Buyer's Guide

Being an educated customer gives you an advantage when buying a home. In order to find your dream home, you must know exactly what you are looking for. This guide will walk you through each step and point out important factors that will prepare you to make an informative decision. Click on each icon to find out more about each step.

Can you afford a home?

You are paying rent right now, right?

Rent is a house payment, but the house payment is being used to pay your landlord's mortgage.

If you are paying $1000 in rent monthly, then you could be making a house payment instead. You can act in partnership with Continental Financing Company and their many programs for new and veteran homebuyers alike. For that same $1000 you can finance a purchase of a condominium, in some cases up to 100% of its purchase price.

You may wind up with a little smaller place that you can rent for the same money, but you own it. You will be able to enjoy all the benefits during the tax season.

To calculate how much house you can afford, Click Here.

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Educate yourself

So now that you know you can afford a house in most cases if you are renting, or even if not, your next step is to get educated on what the mortgage market has to offer you as a buyer.

Why learn about your mortgage first? Learning about your mortgage first will help you determine how much money you can spend on a home as well as help you keep in mind the other costs, such as property taxes, a condo association payment, what the total ratio of your paycheck to your expenses will be and maybe even help you save 20-30% on your payment just by knowing your options.

Continental Realty Group highly recommends our business partner as a good place to start learning what the mortgage market really has for you as well as a good place to get any of your residential mortgages needs handled in IL.

To learn about the mortgage process in detail, Click Here.

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Get pre-approved

Your next step is to get pre-approved for your mortgage loan. This is a really important part of the home-buying process. Most sellers now will not accept an offer no matter how serious it is, unless they are presented with evidence of financing necessary to process the transaction. After all, they are selling an investment of $150,000, $250,000 or more and deserve to know when they take their property off the market for you and you will be able to buy their house with minimal complications.

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Find a house/Find a realtor

Sounds really simple, right?

You know something, it really can be easy to find the right house for you, but in many cases it is not. Why in this era of modern technology and all the internet options available should it be hard?

Continental Realty Group offers the right blend of long experience and technology-driven solutions to help you find the right house for you in as little time and with as few hassles as possible.

Thru our professional comparative market analysis as well as our genuine love of real estate and the local markets, Continental Realty Group will find you the right house in a matter of hours. In some cases we will provide you with a solid bargaining price to work towards. We do not want you to pay too much for your house and it is our job to find the house you will love for a fair price.

Fill out the form Here and find yourself a realtor who will assist you in the home-finding process.

The agent will conduct a personal market analysis for your home as well as for any property you are interested in buying. We are happy to help you find the perfect home for you.

To find a Realtor, Click Here.

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Make an offer

After we have helped you find the right house, it is time to make an offer. Buying a home can be an overwhelming experience, especially if you have never done it before. How do you know what to offer? How do you know when it is time to say this house is overpriced and find another?

Continental Realty Group has the experience necessary to help you write up an offer. We will make sure your offer is not only reasonably priced, it will have an excellent chance of being accepted or being very close on the initial offer for acceptance.

Continental Realty Group will handle all of your negotiations for you with the seller, which lets you stay at a comfortable distance from the transaction. This way, you will avoid falling into the trap of making the negotiations both personal and emotional. We at Continental understand that you and your family have the dream of owning the house you are bidding on, thus it is our job to realize this dream with less-hassle for you as possible.

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Get a loan

Sooner than you think you will get the call from your agent telling you that we have a deal! Now what?

Just as Continental Realty Group is expert at finding your home, Continental Financing Co is the local expert for your mortgage.

You already have your pre-approval letter, so now it is time to follow through. Continental Financing Company by now will have all the documents in place for your full application and all you need to do is meet with your mortgage consultant, sign a few papers and provide some documents that are necessary for the processing to begin. In most cases, your entire mortgage process will be completed within 30 days from this point.

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Close the deal

Now that you have your mortgage in place, you have done your inspection, the home is in tip-top shape and the movers are scheduled. It is now the time to close your deal.

Most closings will either happen at a title company or at a lawyer's office. Either is the accepted practice in this area and either is a fine choice for your transaction.

You will be signing a LOT of papers today. You will be signing all the papers necessary to transfer ownership of a piece of real estate whether it is a mansion, condominium or something in between and the evidence of this transaction will be recorded permanently with the County Recorder of Deeds. This is your guaranty and a proof that you own the property and the only person with any claim to it other than yourself is your mortgage company.

You will also be signing a big stack of papers all related to your mortgage. A mortgage is a very paper-intensive process and the closing is no exception. If you talk with your mortgage consultant prior to the closing you can confirm information such as how much money you will need to bring to the closing, your interest rate, your monthly payments and the type of loan you will be receiving; fixed rate, adjustable rate, etc.

The closing is not where you want any surprises, so we suggest you closely communicate with your agent, your mortgage consultant and your attorney during the entire home buying process, so at the end all you have is a smile and a set of house keys!

Congratulations!!

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