If a picture says a thousand words, then these “How to” Videos for prospective home buyers speak volumes.
To help consumers navigate the sometimes confusing home buying process, we’ve posted these three videos:
Shopping for Your Home
Shopping for Your Loan
Closing the Deal
These videos were created by the government Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in conjunction with the National Association of Realtors, and we feel they give new buyers a good overview of the home buying process.
Enjoy.
Shopping for Your Home
The homebuying process obviously starts with finding a place you’ll want to call home. This short video will instruct viewers on assessing how much of a home you can afford, working with a real estate agent and what happens once you find the home you want to buy. Housing counselors can assist home buyers and home owners on issues such as home buying, fair housing, credit issues, and foreclosure prevention.
Shopping for Your Loan
Once you’ve found the home of your dreams, the next step is to shop for a mortgage loan. This video will help consumers use the good faith estimate (GFE), which is a form that spells out the terms of a loan offer, to shop for the best loan for them. Consumers will learn how to use the GFE to determine how long an interest rate is available for a particular loan and how to identify key loan terms and costs of a particular loan offer. HUD suggests consumers shop and compare GFEs from multiple mortgage brokers and/or lenders in order to get the best loan for their situation.
Closing the Deal
This video walks consumers through the actual closing process including how to make sure the loan they were offered closely matches what they encounter at the settlement table. In particular, HUD will walk the viewer through the HUD-1 Settlement Statement and demonstrate ways consumers can compare their actual costs with those reflected on their Good Faith Estimate.