-Buying a home and buying a car are both major purchases that take some planning and budgeting, but unlike signing on the dotted line and driving a new car off the lot, buying a home takes a lot more time. Marc Coons helps home buyers understand how long the process takes and why.

People spend a lot of time looking at cars, researching and test driving, just as they spend a lot of time looking at homes for sale before finally making a decision. The home-buying process isn’t as simple, though, as paying the car dealer and getting the car keys. Deciding to buy a home is just the beginning of a process that has more complexities than buying a car.

Getting pre-qualified for a loan is the first step to buying a home. While pre-qualification isn’t the same thing as finalizing the loan, it is a confirmation that a lender is agreeing to work with a buyer. Once the pre-qualification confirmation is in your hands, the search for a home begins.

Getting prequalified can take a week or more, and even longer when lenders are not willing to consider a buyer. It’s common for buyers to wait for a lender’s decision only to find out they are denied, and then have to start all over again with a different lender. Working with Marc Coons, the Paso Robles residential loan consultant, can shorten the pre-qualification process to a matter of days.

People can spend weeks going to open houses, browsing through real estate ads, and driving around from house to house with the real estate agent before making an offer. If for some reason the initial offer isn’t accepted, there might be a period of time for negotiations. Fortunately, there are laws that cover accepting and rejecting offers, so this part of the process can’t take too long. But, if the negotiations fall apart, that is time lost and the house-hunting process starts all over.

Once an offer is accepted, escrow needs to be opened, which is a quick process, but escrow can stay open for between 30 to 60 days before everything is ready. In some circumstances, when both parties agree, escrow can be shorter.

During escrow, while the title company is verifying a clean title, the loan needs to be finalized, and inspections need to happen. The seller needs to make necessary repairs, or the buyer and seller need to negotiate those repairs. There can be a seemingly long period of silence during escrow, when nothing seems to be happening, leaving the buyer with some anxiety. Rest assured that a lot is going on in the background during the wait.

Some real estate agents recommend a long escrow, up to 60 days, to allow a comfortable margin of time to take care of title issues, inspection issues, and even minor financing issues that might come up. A longer escrow is often recommended when the buyer is still accumulating the downpayment.

At the end of escrow, after the buyer has signed the largest stack of paperwork ever seen, the forms are notarized, and filed, the final downpayment funds are transferred into escrow for payout, and the buyer gets the keys.

So, how long does it take to buy a house?

Worst case, from the time someone decides to buy a house until actually unlocking the front door and moving in can be months. But don’t let that be a deterrent. There are things that speed up the process, such as working with Marc Coons, the Paso Robles residential loan consultant.

Backed by Certainty Home Lending’s resources and with access to hundreds of lenders, Marc Coons and his professional team streamline home buying by helping buyers complete a single application, then distributing the application to multiple lenders. At the same time, buyers are prequalified and can start looking for the right home right away.

Streamlining the pre-approval and loan process shaves weeks off of the house-buying adventure. One application is distributed to many lenders at the same time. Any potential problems are addressed by Marc and his team before an application is distributed. Any unforeseen problems are immediately communicated to the buyer and resolved as quickly as possible. Marc and his team are a single contact point for questions from the buyer or real estate agent.

Services include:

• Mortgage loans and financing
• Conventional, Jumbo, FHA, USDA, VA and 203(k)
• Construction loans
• Home purchase or refinancing
• Equity loans and HELOC (lines of credit)

Marc Coons
806 9th St, Suite 2A
Paso Robles, CA 93446
(805) 712-8040