While there are a lot of things that need to be done before you can buy yourself a home, planning is half the battle, if you want a happy carefree enjoyable home buying experience you have to prepare!  Unless you are lucky or really good and can pay cash money here is the path to success when buying real property.

1.  Establish Credit - You can start with a small department store charge card or go to your local bank and get a secured credit card - you deposit money into your account and the money you deposit is your credit - BUT it gets reported to those pesky credit unions!!

2.  Two Years Work History/ Self-Employeed - must have two years Tax Returns
College Students can avoid this with no gap between school and work history - in the field they graduated!

3.  Pay Down Any Debts - Always Pay Bills on or before they are due!!!  This doesn't mean you can't have some debt just dont' have your credit cards maxed out, this will actually reduce your OH SO IMPORTANT credit score!!!

4.  Save for DOWN PAYMENT!  While you can buy a home with very little money out of pocket, you'll save in the long run if you pay upfront!!!  Not only that it can help you NEGOTIATE the price of the house down - if you have to ask a Seller to pay your closing costs, the more you are going to pay for the house - the Seller doesn't care about anything but, how much $$$ they will receive at closing!!

5.  Ask for a copy of a contract for you to review BEFORE you put any offer in writing, so that way when you get ready to have your Realtor write your contract you can know what the contract ACTUALLY COVERS!!!!

6.  Get PREAPPROVED!!!  You can and should get prequalified, but getting PREAPPROVED is vital in todays markets, WHY?  In my community - remember all real estate markets are local in nature - there is a LOT of properties affected by foreclosure and they come in different forms.  There are SHORT SALES, REO a.k.a. BANK OWNED, and there is also govenment and quasi governement owned properties - HUD, FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC.  The point is when a good deal on a home comes available you need to be ready to jump!!!!   Having a preapproval is VITAL - any home listed by a bank is going to want to see this before they even consider your offer!!!

These are just the basics and I bet if I sat here for much longer I  could think of something else - BUT THESE ARE DEFINITE HIGHLIGHTS!!! 

As always if I can help you with anything please call me at 386-747-0641!

Celeste