Before even meeting mrJo, I knew I wanted to be a home owner as soon as possible after graduating college. I even considered purchasing while still in college and turning the home into a rental property when I graduated! Essentially, I felt like I was throwing away money on rent.

Post-graduation and after 6 months of starting my career, I was talking to my realtor about purchasing my first home. But I didn’t know mrJo was planning his proposal! He actually contacted my realtor via Facebook and asked her to convince me to wait!

Once we were married and knew babyJo was on the way, we definitely wanted to be in our own space! Here’s a list of 7-ish questions we asked our realtor during our prior consultation.

You should note that my realtor happens to be my aunt. So there is probably a separate list of questions you would ask if you were interviewing a realtor and unfortunately I don’t have that resource. We went with my aunt not just because she’s family, but because she’s a GREAT realtor and makes it her mission to educate people on the process. And we definitely needed some educating!

1. Should we apply for a loan through your finance contact or can we get a better rate at a credit union/shopping around?
   First off, advice that was given to us by our pre-marital counselor was that if your realtor has their own finance contact, you know they’re the real deal. Luckily our realtor has a contact, but encouraged us to shop around for a “Good Faith Estimate” which was described as a high level interest rate that’s given without pulling our credit. Getting that information gives us some more leverage and we could be offered some incentives to apply for loans.
2. How do realtor fees work?
   Okay was this a dumb question for home buying? We didn’t know! We learned that the seller pays commission for both the listing and the buying agent. So no need for you to pay the realtor. You probably don’t need to ask this question; it’s just here because we did!
3. What are some of the biggest challenges in the home buying process?
   This is going to ultimately depend on you, but it’s good to get the opinion of your realtor and maybe get some tips. Our realtor’s opinion was that narrowing down a location was the most challenging part, but that maybe because we live in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas where there are SO many options.
4. What neighborhoods are you most familiar with?
   This question was really helpful because we had a general list of some areas we’re interested in and it was nice to highlight the ones our realtor shows in more often. You can also ask what the process would look like or if there would be any delay if you want to be shown a home in an area your realtor is unfamiliar with. Ours mentioned that she would need to do some further analysis beforehand.
5. Can you provide us with some analysis on the areas we’re interested in?
   This may not be something that you want during the prior consultation (probably too much to swallow), but it’s good to know what resources you will have available to you throughout the process. Some information you may want include: popular features in homes in that area, market value, how long houses stay on the market, growth/decline, school ratings (Schools are rated 1-10; is that also common knowledge? Clearly I knew nothing), utility company options/restrictions, etc.
6. What incentives, grants, etc. do you think we qualify for?
   The answer to this boiled down to the different loans there are: Conventional, FHA, and VA for veterans. Ask to get your realtor’s input based on your situation!
7. Can you give me a high level of some of the basic terminology in home buying?
   This is the “ish” part. Basically mrJo and I watch a lot of HGTV and look on Zillow a lot. We notice a lot of terminology that we wanted decoded! Here are some of the things we asked about, I won’t go into the answers for each because I’m not a professional and don’t want you to take my word for it!
   1. Pre-Approval vs. Pre-Qualify
   2. Appraisal vs. Inspection
   3. Auction vs. Foreclosure (we learned a LOT here)
   4. Short sale: what is it and why is it said to be a long process?
   5. Fees: Option fee, Earnest Money, closing costs, etc.
   6. Taxes: non-exempt vs. homestead exemption
   7. HOA & Codes (also learned a lot here!)

What other questions do you have? Add to your list and also comment below.