If you are a food lover and want to spend a day on a beautiful beach with people of different cultures, you should be in New Jersey. Moving to New Jersey is easy, but first, you need a secure, clean, and hassle-free place and it should be near to your workplace. If you are planning to move with your family, you definitely need to buy a house in New Jersey to build new memories in your dream home.
Can I buy a house in New Jersey? Yes, definitely you can. But buying a house is time hectic and consuming, so commit yourself to the process. Before purchasing a home, you need to follow some steps and prepare some documents. We have compiled a short and precise to-do list that you can follow to become a homeowner. These steps make the home buying process in New Jersey easy and stress-free.
Before wasting further time, let’s get a jump to do steps.
Steps to keep in mind while: buying a house in New Jersey
- Market research and decide your budget
- Make your wish list and choose a right locality
- Get pre-qualified for a loan
- Find a real estate agent
- House hunting and inspection
- Make an offer and negotiate
- Close the deal and finally get the keys
Detailed explanation of these steps are as under;
1. Market research and decide your budget
First of all, you need to do some market research. Keep an eye on recently sold houses prices in your desired locality. It will give you some help to decide your home budget. After doing market research, self-access your current financial situation. Do some basic calculations, choose how much you can spend on your house each month and how much you can afford.
Contact your bank or mortgage broker, who reviews your finances and provides you with a mortgage pre-approval letter. Sellers and real estate agents mostly need this letter before making a deal. It shows your financial situation of a house buying.
2. Make your wish list and choose a right locality
Buying new things makes you excited, that is good. But you have a firm idea of which type and things you want in your house. Make a wish list; this will help you stay on track and serve as a guide for your real estate agent.
Now choose your neighborhood according to your need like safety, traffic rush hours, distance to your workplace, cleanliness of locality, etc.
3. Get pre-qualified for a loan
Contact mortgage agent and review your financial situation and get a Mortgage pre-approval. This will help you find how much you can borrow the loan and you are a good candidate to buy a home. After some documentation mortgage agent gives you mortgage pre-approval. That pre-approval helps you in two ways. Firstly you and your real estate agent narrow their search to houses that you can afford, and secondly, sellers will also prefer those buyers who have pre-approval compared to those who have not.
4. Find a real estate agent
The next step is to find a positive reviewed real estate agent; he makes the process easy for you. If you are new, start with three potential agents, meet them, ask questions, see their previous experience, and decide your final agent. Tell him/her about your need, and he/she can help you find a good property and negotiate with the seller on your behalf.
5. House hunting and inspection
Here comes the exciting part, let the house hunting begin. You have the wish list in hand, see every possible option, and decide which house fulfills the need.
Here is the Pro-Tip, don’t rush and be flexible. No home is perfect.
For inspection, the buyer should hire a New Jersey home inspector or Engineer to inspect the potential home for any structural, electrical plumbing, or other damage. If found any objection, ask the seller to repair and provide the property’s certificate of occupancy. Inspector should also perform further tests like radon testing, wood rotting insect, and any potential environmental hazard.
6. Make an offer and negotiate
The final and most important step is underway. Your offer will decide the amount you’ll pay for your dream home. But keep in mind, in New Jersey, homes usually stay on the market for an average of 41 days, so make an offer before it.
Cost of buying a house in New Jersey? Market research that we do in the beginning helps us make an offer. Discuss the offer with your realtor and negotiate with the seller.
Pro-Tip; Make an offer keeping in mind the inspection report by an engineer, and ask for credits instead of damage repair by the seller.
7. Close the deal and finally get the keys
Closing is basically the finalization process of transferring property ownership. At this step, all the paperwork like a deed, tax record, transfer of ownership, mortgage-related documents are signed. And, of course, the realtor gets his commission.
Now you can get a key, take some pictures and celebrate you are now a homeowner.
