Below is a transcript for your convenience

Hi I’m Jeff Kropp and we’re the Home Buyers Agents. Today I’m going to give you seven quick steps to purchasing a home here in Chicagoland.

Step number one is probably the most important step for a first time homebuyer and that’s seeking loan preapproval. You don’t have to talk to a lot of banks. Typically one or two banks. And make sure you can quality for financing and you’re comfortable with an approximate estimate of your total monthly payment. So they will give you a preapproval letter and you can proceed to step two which is interview or hire a buyer agent. Probably talk to a few and you’re going to formally hire them and say “I want you to help me find a property.”

Step number three is the search itself. Obviously you’re going to look online and your agent will set up a search for you and you’ll be on Zillow and Redfin then you’ll also tour properties in person with your agent. And then what happens is you’ll find one that really suits your needs. It might have that “wow” factor, you’ll get excited. You’ll move on to the fourth step which is to research that property. Look at recent sales. Look at why the seller is selling the property and any other due diligence you can do on the property before you submit an offer.

And then step five is you submit an offer, you negotiate things like price most importantly, but also the closing date, other terms such as whether you want a closing cost credit on your behalf. So you’ll negotiate with the seller the agent will help prepare the paperwork in terms of offer and counteroffer. They may go back and forth a few times with the seller.

Step number six, you’re under contract, you’re really happy. What now? You’ll do a little due diligence, what we call “contingencies.” During this “contingency period” you‘re allowed to back out of the contract if you don’t like what you see. This includes things like hiring your attorney to look at the sales contract, hiring a home inspector to do an inspection, make sure the property’s ship shape. And number three applying for the loan and having no issues with your loan and they’ll give you a loan commitment.

So those are the steps in contingency and then the final step once those contingencies are cleared. Is you’ll go walk through the property just prior to closing with your agent. Make sure its in the same shape as when you left it. Proceed to the closing, sit next your lawyer, you’ll sign about 50 pages and they’ll hand you the keys to your new home.

I’m Jeff Kropp. We’re the Home Buyer Agents. Thank you.