Buying a Home

Nothing else works until this is settled. Not a payment estimate from a website, not a number in your head. An actual conversation with a lender who pulls credit, reads your documents, and issues a written pre-approval.

A pre-qualification is a conversation. A pre-approval is underwriting. In a competitive offer, the listing agent can tell the difference in about ten seconds, and so can we.

Then the harder part. The lender's ceiling is not your budget. Build your number backward from the monthly payment you actually want to live with, including property tax, insurance, heat, plowing, and any association fee. Confirm the specifics with your lender before you rely on them.

Plan the cash too. Down payment, closing costs, and the New Hampshire real estate transfer tax, which runs $7.50 per $1,000 of price on the buyer's side under RSA 78-B. On a $500,000 purchase, that is $3,750 from you at the table. The full list is on closing costs, and anything that sounds like a foreign language is defined in the financial terms glossary. Buying your first? Start at first-time home buyers.

1. Deposit delivered. Earnest money reaches escrow by the contract deadline, with a receipt. A missed deadline hands the seller a reason to walk.

2. Inspections and the response window. Home inspection, water test, septic, radon in air and water, plus any specialty follow-up. There is a hard date to raise issues. After it passes, the right is gone.

3. Loan milestones. Full application, appraisal ordered, appraisal returned, financing commitment date. That commitment date is the one that quietly kills deals, so we track it weekly.

4. Title, deed, and attorney review. New Hampshire closings run through attorneys and title companies. Easements, rights of way, deed restrictions, and current use surface here.

5. Association and municipal items. Condo documents, budget, reserves, minutes, and any special assessment. Dock permits on file. Shoreland compliance. Septic evaluation filing where it applies. Start with association rules.

6. Closing Disclosure, walkthrough, and funds. You receive the Closing Disclosure at least three business days before closing. Walk the house the day of. Then call the closing attorney at a number you looked up yourself to confirm wire instructions. Wire fraud is real and the money does not come back.

The whole stretch is mapped at you are under contract, now what.