The buyer guide

1. Work out your real number

There is what a lender will approve and there is what you can pay every month without resenting the house. Start from the second. Include property taxes, insurance, any association assessment and a realistic maintenance figure, because a house takes money on an ongoing basis whether or not you budgeted for it.

2. Get pre-approved

A pre-approval means a lender reviewed actual documents. It makes your offer credible and, just as importantly, it surfaces problems while they can still be fixed. If you are self-employed, start here early: the documentation path matters and there is more than one.

3. Define what you actually want

Separate the non-negotiable from the preferred. Single story or not. Yard or not. School assignment. Commute tolerance. Association or no association. Expect this list to change once you have seen ten homes, and treat that as progress.

4. Tour with intent

See homes in batches and take notes, because they blur together faster than you expect. Pay attention to the things you cannot change: location, lot, orientation, floor plan bones. Finishes are fixable, and a beautifully staged home with a bad plan is still a bad plan.

5. Write a considered offer

Price is one term. Deposit size, contingency periods, closing timeline, how you handle repair requests and the strength of your financing all matter, sometimes more than price. A seller choosing between two similar offers is generally choosing on certainty.

6. Use your contingency period

Inspect thoroughly, including specialists when the property calls for it. Read the disclosure package properly. If there is an association, read its documents and financials. This window is your protection, and it closes on a date.

7. Protect the loan

Do not open new credit, finance a car, change jobs or move large sums between accounts while in escrow. Every one of these can undo an approval late, and late is expensive.

8. Walk through, then close

Verify the property is in the agreed condition and that any negotiated repairs were done. Then sign, fund and record. Plan your move around recording, not signing.