that is generous and I'm going to help you with your first home. But some time normally that first home is showing up in your thirties, early thirties, maybe late twenties. I the way you gotta come up with a price point. So with your price point, let's just talk hypotheticals. Are you married? Isn't all considerations? Are you sink? So if you married, you've got two incomes. Ok? You got two incomes to consider purchasing a home. If you're single, you have one income. Alright? Now, that said, here's the conservative approach. Even if you are married, why don't you think about one income to qualify for that market instead of two incomes and pushing yourself up against the wall. That has just me talking, yam, somebody's mom, Masan atom each 35. My daughter of a n is 30 to thinking about buying her first home now in California of all places. So you know, that's food floatable. But telling her the same exact things I'm telling you. Now. What is your price point? And she is married, but do you really want to search based on two incomes if that means you can buy more, absolutely. But wanting gives you security. You buy less house. Okay, that might not be what you're looking for. But I will tell you right now, 30 years from now and you got fate be, because not only did you buy a house based on one income, and now you're life is still comfortable. Now up to you to buy that car for you to travel, for you to steal every now and then splurge on some things. If you buy a home based on two incomes. And that's going to be something, you're going to be up against the wall many, many times. What if one of you lose your job? And I don't want to talk about that with, Hey, look at us today. This is November 2020. A pandemic. Half the country has lost their job, but that maybe those people with that mortgage based on two people. Now and let's say I need to plan your whole life around that. But this course is about making it thing. I'm conservative. I've always been conservative. I like having a reading room. You know, how many of these people they say, Oh, you shouldn't have six months of savings put aside for emergencies. Okay. Sometimes I didn't hit six months when I was right there with 345. You have to think big picture. I know you're excited about buying your first home, but you gotta thing, big pitcher. Okay, now you're going to visit that mortgage banker, broker Nana. What's the difference? In a nutshell? A mortgage broker, he or she, they've got tons and tons and tons and tons of different mortgage products. A mortgage banker, that's traditional. You'll walk into Bank of America, Wells Fargo or BB and T, whoever you bank with, and you talk to your lender who was a mortgage banker. So a broker has access to more products, way more flexibility, and way more products that might fit your individual situation. But a mortgage lender, a lot of people are more comfortable with a mortgage lender. They can walk in that front door, that bank, they know that same person's gonna be pair. They know their mortgage is going to be with therapy where you may also have your checking, your savings, and investments. So the choice is yours. Now, again, what's your price point? Talk to your mortgage lender or your mortgage broker. Tell them you want to price point based on one income. Or in your case, perhaps it's to tell me you want to price point based on two income. They are going to take a look at all of your debt. You know, and things have changed. You've got a lot of student loans. There wasn't time student loans, boy, they knock you right out the box for a mortgage. But times have changed. Some banks are not calculating student loans as part of your debt. You notice, that's good news for everybody got student loans because that's going to kill. Yeah. Yeah, I gotta get a mortgage with, you know, fifty thousand, a hundred thousand, thirty thousand, twenty thousand pounds worth of student loans. But if they don't calculate that in the mortgage, you're in the hut. So with the mortgage conversation with your mortgage lender or broker, and you're going to want to talk, excuse me. You're gonna wanna tell interest rate. You're going to want to talk terms. How long you want your mortgage, you're young so you can take a 30-year. You're gonna wanna talk adjustable versus fixed mortgage. Will talk a little bit more about that later. But I'm going to go on record right now and telling you take the fixed like until my daughter take the fixed, that way your monthly payments are the same no matter what happens here, what happens here never changes. At an adjustable mortgage, your monthly payments change based on the market. There's a cap where they can go up quick. So I highly recommend it. Mortgage rates are low as I'm creating this content today. Go for it. Fixed rate, mortgage, thinks it for 20 years, 30 years, fix it. The big team, whatever that payment is that is most comfortable for you. Sit with your mortgage broker or your Moore's Linder and talk about products that work for you, okay? Ask them the questions. Encouraged them to play with the numbers. Don't let them being lazy on you. You know, this is what they do. A mortgage broker gets paid commission to write the markets that you know, that that's how they make their money, right? And lobby does. So sometimes, yeah, recommend them, argues that the little expensive because that's how they make their money. Now and you go to a more just lender that's different. Here. He worked for obeying their salaried, they're sitting there telling you about the products is not a real heavy incentive for them to sell you one versus the other. Their main goal is to have you as a customer, as a client. So there is a difference there. Okay? And then the last thing I want to talk about a little bit is downpayment. Keep this number in mind, 20%. So as you're looking at a house and it's 300 thousand think 60,020%. But more goods, if you see a house and is 200 thousand, think 40,020%. That is essential. If you do not put 20% down on your mortgage, you will be responsible for paying what they call mortgage insurance if you put anything less than 20%. So if you find a house for 300 thousand or 200 thousand and you put 10% down, 20 thousand. That's only a 90% financing. Thanks, like 80% financing, they want that 20% down. Clearly. They are going to charge you a little bit extra if you put less than 20% down, talk to your lender, talk to your broker, your mortgage london, your mortgage broker. They should put you on the right path. When all else fails, write me. I will put to all our eyes that see you in the next lecture.
4. Lecture IV Can Someone Else Pay My Downpayment Whats a Good Credit Score: Welcome back. It's Thomas Sr.. And this lecture is not going to be long at all. Because this lecture is about two things. A question I'm constantly asked by first-time home buyers and especially some of mine younger clients, can someone else pay my down payment? That's the first question. And the other question is, Thomas Sina, What do you consider a good credit score? Are we all stick out one. Okay, arch question again, someone else pay my down payment. You might have a great career, great revenue. Who? Your cashflow is looking good, but you are cash poor in the bank. Can someone else pay your down payment on your home? To short answer is yes. The long answer is it's going to, and on your mortgage lender or your mortgage broker guidelines. Every bank is different. But normally, normally. So not only can a family member or a friend or even the seller pay part or all of your down payment. But you aren't going to be able to buy that first home without waiting ten years to say that 20%? That's an important question. That's a bead be question. So please write that down. That's a question you've gotta ask your lender. A downpayment. That's a make or break for millions of people. That's why millions of people still rate. The downpayment is a killer. It is saved. You can get over that hurdle even if you got 10%. So my heels puts in 10%, or you got 5%. Somebody puts in 15%, and you've got 1%. Somebody find out from your Linda, What's the leeway here? You get your answer. Okay. Your real estate agent is not always going to know that she may know a lender or he may know a lender who can help you. But they're not going to know that specific nitty-gritty stuff. Your mortgage lender, your mortgage Baker banker, they're going to know, okay. Second question. What's a good credit, credit score, CE, credit Scriven score. Well, obviously Perfect. Fifth. Then a here and charge you walk into a bank. It's like show me the money because I got an 850 credit score. You leave, mate, I don't necessarily mean you, every bag in a city is going to give you money with an 850 credit score and 800 credit score, you still in the driver's seat. 750 and Islam and now a little bit, but it's still pretty darn good. 700 Wu Dao shifted a little bit. 650. You go and now you're swimming upstream just like those Sam and every year, you know. So the credit score is important. And this course is not about how to change my credit score and get it better. I think it's your core level. You already know no debt. Great credit score, lots of debt. Downtimes, not-so-great credit score. You already know too many credit cards, late payments, late payments on the automobile, and late payments everywhere. You kind of know your credit score is messed up. You know that already. So what is a great credit score? Obviously a perfect credit score. What is the next best thing? You are paying your bills on time, even if you've got a lot credit every single month, you are paying your bills and outstanding on time. And that's what makes a great credit score in what happens if you have no credit? Yeah, that was my daughter. She AT credit cards. So you go talk to a bank. They're like, yeah, no credit. We can't even get your credit score. Mobile phone, that's not gonna work. So my daughter had to open up a credit card. Maximum Matilda do maybe 500 maximum credit card, and then never spin the maximums spin about 20%. So every month she's been 506070, $80, pay off 50% of it. The next months he spent 506070, $80, pay off 50%. And in cheat do this over and over and over, because now they're looking at utilization of credit. She used XYZ and her credit grade. They're looking at quantity, admit look at everything. So subsequently she's opened up five credit cards. Sounds like a lot. And not really each one of them have a maximum. You can set your maximum. Don't let the bank sector maximum. Don't let a bank tell you, Oh, you gotta do $1 thousand limit. Oh yeah, hey, but guess what? On your credit score it shows you kind of 2000 bursts open credit. That's not good news. You watch our credit cards to be low, low, low ceilings so that when they add up all your possible opens with five credit cards, each one maximum 500, that's a $2500 open window. No gay and a bank knows that you have the option using all of it. So they calculate all of it. Though, a lot of people don't know that I was a lender with a bank in the United States for many, many years, and we calculate the possibility of you using all of your credit. So if you've got five credit cards and each one with a 10 thousand maximum, I calculated $50 thousand as your possible credit. That's gonna kill your mortgage. It just is. So you don't want these big credit card options. You want moderate five hundred, one hundred, ten hundred maximum. And even if you have ten cards, you know, even if you have five cards, you want these, bob, and you never want to have more than 20% when each one of those cards and then pay off, not the pool balanced does in a lot of people think that's good news. I'm going to pick up my full balance every month. Well, you don't develop a credit history. How could you, if you charge 50 and baked If you notice 30 days, they've gotten method. So if you charge, you pay out 30, there's some history. You charge a 100, you pay off 70. There some history, and you get it. You charge 200 and you pay 120. There's some history. Never just pay the minimum. Go ahead and triple the minimum. You create history. So there you go. Can someone pay my Dao been absolutely Short answer. Yes. Talk to your lender or mortgage broker. What's a good credit score? A fifth. But obviously 70075710705, those are just great numbers. Try not to fall below Pat. And that's it. See you in the next lecture.
5. Lecture V Putting Together Your Documents PreQual PreApproval Debt Equity Ration: Hello, welcome back. It's Thomas Sina, and this is your skill share Course, buying your first home. So today we're gonna talk about, and I've got my notes because it's detailed information. We're going to talk about putting together your paperwork for your mortgage lender or your mortgage broker. We're gonna talk about what's the difference between a pre-qualified and litter and a pre-approval letter. That's important. And we're going to talk about your debt to equity income racial. Okay. You've already had your conversation with your lender. You already know you've got a general idea about what type of price point you're looking at. Now he's going to ask you to give me some documents. So you've gotta put together at least 12 or three years of your tax returns, 12 or three years of your bank statements. Every lenders different. They're going to ask for the documents. You're gonna put together a copy that whenever debt you may have pretty current statements, you're gonna put together copies of everything that involves a dollar. Okay? Not difficult. You've got PDFs and this, you can get your PDFs off your bank account statements and email them to your lender and put them where she'll put them in your file. You can grow your file. This isn't something you have to do overnight, but the sooner the better. Because then your lender has a better idea of who they're talking to. Okay? So they're going to be looking for your debt to equity. And what is that? Let's assume you make $5 thousand a month. You have debt and that's gross, not net after Texas. That's before texts. And you have debt of about 1000 a month. Well, guess what? That's only 20%. A lender is going to be looking for that 101520, maybe 25%, maximum, 30% debt. So you can do the math. You make 3 thousand every month gross before taxes. And you have 1000 debit credit cards, car payments every month. That's 30%. You'd knocking on the door of rejection. So attention for yet to be careful, if you can pay down some of that debt now would be the time even before you talk to the lender, That's your number. Call for 20% maximum. 15s even better, secure you a good spot. Okay? So as you're putting together your paperwork, you want to include your bank statements, your tax returns, credit card, copy of credit cards. You can go the old school route of making copies and put them in a file and take him to the bank. Or you can go, you know, tick and email the PDF. That's all that is. What's the difference between a pre-qualification letter and a pre-approval letter. Okay. Preapproval is pretty much nothing. That's just you chatting with your mortgage lender or your mortgage broker and they said to you, oh, sounds like you might be able to afford it. We're going to give you this potential pre-approval now and later on we're gonna do a little bit more in-depth research on your personal finances. And they make you copy that letter. You can use that and that when you make your offers on your properties. I think everybody kinda knows this point. Pre-approved was almost nothing. Pre-qualification letter. That's a little different, a little better. Because now the lender has actually looked through your file. They know how much you make them up. They know what you did is they know what you're trying to do. You've had conversations now that can give you a hypothetical yes. Before they're just say yes, he just got pre-approval and yes, it everything lines up. This looks good. But pre-qualification, they're saying yes, we would definitely offer you a mortgage as long as you're meeting these next three or two or six requirements. I like pre-qualification letters for my clients because it makes it nice when you're making that offer gives you a little bit of leverage. That's about it. Yeah. Okay. You've talked to your lender about the different types of mortgages. I've stressed, I love that fixed rate because it is no surprise is involved in that. With an adjustable rate mortgage, it get surprise is over the life of the loan. Talk to your lender. I am not a mortgage expert. This course is to help you learn the terminology. You put yourself out there, you'd get ready, you're about the binary first-time you getting it ready. Okay? Now the terminology, ask your vendor, ask your mortgage broker, is an adjustable better for me or is it fixed, Thomas Nina Santa fixed. I remember at any point during this course or even after this course, write b, i sit on ready to respond to any questions you may have. Again, I'm not going to get them between you and your professional real estate agent, but I'll just be that extra voice for you to bounce things off, okay? Alright. See you next class.
6. Lecture VI GFE Loan Application Fees Mortgage Points Escrow Account: Oh, good morning. Good afternoon. Good evening. Depending on where you are in the world. Thank you for joining me on this scale ship course for purchasing your first home. Okay, today, again, notes, we're going to dive in a little bit. So today we're gonna talk about a good faith estimate. We're gonna talk about loan application fees. We're gonna talk about what are mortgage points. And we're gonna talk about escrow accounts like that terminology. You're not don't be first-time homebuyer for long. You're going to be able to school somebody else after this course. Okay, let's talk about the first thing, good faith estimate. Let's keep it simple. It's exactly what it sounds like your lender after they review all your paperwork and your docs and after they've gone through the preliminary and maybe the secondary stage, they're going to say to you, this is a good faith. This is what we think we're going to be able to give you in terms of a mortgage, in terms of requirements for your down payment. This is a good faith estimate. This is how much is going to cost for your mortgage. This is there is a law that requires they give you this. They must.
7. Lecture VII Open Houses New Home Construction, Resale, Making an Offer, Earnest Money Deposit: Oh, and this is Thomas Ina And welcome back. Okay, this look. Now it's time for the fun part. We're going to start looking for that house night, so I've got my list and be ready. I'm ready. Okay. We're gonna be talking about the preliminary ground work for your home search. We're going to be talking about hitting open-endedness. We're going to talk about making that offer. Negotiating it offer. Didn't it? Offers. Okay. First off, you've already got an idea neighborhood you're looking for, okay. And you've got a good rapport with your real estate agent now. So he or she kinda knows, but you're looking for you already know your price point is you've been talking with Linda or your mortgage broker. You already know you got your good faith as dammit, you know what it's gonna cost you to get them market. And now you're on a mission. And this really is the fun part. Because even when I first, I never forget when I was in my twenties and I bought my first phone looking at how do I couldn't afford. I mean, yes, that's a waste of time, but ooh, I someone up there. Well, you may be night me. Then your realtors gonna get totally sick of you willing to see houses that you can't afford it. But you know what? That's our job. We sailed dream. We are supposed to give you that time, that energy, that effort for you to go out there and look at those houses and dangerous thing. And then our job is to bring you back to reality a little bit and say based on what to see less target, where we know we can afford. Now, again, I'll use myself as an example. I have always, always in before I was in real estate, I always said I want to bind a least expensive home in the most expensive neighborhood. What does that mean? That means that I always bought a fixer upper. Yeah. But it also meant that I ended up in a wonderful zip code. My resale value was always fantastic. And, you know, it doesn't work for me. So every single house. But I would look for the most exclusive neighborhood. I kind I was always on the fringe. But I knew great schools systems with the time we get to test small, tiny children, it was important to mean the house sometime it was like this little box, but it was good neighborhood. I didn't care about square footage. Some people care about space. That wasn't important to me. What was important to me was location's zip codes, schools. That was important. I didn't care about new construction. My home didn't smell at the smell like I was the first one to get there. It wasn't necessary. You know, I liked renovations because I gained, you know, I mean, obviously the house couldn't be like no room for anything. I wouldn't get him orbit. But a renovation where I knew if I put my sweat equity into it and a little bit of muscle, I would have a beautiful home and a magnificent neighborhood. And the day that I would have to sell would be a no problem, no brainer. So I stuck with that. You may have a different rule and you may say. I got to add X amount of square footage. I gotta have this kind of garage. I going to have this, this, this, this, this being you need to look at neighborhoods that offered you that opportunity in the good faith estimate that you have, Knowing your price point. Your realtor is going to show you listings that they have, listing that other agents have. They're going to take you to point you in the direction of open houses. Sometimes they'll go with you, sometime they may seen you with their card. You know, here's a tip. I used to let my clients go with me on broker open tours with that. Okay. Broker open tours are usually Tuesdays are wins is a Thursdays depending on your city, depending on your market. And it's strictly for real estate agents and real estate progress. We get to see how is before they hit the market or right when they hit the market. Okay, and then we get to give a little bit V bag allows the price to the agent who has the listing. How's the prize? What do you think should be high, should it be lower? Sometimes I would take my clients with me on a broker open tours, and we would eat our way through every programmer open house. And they had the opportunity to see this and this, and this. And by doing this, and not only that, my client into a true reality zone of what they could afford and can't afford. But they also recognize, wow, I started up making unwanted knew but resales kinda nice. I started out thinking I wanted a three guard around. One guy and a cardboard is good. And I started out thinking I wanted a established neighborhood, but I kinda like the up-and-coming neighborhoods. That's what this dig. So see if your real estate agent and a real estate broker will let you go with them. Sometimes on those broker open tours to give you a very high-level education or what the market is doing. Okay? Now you've found your house. This is where your realtor now comes in handy because that's their expertise and they're going to have to write that contract. And they're gonna happen no goal sheet, that price. Okay? So you've got a price point in mind. Obviously, you don't want to know the maximum or what she'd been pre-qualified to buy. But these are heady times now, this is when does the same and pedal meets the middle of the road means the dirt or the tire meets the something. This is it. You are going to make an offer to that seller and you're gonna make a respectful offered to that seller? Yes. I have clients who enjoy the game. Yes. We all have clients who enjoy the game of low balling and salting the seller and totally annihilating the transaction. But he got that. But we also have buyers who kinda like, I want this house, I want to leave, I don't want to leave a lot of cash on the table, but I want to negotiate. Well, that's the attitude right there, right? The good offer based on hard market data. Then if the market is sluggish, if it's a buyers market, means you can dig a little deeper. It's a seller's market. You better bring your a game. If it's a seller's market and properties are flat out the mud and every 15 seconds you have to be low ball in this hour. But if it's a buyers market, you got a little bit more leeway. So talk to your realtor or about that, okay? Make a good offer. You're going to be putting contingencies in their water contingencies. There's a word or first-time homebuyer contingencies. This contract is contingent on a home inspection. This contact chunk contract is contingent on a radon inspection. This contract is contingent on a structural foundation contingency. This contract is contingent on, maybe it's a farm, you gotta Well, it's contingent on that well being inspected. This contract is contingent on the chimney being inspected. You can put whatever contingencies you want in that contract. I've got clients from out of town and sometimes they can't see that property. They make offers on email or based on videos I've showed up. So we write in the contract, this contract is contingent upon my clients seeing the house face to face within ten days, within findings, within seven days, within 20 days, we're flexible. They can be flexible. It's all negotiable at this point. This is the first round. So you write all your contingencies in the first round, make sure you get everything in there the first round. Because when the seller does not accept something and they probably won't, something won't be accepted. You're going to now have to renegotiate the original contract. And every time there's a counteroffer that creates a new offer. Remember that? Because while you are busy counter offering, another offer can arrive. It's legal. They don't have to counter offer with you exclusively. Every time you change a term, you create a new contract. Not if people don't know that. They think, Oh, I made an offer on a house. I'm negotiating now. Soon we're going to have no Soon somebody else might come in with an offer the seller want and they had the right to accept it. So take note, don't spin all day. Gambler offering and negotiating and renegotiating. Be real, put in there what you want, put in there what you need if it's new construction, tell that build or what you want. I want $5 thousand towards closing costs. I want $10 thousand towards closing. Cough. I want three walkthroughs before and finally buy this house. I'm on a one year warranty on this home. These are all contingencies. I want a ten year warranty on the roof, on the SSE Foundation on the structure. I wanted in writing out on a warranty on all the appliances. These are all contingencies. You have the right to throw the kitchen sink into your contract. You may not know that. Just goes you're a first-time buyer. You might be those Gail, and I don't want to make the seller feel, hey, this is Rio is a big purchase. You gotta go at it. Write me if you need. I tell you that I'm in dies because you know, this. Were you better have a great real estate agent or great real estate broker. And because once you sign on the dotted line and all that negotiation is over, you are in that country. So you wanna make sure you are guaranteed in that contract. And that's all the lawyers go and see what's in the country, not what you said or she said or easy. It is it in the contract? It is in a Godrej is real. It is not an Agon during in a Maria. Okay. Let me see. What else did I say? I wanted to cover. I wanted to cover. Yeah. Earnest money deposit. Again, that's negotiable. Depending on the price of a house. I always tell my clients is nice to put it 1%, 2, 3% percent down. So if it's a $0.5 million house, 10% is 50,005 versus 25,001% fat. And put back 1000 earnest money. You must put something that you contract when you make your offer. $500 is not going do it the sellers, No, you're not serious. What are you doing? Writing an offer with a $500 earnest money deposit, put something down respectable, Make it a percentage of the offer that you're making thing. You're serious, you're going to write that check for that earnest money deposit and you're gonna submit your realtor or if you have the photo to, you're going to submit that offer to the seller contract that every conceivable continuously you can think of and your earnest money deposit. And that sellers want to review your total offer. And in your contract, you can write this or not. You can say you would like to have a response within 24 hours, 48 hours, or 72 hours. Now, warning warning, warning. If you write this in your contract and 24 or 48 or 72 hours passed and you have no response, you have voided your own contract. How about that? Your contract is now dead because the time has passed. So be careful with putting that in your contract. It sounds powerful. It sounds like you get, got control of everything, but you can end up costing yourself your house because you've avoided your own contract with your own timeframe. So I always recommend my clients leave it empty, lonely. They let them think about what they wanna do. They take a week to response. So be it. We started looking for another house, but do not void your contract by putting a time in the air and making it expire. Lots of things to think about. You can review these subjects anytime you want. You've got the videos, you've got the content. And as I said, you can always write me. So make that good offer, respect the seller, but make sure it's a market specific offer. Due diligence on the contingencies stack your contract. Well, especially if it's a buyers market, because the sellers market, but you don't have as much flexibility and give a decent, earnest money deposit. So the seller no year for real. And see you next lecture.
8. Lecture VIII Disclosures Home Warranties: Hi, I'm Bank. Wow, I got all worked up in that last. Make sure it's really important that you stay in what's going on with these contracts because this is a legal document and you're going to have to stand by it. So you need to be fully aware of all of the elements that's involved in this. Okay. Today, what do I have on tap for today? Today we're gonna talk a little bit about disclosures, home more indies, but I'll grab bla bla bla bla bla, bla, bla bla. But it is something that you're going to have to consider. Okay. These are not some are essential summer not the disclosures. Well, you know, that's going to be state specific. What does the disclosure ok. For example, you are buying your first home in a gated community that has a homeowners association, they are required by law to give you a disclosure of their finances of the dues every month or every year? That's a disclosure. If you are buying a condominium, by law, they are required to give you a disclosure about the condominium Association, about the community to monthly meetings? That's what a disclosure is. What else is a disclosure? Disclosure also is, let's say, for instance, the real estate agent you're working with also has the listing of the property that you're interested in buying. It happens. Your agent is representing the seller, yikes, and now they've got you. A disclosure is required and everybody has this sign that I'm that agent can and their broker can decide how they want to now structure this sale. Because maybe you really want this out. You don't have to change agents num to change with real answers. You just need to be aware that there is a dual situation happening. That's a disclosure. Let's assume you're buying a house that's pretty old. And in the olden days then lead based paint on the walls. A disclosure is required. Before you sign that contract. You need to know if there is in that house potential for an LED radon, another disclosure that is required to be presented to you. Okay. So see what I mean. Disclosures can go everything be associated with the property, be associated with the agent, be associated with the situation. The seller has to make a disclosure. To the best of my knowledge. I am not aware of my leap of my roof making my heater it out working my bla, bla, bla. These are all disclosures. How are you going to remember all I non-disclosures? You're not you're going to count on your real estate agent or you're a real estate broker. To get you to proper disclosures. But more importantly, you're going to at least make a little list after this lecture on the disclosures that you need to be aware of, every home is going to be specific with certain disclosures. Like I said, if you're moving into a gated community disclosure, if you're moving into a regular hours and our regular street, Dennis, just in the city or within the county, you won't get any disclosures. There's no homeowner's association. Soon as you hear homeowner's association, you need a disclosure. Soon as you hit a condominium, you need this disclosure soon as you hear. This house was built in 1979 before you needed disclosure. Nano radon. Again. Radon. And what did we talk about the last lecture, contingency. You might want to write that in your contract. You want a radon test done on that home just to make sure it's safe, especially if there's a lower level below Brown. That's a contingency. I guess that these contingencies can go forever. You're gonna really have to count on yourself and your real estate agent or broker to help you put all the proper contingencies and your contract. Some of them are baked into the contract, like the radon and lead, I think they're baked in, but others, you gotta be aware of it. And then you can create ones that are not baked into the contract. For example, like I said, the roof, I always tell my clients everything else can be paint, carpet, Paul paper, replacing that. Everything can be fixed. But roof numbing, electricity and structural. If I don't get an a in those categories from my client, I'm not going to recommend bucket, the roof, structural, pull, plumbing, electricity. Those are the big ticket items you can replace an appliance, say goes up, say that, hey, you can replace a lot of things. But when you start talking about tearing down walls for electricity and plumbing problems, replacing a room, or dealing with structural issues. You Gombe in deep. So we want you to remember that day. Although that I want to talk about blah, blah, blah. The home warranty. We talked about disclosures. The home warranty. Yeah. You can get out and you can again put that in the contract so it obey one-year home warranty to cover all repairs for appliances for one-year cycle. They usually run about a 100 and component, but sometimes the big-time ones that cover air-conditioning and everything, they might run three or $400. If your seller does not want to cover that, ask you real estate agents, they're not gonna like it. I never liked it when somebody asks me to pay for that, but I did it because one this is a big sale a house to yes, I make my living on that commission and I earn whatever that percentage might be. Three, it has enough money and go around everybody. So my client, Me the whole loners more D and that seller won't pay for it. And, you know, I've had situations where we'd come right up to the day of closing and they do that Walkthrough. We're gonna talk about walkthroughs later on. And that refrigerator is not working day and walked through. I have ordered for refrigerate is the closing and taken that money that price estimates and escrowed it with the closing attorney. So my client, I have a brand new refrigerator the day of closing. That's what a good realtor, because that's what a good procreate that we make sure your life is easy so that you are enjoying the fruits of your very first home. So homeowner's warranties, but that n is a contingency, cleaves, disclosures, gated community condominiums, that real estate agent and representing both sighs. No, you're disclosures radon, lead-based paint. We got disclosures. They are legal documents that should be included with your contract. If you need more details, write me if you want more clarity, write me and I'll send you the designation back. See you in the next class.
9. Lecture IX Title Company Closing Attorney: The bank gets Tom was seen as xi, li and I and yes, indeed, your skills share instructor for buying a first home. Okay. Let me digress a little bit. And even up to tell you a little bit more about me. I am 63. This is November 20th, 200364 ended January 2021. I am semi retired. Currently in creating this course in the south of France. Amount that sounds impressive, but it was a 30-year dri, then a goal, and then it became a reality when I retired at 60 and decided it's time to live my life. And so here I am, I have a small studio in the south of France. Uid sounds Luxe, but it's a pretty simple. I mean, it's literally only the only call it meters, 50 meters. So that's like 500 square. Yeah, it's not locked dot gradient, but it's my little sliver and I can tell you right now, real estate bought real estate, set my daughter Amanda to vassar colleagues real estate sent my son to Amherst College. Real estate, you know, pay from my travels, my vacations. I have bought and sold real estate now for 30 years. It is an investment you will never, ever, ever, ever regret. I know there are people out there who says, Oh, real estate is overrated. Real estate is highly, this highly that well, you know, that's usually people who cannot afford to buy real estate. The ones who have bought real estate realize is sure is nice having a roof over your head. It sure is nice knowing that you don't have to move every couple of years because your rental owner wants to do something different. Owning a home represents stability. It did back in the 19 thirties and it doesn't 20-20 going into 2021. It's just that simple. The key is trying to buy a home that works for you and, or your family that works for you and or your budget that will give you the security that you're looking for. It's a big deal, whether it's a first tone, second, third, fourth, bought and sold nine homes now, you know, and it's a big deal every time I feel like a first-time homebuyer, every time I get my keys because I don't know why it's such a rush and why this is so exciting. Maybe because you just found, I think, as well lay on the floor and say this is my house now. So just wanted to say that to you that I am just like you always excited to talk about real estate plan for getting real estate selling mills. They, now I'm teaching real estate, which is just so exciting. And then I love my students, write me, oh my goodness, I had students write me Thomas Xena and you know, I bought my first home or Thomas theta. I'm starting my MBA also. Thank you so much. You know, can you help me with this? Can you let me pick out my courses? I want to get my MBA in finance. You know, I'm thinking about getting my MBA in real estate. It's just incredible. So I want to thank you for being here. And now we're going to continue because guess what? Your offer offers been accepted. You know where you're going to be targeting a particularly potentially living in six weeks, maybe eight weeks, depending on your lender, depending on how long it takes to close that property. But your offer has been accepted now, but trying to put together another team, you've been working. You've been the 80 so far with your realtor, your real estate agent, you real estate broker, NU that's beneath 18. Now it's time to expand. I'll also your mortgage lender and your mortgage broker. So that's been party of three so far. Now you're gonna expand depending on the state that you live. You're going to need to use a title company. We'll talk about that. Or you gotta use a closing attorney. Now, what's the difference? A title company is just that. They are the ones whose responsible. Now you have an offer, it's been accepted. They gotta now see who own that property title. They gotta do that research. Every state is different. Virginia goes back 99 years on ownership. Some states go back 50 US states do the research 200 years here in France, they go back 400 years old title searches. It's an old country. And sometimes they never find the title. I mean, here's a little fat. 17% of all properties in France are vacant because they were never able to track down the new owners. People just walk away from the property and the d, the secession just dies. So they just sit crumbling. They can't be sold, they can't be anything done until they just disappear. Some bizarre in America, yes. We can't stay on top of our tax code. We stay on top of our properties. So your title company and your closing attorney, they're going to be doing title searches on the property that you are now going to be o and owning to make sure they know the very last owner. So the net transfer can be smooth. Now, title company, closing attorney. I always choose closing attorneys. Why? If there's ever a problem, a day of closing, the day you're supposed that get keys and got an attorney. There are real estate attorney. Normally he or she can fix it, solve it, go to the city all and things that like I have an a dirty on Maasai that they enclose. A title company is not an attorney. They can do everything else. But if there is a legal problem that Dave, you're closing your closing, we'll have to stop and they will have to search out an attorney to rectify whatever the situation might be. That's the core difference. Tidal companies also have a tendency to be a little less expensive. A little bit. That's my take on it. You can choose. Your realtor will also recommend whatever better options for him. It's all it's all up to you. I just always felt a counter level and knowing that it was only a couple extra $100 And again, you know, different kind of company, real estate company, and again, my clients as well. You say it's $200 extra for the close and then you pay it with an opinion. Because that's how good I want to feel. I want my data goes smooth. So, yeah, it's one of those things. That's why it's important that you pick the right real estate agent when you are first time and you know, second endotherm diag, purchasing a home. Okay, so now here's your team. You, your real tip, your mortgage company, mortgage broker. Now you've got a title company and closing attorney. Ok. Well, before you get to that table, remember that contingency home inspection. Walk through. You still got a couple of things now you've got to figure out. So that's assuming you've done almost right. You've gone through all your continuously he's now and your home inspection went well. And, you know, you are barreling towards your closing date now. Okay. Now you need to do your final walkthrough before closing. So your attorneys on ready that morning, your title company there on ready, your lender, your mortgage broker. They have sent the loan documents to the closing attorney and well, the title coming through there, sitting there ready, waiting for you. You gotta do a final walkthrough, whether it's new construction or whether it's a resale. You're going to walk through and you're going to check everything that was in that home inspection report got was one of your contingencies. You gotta check to make sure the refrigerator's working, the electricity's working. You're going to make sure the home is in the condition in which you saw it when you burst major offer and when you did your contingency inspection? Some people waive the home inspection in a seller's market. I don't really recommend that, but it's time because the homes are selling every 15 days. They're like, don't, don't, don't boom. Buyer's market, you've got time and flexibility. But in the seller's market, sometimes if you wave at home inspection, you're the one who weakens the contract. You when the offer, it's a risk. It's a gamble. That's going to be your call. You wave your home inspection. If you have a home inspection, yes. You're going to do a final walkthrough. Even if you don't have a home inspection, you wanna do a final walk through to make sure that houses in the condition in which you'd vast side you're closing attorney or your title company. They're going to sit there waiting for you and we make it the call. Everything looks good. They go Stafford piano documents for you to arrive, and then our two to sign and get a key k. And remember, all those contingencies. All those contingencies are being met. Your closing attorney. He's gone through now making sure all the contingencies have been met. Your title company, all those disclosures, all those documents that radon that well in septic inspection, that roof, that structural that, you know, electrical, they're all sitting there waiting to make sure all of those contingencies, as in that contract, have been satisfied. A title search arrives, they found the last owner. That contingency is satisfied. I think you get the point now, right? I mean, it's just a succession of events that lead up to that final day. That's why you have a team and a very good team. Your realtor, you your realtor, your closing attorney, your title company, your lender, your home inspector. If it's new construction, you've got your builder involved. So take hold of it. I love it, you know, in that six month period. But you've got your team and everybody's trying to get to the same cross into that touchdown. So these are exciting times. And what else did I want to talk to you on this? And we talked about the title's search. We'll cover a few more things in the next lecture. Other things to think about before the day of closing. Okay. See you in the next lecture.
10. Lecture X Liens: Welcome back. It's Thomas Sina, and I wanna make this another short lecture. This was going to be on one topic and it's called liens. And I've made this a separate topic because I don't want you to be disappointed because a Lean can stop the signal of your home. Okay? You've probably heard the term, and even if you Google it, you will find a lead is simply somebody else's name resting on top of that property. There are a variety of different leaves that can prevent you from buying a home. Okay? So the home that you fall in love with, the home that you've negotiated and renegotiated and renegotiated, and now you have signed the contract for the very home that you've now done your home inspection on and everything's looking good and you're putting your team together for closing. Now here we are two weeks before closing. And as the title company or the closing attorney is going through trying to clean that title, I'll clean it up. They come across a leaf. Now a lean ALL real estate. It can be for taxes. But you didn't pay their property taxes for three years. And now that municipality has a lien on that property, which has to be paid burst before that property can be sold. That's lean. Work was done on this house that you are so in love with and the seller, they forgot to pay the person where they didn't didn't pay the person. I'm mechanics lean is sitting on that house and it has to be paid before you can get the house. Semicolon in beta federal government. Dag. Did you know the federal government can put a lien on your property? They can don't pay your taxes and see what happens. Now. That has to be paid before that property can be. So the seller was behind on their mortgage and they didn't del ni by, they were kind of embarrassed and they were ashamed and they just thought, Well, one day will sell the house and we'll just pay off our mortgage and are back taxes after we sell the house. There's a lien on us with the sellers mortgage company that has to be paid before you can get the keys. House. Liens. They are definitely not choke best for him when you bought a house. Okay. Can liens be extinguished? Yes. That's the good is some liens are more difficult to remove and then others that mechanic's lien, assuming he or she's still live in, we can track them down and pay off what they owe. Guide at closing, not to the seller. The seller. The seller is real estate company are real estate broker. Somebody got to pay them. Lee I do. Unless you really want those out, then you start negotiating the lane. That's a whole nother class. We're just going to assume the seller says, oh, yes, I owe it, I will pay it, it closing. Then they're going to take money from the sale that house and put it in which the word esse, grow and pay off that contractor. Now state taxes, arrows axis, pass, do mortgages. They're going to take the proceeds from the seller, sell their house and put it in. What's the word escrow and pay off? All these people. So that your title is three and there. And on that note, I also want to talk about two seconds. You will hear a term call title insurance from your title company and your roofs they company, also you mortgage company. They will have lenders title insurance to protect the lender. And they will have buyers title insurance to protect the buyer. I'm going to highly recommend you purchase that. It's not expensive at all. But it protects you from any lawsuits, any future lesions that were missed. They can be missed. They could be buried grid at date. O lawsuits, don't back dodge. Get the title insurance. So this lecture L, I wanted you to remember one thing. Lanes can be resolved on enum scare you, but they can be scary. But they can't be resolved. It's nice to know about leans early weeks before closing so that the lender can be informed. They need to know so they can adjust their paperwork for that. Couldn't estimate how much it's gonna cost to close for the seller, how much it's gonna cost close to the buyer. Lenders got a note to lawyers, get to know. The tidal company's gotta know, everybody's gotta know. And then after that, they wait for the receipt and then the receipt is recorded in the courthouse and the lead is released from the deed. That sounds a little complicated. I promised you you didn't need a PhD to buy your first home. But this particular lecture, yeah, you're going to have to stay vigilant. Ok. Alright, see you the next class.
11. Lecture XI Home Inspection: A mac, it's Thomas Sina. And again, this is going to be a dedicated lecture, just like them I don't leads this is going to be dedicated strictly to your home inspection. I want to just drill a little bit more deeper on that. We broad-brush to the little bit everybody knows at this point, yeah. You're going to inspect that house before you actually now finally can commit to it. A home inspection is what contingency. So you are putting in your contract. The purchase of this home is contingent upon a home inspection, a radon inspection, a lead base inspection, and well and septic inspection. If you're buying a country property or property that's outside the city limits that is not connected to the city water. So you have a private well. Now home inspection, your real estate agent or your real estate broker are going to make a recommendation of a person that they think would do a good job for you? Normally. I mean, I have my lips. I have two or three people that I go to because they are thorough. They're going to protect me and my client. They're going to give you a home inspection and a 20 page report with photos. You're going to know your home. When is over? Okay. Always recommend my clients on there the day of the home inspection. Sometimes it's not possible if it's not possible for you, send a friend, send a family member, but have someone there and not just your real estate agent to represent you. Because a home inspection literally walks you through every socket, every switch, every closet, every corner, your attic, your lower level, every bathroom, all your plumbing, your roofing, your appliances, every thing. You know where your circuit breakers are, you know when to turn off your water, you know how to wrap your pipes if you go away on vacation and it's in a winter, you buying a house in the area where temperatures are below 0? Your home inspection is in Portland. And I don't want you to miss it because this is the moment you are introduced to your home. So whether it's a new home and you are walking through it looking at this. And they haven't even put the drywall up yet. Or whether it's some resale or renovation, you are going to be introduced personally to your home during your home inspection. There will never be another time where you get to be intimate with your home than at your home inspection. So I implore you, please take the day off from work, take the time Astrium mother or your father to come with you ask a friend, uncle on somebody else to come with you because you may miss something if they see something. It is definitely a needle in a haystack painstaking affair. Normally, for a two-bedroom condominium, it might last two hours and hours, maybe three hours. For a house. It could be all day, eight hours. So you're gonna have to bubble up that day and it's important enough for you to do it, okay. That you're going to have to promise me because at the end of that home inspection, you are going to get your report and you got to go through that report with a fine-toothed comb with your home inspector and he's going to tell you this was good, this look good. This is okay. In five years, this might need to be replaced in ten years, this might need to go, this looks like your original. Here's where you turn off your main circuit breaker. Oh, your garage just non-attached. Wow. So your garage is attached to the house. All the water is leading to the house or you have access to electricity in your garage, you're going to find out everything, everything. That's it. Home inspection, be there, take the day off. See you in the next lecture.
12. Lecture XII Underwriters Final Loan Approval Lender Appraisal: Okay, here we go. It's Domus Nina and we are moving towards goals and being again there. Okay. Last lecture, we talked about the home inspection, critical home well, septic, depending on your property, you are going to have all your inspection is done and have all your reports, you just sign off on them. And then we're going to revisit home inspection again because we are going to be doing a final walkthrough because I've talked about before, before you sign that ain't on that contract. You're going to go back to the house to make sure if there was anything happening with that ONE inspection that is been taking care of, again, home inspection, negotiable items. If something comes up in your home inspection that you need to add repair, you have the right to repair it or you have the right to ask the seller to repair. Again, you are now negotiating the home inspection. You are negotiating the repairs. So I think you get the picture from the moment you identify house to the day that you close and get the keys, you are in a constant state of returning to the contract, making sure everything has been done to form and whether it's a new home or whether it's a resale, you are constantly going back, making sure all your disclosures have been correctly signed, arrived on time. You are Qazi cannot leave this in the hands of your real estate agent. They are overseeing it, yes. But I want you to take them proactive role in purchasing your first home or your second or your third or your second home or your investment property, be pro active. The home inspection was contingency. Things came up, it's time to have a repaired. You are going to negotiate that. And you're going to negotiate well, normally the seller's going to repair that issues that come up. Sometimes they may not they may say, hey, that's not my problem. In that situation, you have the right to repair them yourself or walk away from the contract. Normally a client that repairs aren't so B, they can split the cost or the seller will take care of it. It's been a rarity in my 20 years in the business that a buyer has had to do repairs from a home inspection then normally falls directly in the lap of the seller. Okay. But be prepared for the cylinder. Say I already gave you a good price on that. I'm not don't want any home inspection rebase. That's what this class is about. Preparing you for the unexpected. Okay, so you've agreed on the whole it was banks in the seller's agreed on the repairs. Now Sellers busy getting everything done for that day of closing because here we are now fast boarding. Okay. Not in grabbing notes because where are we? We're waiting for final loan approval. And you thought you had your money. Yeah. Nope. You're a lender now has to check your credit report again. Now you're weak away from closing maybe two weeks. They've gotta check your credit report again. And they gotta make sure you haven't bought anything extraordinary like that Range Rover you've been looking at. And they're going to make sure you haven't got any new credit cards like that. American Express Platinum, you've been opened again. So they're going to make sure none of that is on your credit report. Okay. After that, they're going to go into that hole. Final review has some serious stuff. I call those god, does gods, the gods of lending. Woo, they go through that file with a fine tooth comb. Their call underwriters. Underwriters. How? That mortgage lender that mortgage banker. Yeah. He took the Sheehan from you and all the paperwork, but he got his sin that file to the gods of lending. And that's the underwriter. They ought to power broker for a mortgage. They are the ones you wish you could get to and make them say yes. But their job is distinct, focus on making the best decision for the bank or you are risk or you not at risk. Are you a high risk, moderate risk or low risk? That's an underwriter. You would think they wouldn't know this after five weeks, but know your file has been sitting in the underwriters inbox okay. Because they know they gotta wait, smell, sense an M star and down figure on the final lap ear and got to wait for that home inspection be finished. That's their property. They had to order the appraisal on the house. How much does this Al's really worth? The appraisal come back. You know that banks going to order the appraisal and not just go and give you money. The banks going to order that appraisal, somebody's gonna come out to that house. They're going to do their market steady all $3 on the same street. Soul for this, this, this Thomas seated just wrote an offer on a house. For this. We are willing to lend 80% on this amount on this appraised value. So the underwriters Sydney waiting for the appraisal. He's waiting for all the information for the Title Company, the title search, the closing attorney, all the good faith estimates. Ida sit neck. She or he does wait. Waiting. Now they're file as like this. The seller has done the repairs, the appraisal has returned, and it's a good appraisal. It's saying that you made a good decision with the house. The appraisal exceeded the price that you're paying for your house. That's what you always want. You want that price to meet or exceed. Well, that sound alike. Contingency. Should you write that in your contract? Talk to your real estate agent. Talk to your real estate broker. Do I write that in a contract to my clients? You'd better believe it. If this property does not meet or exceed appraised value from the lender, we reserve the right to renegotiate the price. And the seller must meet the appraised value. Or I reserve the right to walk away from the contract. A contingency. Uk. Important contingency to that needs to go in your contract. If you had any doubt whatsoever that the price you're paying for that house, it's not the same as the market price. Because if your pan 350 or for your bank bought it for a house and the lender or praises it, but there is a $20 thousand difference. Either you go at the omega or the seller is going to have to make up some bad, he's gonna have to make it up. The lenders man giving you money. So sometimes you split the difference with the seller. You take to end, they'd take ten. Sometimes the seller swallow the whole difference and lowers the price. Sometimes you take on the whole thing. Kind of tangency. That's a personal thing if you want to write it in your contract. But I thought I'd throw it out there at this point in the course because sometimes it's really catastrophic. They overhear France. So strophe, you know, if you pay a $380 thousand, you wrote a god dragon house appraise it 320 thousand. And the liver is gonna give you 80% of 320 thousand. Remember, you've got to put 20% now. You've got a difference is $60 thousand and you really gotta pay 60 thousand difference plus Joe, 20%. We could use that PhD right about now, right now it's not gone with a basic a, B, C. I'm buying a house for 200 thousand at appraised at a 150 thousand, there is a difference of 50 thousand Who's got obey, but that it's elementary. Ok. So make a note of that. Right now we're talking about final loan approval. Again, the underwriters are now doing their magic, stirred up the broom. They got all their documents in and Soon and very soon, you are going to get an email that says, congratulations, you're gonna get that from your mortgage lender, your mortgage broker. You have received final approval. That's like that, Formula One racing. Now you've got the flag, you got the green light, and you can now truly final approval. This house is all. See you the next lecture.
13. Lecture XIII Settlement Statement: Welcome back as Thomas initially and yes, I am your instructor for your course heroes, gills sheriff, minor first tonal. You've learned a lot already rather. And just keep on learning and thank you. Fall out anywhere. Really keep me going on right now. Because guess what? You're now about a weaker so from closing. So now it's time for you to get your head, right. Get your money array, got everybody right. Because now you have a set of thinking match your funds, getting him wired in time for closing your final walkthrough to take a look at your new home or your resale, to go through your home inspection list to make sure all the repairs have done, to talk to your closing, a turning or title company to make sure all of those liens have been resolved and they've been removed. Wow. One week before closing. You are almost there now. It's everybody's alone, naris, except you. I want you to be excited, not nervous. There is a difference. So less than ten. Alright, what do I have here? Alright, so now we're going to get that what they call the final. It's the actual word yeah. That final known approval. And you're going to get that final estimate. Remember before you had a good faith estimate. Now you're gonna get that settlement statement, settlement and closing. Same thing. I'm going to settlement on my home. That means you're going to closing and get the keys after it's all over. So that's settlements statement. Now. It's going to show everything you agree do in dollars and cents and everything the seller agreed to in dollars and cents. On the seller side is going to show you what they owe for 80 Lean's going to show any concessions they gave you. Did you ask for seller pay closing costs as part of your contract? Did you ask the seller to give you 5 thousand towards closing? Three thousand, fifteen hundred. Did you ask the seller to pay for your homeowners and not all Homer's, your home warranty insurance. Do ask for that. Did you ask for a credit for General Maintenance, bore carpet removal for new refrigerator. Anything you asked for for the settlement statement is going to now appear on that settlement statement. If it's in your contract, it's on that statement. If it's not in your contract, it's not on that statement. Also on that final settlement statement, you're going to be reviewing to make sure that taxes are correct because they're going to be pro-rated. If you're buying a house in July, then the seller is going to pay January through July property taxes and stayed eggs is and whatever is OK. And you're going to pay July to December because you will be the new owner. So on the buyers side. It will be the price you pay for the property. The downpayment that's sitting in escrow is going to be your part of the responsibility of the taxes and the transfer. It's going to be your lender title insurance or buyers title insurance is going to be any thing associate your downpayment is going to be there. You're 20% is going to be listed. This is the time for you to review your psi. Of course, always peek at the seller sad too, because that's the day I find out how much they owed on that owls. That's all I'm there. You know, did they own the house, green crayon? Why I'm obsessed with that? Or why I get so excited. But I get to see, oh my goodness, Was this a short sale? They owed more. They gotta come to the table with mani. All my god, we negotiated. Well, you know, it's just it's a day for me. I get excited over the final settlement statement because it tells the tale. And then at the very bottom austin S statement, you'll see the real estate broker's commission. You'll see how much I that pay the other person go pay. You see all? Now that's the, that's it right there. That's the holy grail. And then the final line shows how much you need to bring to closing or settlement on that thing and how much the seller will receive hopefully or need to pay extra, hopefully not on settlement date. So get excited. If you're lucky, you'll get the statement within that we normally three days if they're really Dragon and underwriting, you might see a final settlements they two days before is just too much pressure because you've got to get those funds wired. So whatever it is you owe to close on that house, set along those house, get those keys. That's what you're going to have wired from your bank account to the title insurance. I'm title insurance to the title clothing company or the closing attorney. Lets look at me Antony's years even I'm getting confused on the terms. So your title company and your closing accompany closing attorney, you're going to be wiring your funds to them and they're going to hold them for that moment. You pick up that PIN and you sign in, you own that home. That's what's going to happen. We are now one week away from clothing, almost three days away from closing. Everything's close and add on the cell. The next lecture we're going to talk about those final things that you need to do before you put Chuan name on that paper. But that's what a settlement statement is. It's exciting. It's gotcha. Life right there in front of you is Ghetto gives you right there in front of you. So congratulations for reaching this point. See you next lecture.
14. Lecture XIV Respa HUD1 Settlement Statement: And that's Thomas. Good morning, Good afternoon, Good evening. Where ever you are in the world. This lecture, it's going to be strictly terminology. Okay? The last lecture we talked about the settlement statement. That's the holy grail of closing your home and getting your keys. Now you've got the big picture. Now in a big picture for you. But and the fella, everybody knows everybody else's business now, you know how much I'm didn't bade on almost the cell at bay, but around, you know, I'll miss the seller pay the seller knows how much you put down and, you know, everybody knows everybody's business. That's what a Solomon statement is. You will have terms, settlements statement. You will hear a term HUD HUD one that's the same as a settlement statement. You were here a term called RESA. That's not a term you really need to dig yourself underneath because that's a legal term is simply is a legal document that simply says, Okay, you are aware this is how much this lender is charging you for this transaction, but I want you to know the term rest now, what is restful? Rest but is a mortgage lending banking term that simply tells you this is the maximum that we are going to charge you for a specific service. I know it's all very vague, but you know, legislation can be vague and it was written by lawyers, but it is to protect you. So you will receive a response statement at some point during your six weeks. You know, I think there are timelines associated with it or you have to see it before you sign on the dotted line. But rest buck is a term on which, you know, has one or settlement statement. I want you to know that to closing costs. What are closing costs? Everything you see on that settlement statement or that or that HUD one, those are settlement costs, pro-rated taxes, down payments. Okay. Closing costs for your attorney, their fees, but the Title Company their fees for the title search. Anything that's involved in the transaction of this house. You buying this house? That's what's on that statement. Okay. Hud one settlements statement. You in the final stretch, but you need to know toasters because you need to get that in your hand. So you can get your money right. To make that wire to your closing attorney or your title company. That's always lectures about. Okay. And one other thing, make sure on that settlement statement that there is a place that shows if the seller gave you money towards closing, the lender gets to dictate where it goes and you don't get to say taken his money home with me? No. The lender can use it for your pro-rated taxes. They can use it for whatever they need to do. Your application bees, your mortgage bees, and your buy down mortgage points. Remember that earlier in the lecture, you bought points. The seller can pay for those bones. At the seller gave you $5 thousand or $3 thousand and your points were 1500. You can use that money to celery and you buy down that point his beautiful jazz. Remember, pretty much everything is negotiable. Just start with that. As you're out there looking canals and you're that price is negotiable. Those home inspection items are negotiable. What the seller contribute is negotiable. I mean, your attorney fees and not negotiable, but your application fees with the lender, negotiable, your points and negotiable your taxes, they're not negotiable. The liens are negotiable whether whose bayonet normally the seller will pay for it. You get my point. Stay in negotiation mode so that your contract is clean and it's well executed. Okay, on to the next lecture.
15. Lecture XV Real Estate Terminology: A mac, it's Thomas Sina. That again, you can tell her why I knew they were going to close. But again, this lecture is terminology. Again, it's ok. I want to bring my paper here and make sure you hear these words. What are prepaid expenses in closing? Prepaid, just like a prepaid credit cards. That means you paid in advance. So you may have paid already for your home inspector, you had to pay him or her that they completed your home inspection. What other prepaid expenses maybe you pay for your mortgage application. That's a prepaid expense. There will be prepaid expenses that will sit and rest and be shown on your settlement statement. It's a term a term I want you to know, pre paid. That means you are already pay them and they either need to be credited back to you or calculated in your final number. So you're not charged twice prepaid. What else? Homeowner's insurance. Okay. That is a prepaid expense. You have homeowner's insurance before you can sine and clothes and get the keys to your house. So you will be contacting a new member of your team, your insurance agent, nationwide, all spade, whoever you use, maybe Federal Government Credit Union, navy credit being you need homeowner's insurance to cover you for fire. If you live in a flood plain, if you live by the ocean, you may have to get, you know, all kinds of insurance. But no, this you need homeowner's insurance. Now there's a caveat. Homeowner's insurance is absolutely required. If you have a mortgage on your house, your lender will require it. So you need to get it. It's a prepaid expense and you show the receipt to your closing attorney or your title company, and it's evidence that you've paid it and a copy of your policy. What if you pay cash for your house? To see this all time we'd been talking about mortgages. I haven't addressed the whole cache situation because normally first-time home buyers do not pay with cash. But what if you're one of the lucky ones and you got the trust fund or you have the cash. Homeowner's insurance is not required by law. If you pay cash. There are exceptions. You live in a gated community. You kinda have to have homeowner's insurance. You live in a non engaged community, know you bade Ganesh, you're on your own. The lender requires homeowner's insurance because of SAP, an app, and they gotta protect their asset. But if there's no mortgage, it's up to you. Now of course I'm going to recommend it's not that expensive. You get this big allows and you don't have all those insurance if he burned to the ground, you're done. That's just dumb. It makes sense whether you have a mortgage or you don't have a Mars to have homeowner's insurance, that's a prepaid expense and it's going to be listed on your sediment statement. What else? We talked a little bit about before? Lenders title insurance and your buyers title insurance. What does that protect you from a title with a lien on it? Somebody else has their name on your bead. 20 years from now, somebody tries to claim your property. You have title insurance. That's a prepaid expense. That's going to be on your settlement, your HUD statement. Okay. You gotta I would take it It's not expensive and it protects you from somebody coming out of the clear blue sky claiming that their home is you don't want that. Okay. Cash reserves. What is that another term? What do you think that is? Exactly what is this? As you know, Reserve after you bat is ours. How much cash do you have in the bank after you buy this house? Sometimes your lender is going to want to see you three months. Io's calorie gross. Three months grows in your bank account after you close this house, they're not looking for a 0 or $5. You've got bought out. I was left in your account. No, that's not gonna work. You gotta have money in the bank after you close on this house because then the lender feels comfortable that underwriter, I've talked about the gods of underwriting. They want to know what's in your account, what's in your wallet and the commercials is, and you better have something in your bank account. You better have cash reserves left in your pink. Okay? They're going to look for it. So don't be surprised I've told you it needs to be there. So keep the cash ready in your accounts and you can see you're going to be able to make your mortgage payments once you take possession of this house. Okay, so, yeah. Last lecture we talked about a recipe book, term. Heard one. Settlements statement, terminology, cash reserves terminology, lenders title insurance, buyers, tile insurance, Prepaid closing gloss, seller concession paid closing goals. Points with his terms, points, pre-approval, pre appraisal, home inspection, contingencies, counter offers, earnest money deposit. Wu said I knew it. After that. I'll talk about that. Normally we write E and the earnest money deposit. That's that check you right when you first make your offer, there's a name board. It's called earnest money deposit. So you have a wealth of terminology. As you began your process. Just learning more and growing. You know, that's why I call this course, you know, buying your first home. Take a breath. Take a deep breath. You can do it because you can't have a lot of terminology. But remember, you're in, see, you may be a first-time buyer, but the banks want to real estate agent once you, the lender wants, the seller wants you ever bought a wants it. So your gut. Whether your first dives, psychotherapy, whatever, they're going to walk you, they need you to stay in business. They need you, you employ them. So if you take that attitude, you'll find you have the confidence to get this done. So, see you in the next lecture.
16. Lecture XVI Summary Real Estate Buying Your First Home: Hi and welcome back. It's Thomas Sina. And guess what, today is closing day. Wow, we made it. So now you are going to schedule. You'll find a walk through before you beat if you're closing a dirty. And I wanted to recommend you scatter your walk through if you can, for nine o'clock, ten o'clock in the morning, so that you are up and fresh and you are not waiting all day for your closing. Tried to schedule your closing at the latest 11 o'clock before noon. This way, if your closing is local, they can record your bead in the City Hall the same day that afternoon. Also, it makes it easier if you had to wire funds. We now have the whole day for the funds to arrive. Hopefully, you did the funds the day before or two days before and they're already sitting there waiting for closing. If you have not wired your funds at least 48 hours before closing, you run the risk of not getting your keys. That day of closing. You cannot get your keys unless the money has arrived for your closing. Alright, so you are going to do your final walkthrough of the house of your dreams the day before or that morning. And you are going to just make sure everything they said we'd be done is done. Now your real estate agent or a real estate broker has already done that. They've got the proceeds that's been sent to the closing attorney and a title company. They know the work has been done. But you are just going in to do that visceral check. You know, somewhere in that contract that you signed and the seller signs, it states that the home needs to be in broom cleaning condition the day of closing. That's kind of the general legal term. So Brune clean condition, that's what you're looking for. You're looking for anymore reason not to buy this house. You're not looking at the paint now. You're not looking at the small things that the carpet and there's a stain. That's not what this is about. This is about making sure the house is ready to be transferred. After that, you're then going to go to your closing attorney's office or your company's office, and they're going to review those documents. It usually takes about an hour, sometimes long. I'm going to review those disclosures. You're gonna sign everything. You're going to feel like you're signing your life away. Yet signing your life away. You are beginning your future. As a real estate owner. I came contain myself the day of clothes and I'm like somebody crazy. You would think I was buying every house, but I've ever sold a client in 20 years. It is so exciting to see someone get those keys to see people cry, Oh my goodness. Across sometimes because it's just so overwhelming. Up to six weeks of going through all of these documents and paperwork and hurdles. And it's like this roller coaster and you're finally, you know, right there at the end. And you want everything to be smooth. So I want to congratulate you on taking his course. One, congratulate you on taking and making the decision to buy your first home or second or third or second hole or, you know, vacation o or investment property. And I want to encourage you to write me, write me anytime I promise you, I'll be here to help you. I literally sleep with my iPhone. So even though there's a six hour time difference, France, the United States, when I see you a message, it okay. I will assist you in any way that I can. Thank you again for being a student. Thank you again for spending time with me and give me both. Send me Epictetus. When you purchase your first time, have a great one.
17. Update · 2022 · First and Second Quarter Real Estate Market Overview: So Messina, and it's been a little while since
we've seen each other. When I first created
this course, buying your first home. That was in 2020. And I mean, we were in the
throes of the pandemic. The housing market was nuts. Everybody was stressed and
this whole virus thing. And people in the country wondering if they
should stay there. People in the city wondering if they should move
to the country. The housing market was on fire. We had a shortage of inventory. People were doing
escalation clauses and all kinds of things
to try to buy that house, whether it was your first house. Oh, investment property. We were scrambling. So now here we are in 2022. I thought I would
do this update just to kinda encompass January, February, March,
April, May, June. First, second quarter of 2020. To look though a little bit
like the last two years. Even though the housing market, it's starting to
cool a little bit. But that's only because now
coming off of this pandemic, we're now in the midst of the highest inflation
in the United States. We have seen in 40 years. That's affected interest rates, that's affected housing prices, that's affected
supply and demand. All you buyers out there, we stand a fighting chance
that becomes sellers are being a little bit more
receptive to your offers. Now that is just becoming
more difficult to get that interest rate that you
need as a first-time buyer. In order to afford
that mortgage. Our debt to equity
ratios, they're shifted. Mortgage went up with
that interest rate. You might have to think
more about coming up with more of a down payment. I wanted to do this
update just to keep you thinking and back
on the right track. I know ever thrown a little
bit by the pandemic, but we're coming out of it. It's still roaring,
but we're trying to live amongst the evils. We're just trying to
figure it all out. I know the last two years you've been a
little disappointed, losing your offers,
losing your bids. The information that
I have prepared, all those lectures that
you see in this course, they are still applicable. So you know, you got to trust in your real estate license, trust and your
real estate agent. It's like a marriage, still in even more so you've got to get out there and
look at those open houses. You got to make sure you understand the contract
you're writing. We still need to do
escalation clauses, put those in place with
caps so that we can echo. Other buyer is trying to get that same house riding
those personal letters. Some markets do, some don't. In my market, we never
really did that. Write a note to the
seller and tell them why you might be the best
buyer for the property. Any little bit can help. But I still find it's
the person that's willing to pay that price and close as quickly
as possible, that's winning that house. So I'm here to tell
you, stay the course. Yes, interest rates are up. They'll probably go up again. This is now the end
moving into July. Okay, So we don't know what
the Feds are going to do. But I know this. You can still buy a house. You still have to be creative. You still have to understand the contracts
and the language. You still need that
great relationship with your real estate agent, your buyer's agent,
your sellers, who ever you're working with. And you need to just
do your due diligence. Don't give up, don't give up. Review the course. Again, go through those chapters that mean the most to you. I mean, I'm still telling clients knock on those doors
and the neighborhoods. You're thinking about
buying a house. Find out if they're
interested in selling gold school on down,
you're interested. Sometimes that might put you
in a little disadvantage. Sometimes not. Nothing ventured,
nothing gained. Write me if you need
any assistance at all. Listened to your real
estate agent guidance. But more importantly, steady
the sections of this course. So when you are done with the open houses and done
with taking a look around and got your financing
in place and understanding where your
down payment can come from. And you are ready to write that contract and take that baby from contract to closing. You're there. That's what this
course is all about. I am equipped you with the
tools to buy your first home. So hang in there. We've gotten through the first, second quarter of 2022. We're now entering the
third quarter, July, August, September, and then
power slide into the fourth. Make this your year that
you buy your first home. Don't let the interest
rate throw you. Talk to your lender
about buying points by down that interest
rate would point. Don't forget to read that
section in this course. It's critical. It's very important. Okay. See you soon. And I think I'm going to jump
back in here for the third, fourth quarter just
to kinda update you regularly on what's happening
with this ever changing, wild and wacky real
estate market. Thanks for joining me. See you soon and good luck.
18. Update 4th Quarter 2024: Hello, it's Thomasina Sheely, and I know it's been a while. I just dropped off
the grid, huh? Last time we chatted, it was 2022, and
here we are now. It's 2024, fourth quarter. Almost November 1, lots
going on with real estate. I thought I'd pop in just
to do a little update, just to see how you're doing. Some of you have written me
and continue to write me with questions on buying
your first home and putting in that offer. That's really, really cool. Today, I just wanted to just
reintroduce myself and say, Hey, thanks again for
taking the course. And, you know, since
2022, think about it. Mortgage rates, they
went nuts, didn't they? Your ability to purchase
that first home or second or vacation home
or investment property. That kind of got
sidelined a little bit. But the good news, here we are. In 2024, you know, the feds are lowering those interest rates little
by little by little. We had a big cut. 50 basis point, a few months ago and now this
month coming up November, they're supposed to cut
it another quarter point. These are all important
metrics because if you are in a house that you are considering
refinancing, guess what? If your interest
rate is higher than that five or 6% and the
rates continue to come down, Refinancing is a good idea. Also, like I was recommending to my daughter
out in California who bought her first home
two years ago in 2023, May of 2023, when
interest rates, she managed to lock in 5.9. But when she first
started looking, it was 3.5, four points, 4%. So she didn't get in in time. She got 5.9. I telling her the same thing I'm going
to tell you, that's okay. You're paying a little bit
more for your mortgage. She put down a little bit more to try to bring
that monthly down. But now here's the drill. If you are already in a
mortgage, just hold on. It may take a year, it
may take two years, but interest rates are cannot
continue to come down. Once they hit a certain point, if you got a 6% mortgage, wait till they get down to about 5.2 then ask your lender
if you refinance, can you buy down another point? Some lenders let
you buy one point, some let you buy two.
What does that mean? That means that if the
interest rate is save 5.2 and you buy one point, that would bring your
interest rate down to 4.2. What's the point? You know that because you
took the course. As a refresh, a point, that is just a price
they will charge you. It's usually 1% of the
price of the property if you're just buying it
for the first time or the price of the
refinance price. Say for instance,
you're refinancing a couple hundred
thousand dollars. Well, your point is going
to be 1% of that. $2,000. You're going to pay 2000 to
get that one more point. Now you've gone from 5%, you bought a 0.4%. This is when this gets good. When the interest rates
get back down to say 4.5%, by that point, now
you're at 3.5%. A lot of money up front, I know. But now long term
and think long term, you've got an interest
rate of 3.5%. I just wanted to throw that
out there and just to say, here I am and glad to be back. And, yep, I've been
underground for a year or so, just trying to make
sense of what's going on in this
financial world, this political world,
and everything else. And I want to thank
you again for taking this U Di course, and you have access to me
anytime, right, anytime. I will pop back in every now and then just to kind of talk about what
the market's doing. But you are here because you were thinking about
buying your first home. And just so you know
you can still do. Find something that you love. Try to put down a
little bit more than the 20% if you can. If you can't eat the interest rate and the
private mortgage insurance, the PMI, which you learned
about in this course. Then lay in wait because that interest rate one day is going to be
back down to five, then 4.5, then four, then 3.5, and then boom. By that point, next
thing you know you have 2.5 and you're good to
go. Do that refinance. All right. Well, thanks for stopping in and thanks
for catching the update, and I will see you again
soon. Have a great one.
Thomasina Shealey, MBA, Consultant, Entrepreneur, Mentor
