 So, you're thinking about buying a home and you're a first-time home buyer. There's seven things, there's seven steps that are going to take you from the beginning to the end. So I'm going to help you out with that. Number one, you need to get a pre-approval and there's lots of reasons why. Number one, you need to make sure that you can afford the house. Number two, all of the sellers are going to require that you have a pre-approval and then number three, timing, you're going to need to be able to quickly pull it out if you find the house that you love. So the next step after you get the pre-approval is actually defining what is your dream home. Now everybody has a different version of what their dream home is and sometimes this is a fluid process where you think you want X, Y, and Z until you start to tour houses and then you realize, oh, I really don't want that. So you need to write down on a piece of paper or whatever in your email, whatever it works for you. And just journal what you're really looking for and then articulate that to your agent so we can try and help you find what you're really looking for. Number three, so first you're pre-approved, second you know exactly what you want, number three we get to start looking for houses and this is the fun part. When you first start looking, you're going to fall in love with the first three houses and you're going to think that, oh, these are the best things ever, but you really need to stick through it. You need to look at least seven houses so that way you can see what the market's like, what the neighborhood is. And when you find the house that you like, you need to stock it. So before you go and put it on the, put in an offer, you need to drive by it night. Make sure you like it at night. The neighborhood doesn't have some type of weird chemical plant that has a glow in the background or has a busy road that you didn't warn aware of. So you need to really just take your time, slow down, and enjoy the touring process because the next part is going to be a little bit more stressful. Number four, we make an offer. Okay, so you find that dream home finally. You toured a bunch of them, you got your pre-approval, you're ready to go. There's a lot of ways, a lot of things that are going to come into consideration in order for you to make a good solid offer. Okay, so you're most likely, unless you're going to buy the house in cash, you're going to have a mortgage contingency. That's why you have the pre-approval in the beginning. So that already puts one contingency on for the seller that they're not going to like, and then you're also going to pick probably, you're going to pick an inspection contingency. That means that you are not going to buy the house unless you go through the inspection contingency with an inspector and you look at all the ins and outs, the mechanicals of the house. Now at that part there, that doesn't mean that you get to go through and pick dents in the wall, places that need repainted, cracks in the floor. This is for major mechanical issues. That's what the inspection's for and we negotiate on those. Say there's a broken AC or the roof is bad or there's a structural issue. Those are the things that you negotiate on an inspection contingency. So once we make the offer, we make a contingent on the inspection, make a contingent on the mortgage and then we go and put in the offer. I highly recommend if you really like the house that you don't low ball it. It's not a good strategy for you to come in and take off the seller. Remember this is a human transaction and they have feelings too. And the whole point of this is to get your dream home is not to offend everybody. So then the other thing I always recommend if you really love the house, write a short letter, make it a human process. Tell the tell the sellers who you are. You don't have to make it super personal, but let them know that you like the house. It always goes so far when you're able to make that human interaction, that human connection. So that takes us to the next step. Number five, your offer has been accepted. Everybody is excited. The ball is moving forward. There's going to be a lot of emotions here. You're going to wonder, did I make the right decision? Do I really want to buy this house? Can I really afford it? Now, the reason why you've done all those steps beforehand is because you were able to now make that final decision and know and feel confident that you are buying the right house. So once your offer is accepted, now we're going to move on to the home inspection. After we get past the home inspection, there's going to be one more hurdle to go over and that's the appraisal, the appraisal contingency. And that is when the bank is going to loan you the money, they have to make sure that the asset that they're loaning you the money for is worth it in case you walk away and they have to resell it. So once we get to the appraisal contingency, it's basically out of everybody's hands and it moves to the bank. The bank hires up an appraisal company. They come in, they pull the comps within a mile or so of houses that are equal value to the one that you're purchasing. Then once we get past that, that gets us to the next step. Number six is closing day. This is very exciting. Now either the day before or a couple hours before the closing, we're going to go and do a final walk-through. That is to make sure that there wasn't an explosion in the house, the roof isn't leaking, there wasn't a water main break, or somebody didn't break it and punch holes in the wall. That's basically all the final walk-through is for. It takes about 15 minutes. You kind of just blow through it, make sure everything is in working order and then we go to the closing. The closing is a very exciting time. There's a lot of paperwork for you to sign, so make sure you get your hands all warmed up ahead of time. You're going to need your driver's license and then the funds that the title company tells you in a check. Now you just can't bring a personal check to closing and you can't bring a bag of cash. You don't allow that anymore. You have to go to the bank and you have to get a certified check or a money order, preferably a certified check. So then we go through the closing process. We exchange keys in the check and you sign all the paperwork and then you get to move in. Hey, and don't forget right before the closing day, usually three to five days ahead of time, you want to call all the utilities and have the utilities put in your name and then they're going to start on the day of the closing. You don't want to forget that, especially in the winter time. And they forget to turn the gas on. You walk in your frozen pipes, things go very bad. So just remember three to five days before the closing, you want to make sure you put the utilities in your name. Number seven, moving day. How exciting. You finally own your first house. There's a lot of things that have gone into consideration to get you to this point. Now this is the fun part. You remember, you don't have to unpack all those boxes in one day. Try and make this as stress-free as possible. Try and make it fun for small children and make sure that you take your time introducing pets into your new space. And if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me. Have a great day.