7 Tips for Buying Your First Home in the U.S.

Nothing says you’re truly an American like owning a home. And just over half of all foreign-born households living in the U.S. own their own home.

If you’re ready to join them, try these seven tips for American-style homebuying success — the process here may be quite different from what you’re used to.

1. Be Ready to Prove Who You Are
You don’t have to get your citizenship, a green card, or any particular type of visa before you buy a home. But you do need:

An Individual Taxpayer Identification Number. That’s a number assigned by the Internal Revenue Service to foreign nationals who need to file income tax returns.
A valid foreign passport, or two or more current photo identifications, such as a driver’s license, to show who you are.

Although property ownership isn’t tied to immigration or visa status, there are rules about how long you can stay, so if you’re not a citizen, check out U.S. visa requirements before you purchase.   

2. Plan to Get a Mortgage
That way, you don’t have to save your money for years to become a homeowner and start building equity. The U.S. home loan market offers many safe, affordable mortgages, including ones that allow Muslims to buy a home without violating Islamic laws against paying interest. 

To get a U.S. mortgage, you must establish credit and earn a good credit score. To boost your score:

Open U.S. bank and credit card accounts.
Report all your income on your tax returns. Lenders use tax returns to verify your income and decide how much you can afford to borrow to buy a home.

When it’s time to apply for a mortgage, you’ll find major banks with global operations have experience working with foreign buyers and tend to have a process for verifying credit established in other countries.

3. Work with a experienced Realtor. 
Make sure your REALTOR®  has experience, training, and education in helping foreign-born home buyers. An experienced real estate or title attorney can help you protect your interests, too.

Tell your real estate agent how the home buying process works in your native country and ask her to explain U.S. home-buying customs to identify any differences. Even within the U.S., local differences exist in how people buy and sell homes. Knowing how homes are sold here and what to expect with closing costs, inspections, and the negotiation process reduces your stress and helps you get a good deal on your first home.

4. Don’t Be Shocked By Casual Attitudes
Americans’ casual attitudes toward buying or selling real estate is a byproduct of the relaxed U.S. business culture. Although real estate contracts must be in writing, the process leading up to the sales contract signing may be more informal and casual than it would be in your home country.

5. Convert Units
Learn to convert from the U.S. standard measurement into metric, or pick up a metric converter app so you can better estimate room and home sizes while shopping.

6. Find Someone Who Can Translate
If you’re not fluent in English, or prefer speaking in your native language, choose inspectors, mortgage bankers, and REALTORS® fluent in your own language. Dwyer Properties has staff that speak English and Arabic.  Although it’s possible to get translated copies of standard real estate documents, you’ll likely have to sign the English versions during your home purchase.

7. Create a Financial Plan for Your Home
Consider all the real-estate related expenses you’ll have as a homeowner, including property taxes, homeowners insurance, and maintenance costs. Set up a financial plan for your home so you know how much money to set aside for ongoing expenses.

Existing-Home Sales Ascend in October

The housing market hasn’t shown much growth in 2017 as recurring inventory issues continue to plague the industry. But the latest existing-home sales report from the National Association of Realtors offers a bit of encouragement for agents and consumers.

Total existing-home sales increased by 2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.48 million during the month of October, the NAR reports. It’s the second consecutive month of market improvement after existing-home sales increased by 0.7% in September after three straight months of regression.

NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun believes employment growth has supplied buyers with plenty of confidence that now is the right time to purchase a home.

“Job growth in most of the country continues to carry on at a robust level and is starting to slowly push up wages, which is in turn giving households added assurance that now is a good time to buy a home,” Yun said.

“While the housing market gained a little more momentum last month, sales are still below year ago levels because low inventory is limiting choices for prospective buyers and keeping price growth elevated.”

The progress is exciting as 2017 concludes and the NAR reports sales are at their strongest pace since June. However, transactions are still are 0.9% below the pace set in 2016.

Low inventory has once again played a role in the market’s behavior. Total housing inventory dropped by 3.2% to 1.8 million existing-homes for sale by the end of October, according to the NAR. The inventory level is currently 10.4% lower than it was a year ago.

Scarcity continues to play a role in the price of homes that were actually sold. The median existing-home price for all housing types was $247,000, which is 5.5% higher than the median sales price last October. That marks the 68th consecutive month of year-over-year gains in median home prices.

The sales pace remained unchanged from September to October. Homes remained on the market for an average of 34 days last month, per the NAR. The average home stayed on the market for 41 days in October 2016.

The housing climate is advantageous for sellers and might be a bit more arduous for buyers trying to find the right home for the ideal price. Inventory is low to begin with and the houses that go to market aren’t available for long and aren’t going for cheap.

HOME SELLERS: THE CURSE OF THE FIRST OFFER

Sometimes when everything goes right we have trouble accepting that fact. Perhaps nowhere is this phenomenon more clearly illustrated than in the case where a seller receives a good offer right away.

There are so many stories of sellers who refused to take a good, but not perfect, first offer, and who then waited a long, long time before finally accepting something else at a considerably lower price. And most agents who have been around for a while know to shudder when a good strong offer is made almost at the outset of a listing; for the seller's reservations are almost inevitable. "Did we list it too low?" "If someone will offer this much so soon, maybe we should wait a while and see if we can get more." Etc.

When we read in the news of homes in some areas selling well above list price, and when we've just recently come through a period when multiple-offer situations were commonplace, it is understandable that such thoughts come to mind. Nonetheless, they are generally unfounded, especially if the market is anywhere near "normal", as ours is today.

As an antidote to the ill effects of the "curse of the first offer", a couple of observations might be kept in mind.

First, the fact that an offer is received early in the listing period -- even in the first few days -- doesn't mean that the property has been listed too low.

It is easy to overlook how very efficient the residential real estate marketplace has become. Modern multiple listing systems (MLS) provide agents, and thus their buyer clients, with virtually instant access to information about existing inventory and about what has newly come on the market. In the old, old days a buyer's agent did not become aware of new listings until "the book" (i.e. the compilation of MLS listings) was published. There might have been a lag time of ten days or more from the time the listing was taken.

Today, a good buyer's agent will have electronically entered a "profile" of his client's needs and price range into the system. Then, whenever he logs on to the MLS, he will be notified if a listing has been entered that matches that profile. In a low-inventory market such as we have had recently, buyers' agents will log on a half-dozen times a day, or more, to see if an appropriate new listing has been entered. Moreover, in most systems the buyer's agent is able to place the buyer himself on a similar notification.

The point is that potential buyers learn quickly of the existence of an appropriate new listing. Thus a flurry of activity at the outset of the listing does not necessarily imply a too-low price; rather, it reflects the efficiency of the system.

Secondly, an early first offer does not imply that the seller should hold out for full price.

We all know that there is typically a bit of a dance in the pricing and negotiating for a property. Sellers, with the concurrence of their agents, will usually list their property for an amount that is both higher than what they believe its value to be and higher than what they would be satisfied to receive. Why? Because they know that buyers almost always want and expect to pay less than the listed price

However, when an otherwise acceptable offer comes in near the outset of a listing period, sellers are frequently tempted to hold out for full price, or much closer to it than would normally be expected. Caution should be exercised in this regard.

For one thing, as we have noted, exposure of the property to buyers occurs pretty quickly nowadays, and sellers shouldn't assume that there are going to be more, much less higher, offers as the listing period progresses.

Secondly, there often can be a transactional benefit to "leaving something on the table." A real estate transaction is a process. These days, with inspections and disclosures, there are almost always "second negotiations" during the course of escrow. A buyer who feels ground down in the purchase negotiation may well be more difficult to deal with as other issues arise.

SELLER'S ADVICE: STEPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL HOME SHOWING

Once your home goes on the market, real estate agents may call to show your home anytime, day or evening. Keeping your home "showtime" ready can be challenging, especially if you have children and pets.

What you need to stay organized is a handy checklist so you can be ready to show at any time. When you get the call that buyers are on their way, give everyone in the household a basket and assign them each to a room to pick up clutter quickly. Set a timer and tell everyone to grab up any toys on the floor, clear tabletops and countertops of junk, and quickly Swiffer-sweep the floors. Check for hazards like dog chews on the floor.

Turn on all the lights, and get ready to skedaddle. You have to let buyers have privacy so they can assess your home honestly. Take the kids for an outing. Put pets in daycare, sleep cages or take them with you:

Keep your home show-ready with these nine tips:

Eliminate clutter: Not only is clutter unattractive, it's time-consuming to sort through and expensive for you to move. If you have a lot of stuff, collections, and family mementoes, you would be better off renting a small storage unit for a few months.

Keep, donate, throw away: Go through your belongings and put them into one of these three baskets. You'll receive more in tax benefits for your donations that pennies on the dollar at a garage sale. It's faster, more efficient and you'll help more people.

Remove temptations: Take valuable jewelry and collectibles to a safety deposit box, a safe, or store them in a secure location.

Remove breakables: Figurines, china, crystal and other breakables should be packed and put away in the garage or storage.

Be hospitable: You want your home to look like a home. Stage it to show the possibilities, perhaps set the table, or put a throw on the chair by the fireplace with a bookmarked book on the table.

Have a family plan of action: Sometimes showings aren't convenient. You can always refuse a showing, but do you really want to? If you have a showing with little notice, get the family engaged. Everyone has a basket and picks up glasses, plates, newspapers, or anything left lying about.

Remove prescription medicines: Despite qualifying by the buyer's agent, some buyers have other intentions than buying your home. It's also a good idea to lock your personal papers such as checkbooks away. Do not leave mail out on your desk.

Get in the habit: Wash dishes immediately after meals. Clean off countertops. Make beds in the morning. Keep pet toys and beds washed and smelling fresh.

Clean out the garage and attic: Buyers want to see what kind of storage there is.