Buying a home in Texas Hello, this is Julie Yasar with RealtyOne Group Iconic in the Spring, Texas area. Today I want to talk about the steps to buying a home in Texas.  Let's look at the steps:

1.     Consider your financing. Cash buyers go to the next step immediately, if not a cash buyer, you need to figure out if you can get a mortgage. To do that you need to Calculate your DTI. If it is more than 50%, wait until you either increase your income or pay off your debts. Lenders calculate your debt-to-income ratio by dividing your monthly debt obligations by your pretax, or gross income.   How do you calculate DTI? Firstly, there are 2 types of DTI: front-end ratio and back-end ratio. The back-end ratio is calculated by adding together all of a borrower's monthly debt payments and dividing the sum by the borrower's monthly income. Consider a borrower whose monthly income is $5,000 ($60,000 annually divided by 12) and who has total monthly debt payments of $2,000. This borrower's back-end ratio is 40%, ($2,000 / $5,000).  Generally, lenders like to see a back-end ratio that does not exceed 36%. However, some lenders make exceptions for ratios of up to 50% for borrowers with good credit.  Like the back-end ratio, the front-end ratio is another debt-to-income comparison used by mortgage underwriters. The only difference between the two is that the front-end ratio considers no debt other than mortgage payment. Therefore, the front-end ratio is calculated by dividing only the borrower's mortgage payment by his or her monthly income. Returning to the example above, assume that out of the borrower's $2,000 monthly debt obligation, their mortgage payment comprises $1,200 of that amount. The borrower's front-end ratio, then, is ($1,200 / $5,000), or 24%. Lenders use the front-end ratio in conjunction with the back-end ratio to determine how much to lend. Lenders prefer a front-end ratio of no more than 28% for most loans and 31% or less for Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans 

2.    Start looking for a house with a realtor. Find a trustworthy, local expert realtor to help you get the best deal and avoid problems along the way. Also, please look at Har.com to get real data. Since Har does not have agreement with Zillow right now, one house might be advertised in Zillow as for sale, but in reality, it is not.

3.    Once you find the house, submit an offer. After negotiating with the seller, once all parties agree and both sides signed, the contract becomes binded and is called an executed contract. On the contract, there are couple of things you need to look for: ·         Earnest money ·         Option fee money

4.    Inspection: When you do an inspection, after the report comes, you have the right to go and ask the seller about any things that need to be fixed. Seller except for your request or give you a credit. The seller can either accept your request or give you credit at closing. The worst-case scenario is terminating the contract, but usually, the seller agrees with it.

5.    Closing: You will go to the title company, who will give you a clean title and give you all the documents you need to sign in order to get the house.