Buyer's Guide

A Step-by-Step First Time Buyer's Guide

Buying a home is one of the most exciting milestones of your life. To prepare yourself for this moment, you need to know what to expect during the process. This step-by-step first time buyer’s guide created by your agent will help reduce the stress of buying a home and help you enjoy the journey as much as possible.

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Step 1: Research

Do you already know where you want to buy? If you want a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Which features do you like and dislike? What’s available on the market now? If you answered no to any of these questions, now is the time to start researching. In addition to looking for homes that interest you, also take note of any changes in asking prices. This could give you valuable insight into housing trends in specific neighborhoods and help you when the time comes to make an offer.

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Step 2: Decide on Your Budget

Notice I said to decide on your budget—not determine how much the mortgage company will give you. In many cases, a mortgage company will pre-approve you for more than you’re comfortable spending, which is why you need to determine the monthly payment you feel comfortable with before talking to a lender. This likely includes doing a full household budget and taking into consideration what changes other than a mortgage payment will occur once you move into your new home. If you’ve lived in an apartment or with roommates, you may overlook new expenses like garbage, water, or HOA fees that could easily blow your budget.

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Step 3: Get Prequalified

Just because you think you can afford a certain payment every month doesn’t mean the mortgage company will agree. Just as they may approve you for too large of an amount, they may also approve you for a lesser amount or deny you a mortgage altogether. Lack of time at a job, insufficient credit, past bankruptcies, or other financial issues can cause major problems when trying to secure a mortgage. Before you get your heart set on a home, talk to a mortgage professional to find out what amount you can qualify for. This will also be an advantage when you make an offer on a home, as some sellers won’t entertain offers from those who aren’t already prequalified for a loan.

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Step 4: Choose a Real Estate Agent

Can you shop for, look at, and ultimately make an offer on a home without a real estate agent? Technically yes, but why would you when it costs you nothing for an agent like me to take much of the stress off your shoulders? Not only will I help identify properties you might be interested in, arrange showings, and ultimately handle the offer process, but I also have a knowledge of the market that you don’t possess. I may be able to steer you away from certain homes or neighborhoods, suggest hidden gems, or give you pointers that will help you find your dream home for the right price.

Our goal is to provide you with the most personalized service that is designed to help you buy your dream home.

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Step 5: Find the Right Home

This should be the most enjoyable step of the entire process (other than moving in!). I will arrange showings of homes you’re interested in that are within your price range. Take notes about what you like and don’t like, and make sure to pay attention to details. Turn light switches on and off, open and close doors, and run the faucets in various rooms. Don’t limit your inspection to the home itself. Make sure to take time to explore the neighborhood and keep an eye on traffic at certain times of the day, the parking situation, and how close it is to necessities like schools and grocery stores.

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Step 6: Make an Offer

Once you have selected the perfect home, work with your agent to craft a fair offer based on the value of comparable homes on the market. Depending on what the home is listed at and whether the current environment is a buyer’s or seller’s market, your offer may be below, at, or even above the asking price. I will be able to help you negotiate if you receive a counteroffer and reach an agreement. At this point, the house will go into escrow.

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Step 7: Have the Home Inspected

In most cases, your offer will be contingent on having the home inspected to ensure there is no major structural damage or large repairs needed. I can help you arrange this, and you can schedule it within days of making an offer. If there are no major issues, the process goes to step eight. If there is, you can renegotiate your offer based on what needs to be fixed, or you can withdraw it.

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Step 8: Select Your Loan

Now is the time to go back to the mortgage lender who pre-approved or pre-qualified you and choose your mortgage. You will be presented with various options based on your unique financial situation, including fixed-rate, variable-rate, 15-year, 30-year, or special programs such as VA loans or FHA loans. Work with your mortgage lender to select the option you feel the most comfortable with.

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Step 9: Get a Home Appraisal

Your lender will have your new home appraised so they have their independent value of it. The appraisal is to ensure that all parties involved are paying a fair price for the house.

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Step 10: Finish Paperwork

No one looks forward to all the paperwork involved in buying a home, but it’s a necessary part of the process. Fortunately, everything will be arranged by your lender and title company and, when you’re finished, you’ll know you are the legal owner of your new home.

Congratulations!

After signing the final paperwork to complete the purchase, you are now the owner of a new house. It may take a few days for your loan to be funded once the paperwork has been returned to the lender, but once that check is delivered to the seller, you’ll be all set to move into the home of your dreams. 

Our Testimonials

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Jake T.

We've worked with Jonathan on three different real estate transactions now, two purchases and one sale. In every instance, Jonathan was professional and responsive. In my opinion, he is a master negotiator and is very creativ...
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Steve Jr.

This was our second time working with Jonathan. He is an excellent agent! Anyone would be lucky to have a Realtor® so good. We bought our first house with him and got a great deal. Sold our house with him a few years later. We...
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Robert H.

Jon helped me buy my first house and the experience went extremely well. I’m super happy with how the whole process went, he made it super easy and was always there to communicate along the whole way. Jon will definitely be hel...
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Jake G.

Jonathan Leaman goes above and beyond with his service. He is friendly and very knowledgeable. We have worked with him on three transactions and would highly recommend him. We will definitely work with him in the future.
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Nelson B.

Couldn't have asked for a better realtor. He worked some magic to make the deal work great for me, and was easy to work with the whole time. I'm a first time home buyer, so he helped me navigate the process. Highly recommend!
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Kevin H.

Jonathan was incredible to work with. Very communicative, very responsive and just an overall great guy. I KNEW he had mine and my wife’s best interest in mind and truly went to bat every step of the way. He gave us genuine fee...
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Derek R.

Where to start! Jonathan was incredibly helpful from start to finish. We weren’t in a rush to purchase and Jonathan respected that. He would show us properties as we requested and he would provide his honest recommendation for ...
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Will L.

What I enjoyed most about Jonathan was his professionalism, expertise, and instinctive feel for the value of each property; he also showed good awareness in regards to the time sensitive deadlines!
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Randall P.

Jonathan has represented me on 9 transactions in Scottsdale, and there are many reasons I continued to request his services. He is very professional and easy going, with a hard work ethic that always placed my interest above a...
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Emily K.

Jonathan was an incredibly professional realtor who represented us in a recent purchase. He went above and beyond to make the process as smooth as possible and was always readily available to us at all times. Highly recommend.
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Nik S.

Having recently moved to Phoenix from the Midwest, I was fortunate to find Jonathan who helped me purchase my first home here. Jonathan was highly responsive, knowledgable and professional throughout my home buying process. Wh...
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Gina H.

Jonathan was great to work with and extremely professional. He kept in touch as we were preparing to sell and once we were ready to list he took care of everything and guided us through the process very efficiently. A true expe...
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Rich L.

I have worked with many real estate professionals in my career and Jonathan is as good as it gets! From relocation, flips, or complete remodels. He’s done it and can guide you through the entire process. Highly recommended!
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Nicole D.

We worked with Jon when we bought our house, and when it came time to sell, it was a no-brainer. One of the great things about working with Jon is that he is incredibly easy to get ahold of. On top of that, he is very knowledge...
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James E.

This is the second time we have worked with Jonathan, once as buyers and once as sellers. He has been patient and professional and taken the time to guide us through the daunting process of buying and selling. As a bonus has a ...
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Erik D.

Jonathan was a true professional who really listened to what we wanted to accomplish with the home buy and sell. He came up with realistic solutions and met our expectations every step of the way. He was able to navigate us t...
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Danielle P.

Jonathan was THE BEST realtor!! He was very quick to respond whenever I reached out with a question and always gave me an honest opinion about everything. This was our first time buying a home so it was overwhelming but he made...
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Matt Z.

Beware of weekend warriors! Last year I had the pleasure of purchasing my first house using Jonathan Leaman as my real estate agent. Prior to this experience, I had no idea what the responsibilities of a real estate agent were;...
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Corey K.

From the very first time, we met Jonathan he was on point! Professional, prepared, knowledgeable and funny! After our initial walk though we knew that we found "the one", not only our forever home, our forever Realtor® too! We...
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Jake T.

We've now used Jonathan on three separate real estate transactions. He has helped us purchase our last two homes in Mesa, as well as sell our last home. I won't use anybody else, and I would recommend him to anyone. He truly hu...
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Want an agent who'll really listen to what you want in a home? Need an agent who knows how to effectively market your home so it sells? Give us a call! We're eager to help and would love to talk to you.