This is my second in a series of post for first time home buyers in Tomball TX.  Now that you are pre-approved for your home loan the next step is to start searching for your home. I have found that most buyers like to start looking at homes and familiarizing themselves with the areas online.  The town of Tomball is not very large; the Tomball ISD borders are much larger. The Tomball ISD border is located along SH Hwy 249 to the north and south and FM 2920 to the east and west.  Tomball ISD even extends in to Montgomery County.

There are lots of websites that you can go to search for homes for sale but we are blessed in the Houston area to have an INCREDIBLE Public MLS site through the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR).  We tend to take this site for granted but as I have blogged and met people across the United States I have realized how fortunate we are to have such an incredible public site.  HAR has won many awards for this site and they are constantly improving it. You may search directly at www.HAR.com or if you are working with me to find your new Tomball TX home you can click here to go in to the site.  By going in under my name any questions that you have will be immediately directed to me.

In this busy age that we live in I have found Tomball TX first time home buyers often want to be set up to have new listings sent to them automatically. It doesn’t matter whether you are looking for a single family detached Tomball TX home, a home on acreage, a town-home or even vacant land; this automated search can do the work for you. You will learn about listings new to the market even before most REALTORS®.  You are notified of new listings within 24 hours of them going on the market.  The listings for the most part have directions so you can also explore subdivisions to get an idea of where you want to be.  Please click here for the automated form.  I have tried to make this as specific as I can.    I am able to put filters on your search and have learned all kinds of tricks to tweak your Tomball Texas home search so we only pull up the specific type of home you are looking for.

* * * Please note: If you are already looking at homes or land with another REALTOR® and have signed a Buyers Representation Agreement with that REALTOR® please do not use this automated search. It would be a violation of the Code of Ethics for the National Association of REALTOR® for me to be assisting you in this circumstance. * * * If you have an agent and this is not set up for you just ask your REALTOR® to set it up. 

You are probably wondering why I put the First time home buyer Tomball TX website search as number 2 in my series and not number 1. I have found with today’s ever changing mortgage environment that it is more important than ever to get pre-approved for your loan ahead of time; especially if you are a first time home buyer and are not familiar with the process.  If you wait until you are ready  to buy and you find some kind of a hiccup that needs to be worked on then it is too late and could cause you to have to wait longer to buy your first home.  By getting pre-approved (as much as 6 months prior to buying your home) it gives you time to take corrective action.  I also can’t tell you how many first time home buyers I have worked with who were not searching in the correct price range and that can be very discouraging.  Not to mention that by starting early you can start narrowing areas and decide what you want in a home.

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If you are buying or relocating to  Tomball Texas and need help from a professional REALTOR®,  Marchel can be reached at Marchel@AgentwithResults.com or by phone at 832-721-8332. 

If you would like information about Tomball please visit my websites at http://agentwithresults.com and at http://www.resultsrealtytx.com/.  The AgentwithResults site is rich in Content about the area.  If you prefer pictures with your content then visit my ResultsRealtyTX site.

Want to find out about new Tomball TX properties immediately as they come on the market, then click here to sign up for a free automatic notification of new listings.

Click the button to the left to search our local

I remember being a first time home buyer and the mystery that surrounded the transaction.  This is the first post of a “Tomball  TX first time home buyer series”. I hope this series will help to alleviate some of the home buying mystery.The VERY FIRST step in the process is to get yourself pre-approved with a good lender.  I’m not talking pre-qualified; I’m talking pre-approved. There is a difference between the two.  In the days where anyone could get a loan this was not a big deal but those days are over.

What is a Pre-Qualification?

A prequalification is simply a meeting between a loan officer and a customer to determine what the mortgage needs of the customer are.  Income and assets are not verified.  The credit report may or may not be pulled.  The information is not submitted to an underwriter.  The lender does not receive enough information to make a credit decision.

What is a Pre-Approval?

Pre-approval includes a complete loan application.  A credit report is pulled and asset and income are verified.  The information is submitted to underwriters for “credit only” decision.  Once you have been pre-approved your credit package can be used with any property.  Final loan approval will be subject to the underwriter approving the property only.  A pre-approval is normally good for 90 days.  The borrower receives a written pre-approval letter.  A true approval requires this income and asset documentation and credit reports are required on all loan types.

Being pre-approved in Tomball TX gives you an edge when you start looking for your home.  If you get in to the situation where there is more than one offer on a home it is often the person who is further along in the loan process who will get the home.  I have even had the situation where the other offer was a little more but my seller preferred the person who had a true pre-approval. 

The rules have TOTALLY changed in the mortgage industry.  The products that lenders had for first time home buyers in Tomball TX last year, maybe even last week are no longer available to the consumer which makes getting pre-approved for your loan more important than ever.  Once you even think that you might be interested in purchasing a home you should call a lender. Even if the news is not good by going through the process you will know what you need to start working on and you can make a game plan to get your credit in order. 

The days of a real estate transaction being dependent upon the creativity of a loose lender are finished.  Down payments are back again and FHA loans are sometimes the only game in town with VA loans being about the only 100% loan. With all of this in mind getting yourself pre-approved before you ever start looking is more important than ever.  

I am also attaching some Do’s and Don’ts you might consider putting in to action when you start thinking about purchasing a Tomball TX home.

Do’s

• Do make all your payments on time. Your credit will be checked again right before you close.
• Do continue saving money. There are always additional expenses once you move and you will be glad for that savings.
• Do make deposits into your bank account on a regular basis. If you have any unusual deposits for large sums of money document them as the lender may need to verify the source.

Don’ts

• Do not co-sign for any loans for friends or family. That debt would be held against you.
• Do not decide this is the time to change banks; you can do that after you move in.
• Do not open ANY new accounts. Even though the new account has a $0 balance it may still affect your debt to income ratio.
• Do not buy a new car or new furniture!!! Wait until after you are in your new house then go shopping otherwise the debt could affect your debt to income ratio.
• Do not lender shop over the Internet. Each lender pulls a credit score and multiple hits on your credit report can cause your score to drop dramatically.
• Do not pull your own score and then decide you will check why accounts are still open or have balances. I did this myself and then had to write a note at closing to explain why I had all these hits on my credit

This is a Tomball TX first time home buyers series and as I add additional post I will add the links.  Please feel free to visit my prior post.

________________________________________________________________________

If you are buying or relocating to  Tomball Texas and need help from a professional REALTOR®,  Marchel can be reached at Marchel@AgentwithResults.com or by phone at 832-721-8332. 

If you would like information about Tomball please visit my websites at http://agentwithresults.com and at http://www.resultsrealtytx.com/.  The AgentwithResults site is rich in Content about the area.  If you prefer pictures with your content then visit my ResultsRealtyTX site.

Want to find out about new Tomball TX properties immediately as they come on the market, then click here to sign up for a free automatic notification of new listings.

Click the button to the left to search our local MLS.