Buyer guide
Buy like a pro.
Everything that happens between deciding you might buy and getting the keys, in the order it happens, with the parts people get caught out by flagged.
Stage one
Before you look.
Separate the budget from the approval
A lender tells you the maximum they will lend. That is a different number from what you want to pay every month for thirty years. Decide your own number first, then borrow inside it.
Count the costs that aren't the mortgage
Property taxes, homeowner's insurance, utilities on a larger space, assessments if it is a condo, and a maintenance reserve. On older Chicago housing stock the maintenance line is not optional.
Get pre-approved in writing
Not pre-qualified. A pre-approval means the lender has looked at documentation. It is what makes your offer credible, and in a competitive situation it is the difference between being considered and being skipped.
Work out your real must-haves
Three, maybe four. Everything else is a preference. Buyers who cannot tell the difference tend to spend a year looking and then compromise on the wrong thing in a hurry.
Stage two
Searching, and seeing properly.
Look at the block, not just the house
Go back at a different time of day. Check what is behind it and what is planned next to it. The house you can change; the location you cannot.
Read the condition, not the staging
Roof age, windows, the electrical panel, the furnace and water heater, signs of water in the basement, and tuckpointing on brick. These are the expensive items and they are all visible if you know to look.
Ask what the taxes actually are
Illinois property taxes can shift meaningfully after a sale, and the figure on the listing may be the seller's bill with exemptions you will not get. Ask what it is likely to be for you.
Keep a written record
After six showings they blur. Photograph the mechanicals and write down your honest reaction the same evening.
Stage three
Offer to closing.
Build the offer around terms, not just price
Closing date, earnest money, contingencies and what you ask the seller to pay all affect how your offer reads. Sometimes a seller takes less money for a date that solves their problem.
Understand what you are waiving
Dropping the inspection or appraisal contingency makes an offer stronger and takes away your protection. It is sometimes the right call. It should always be a decision, never a default.
Use attorney review
In Illinois both sides' attorneys review the contract within a period defined in it. Modifications happen here, and it is where an inspection problem gets renegotiated. This is not a formality.
Take the inspection seriously, and proportionately
An inspection report always finds things. The job is to separate the structural, mechanical and safety items from the list of worn washers, and to respond to the first group.
Keep your finances still
Between approval and closing, do not change jobs, open a credit line, or buy a car. Underwriting re-checks, and this derails more closings than almost anything else.
Do the final walkthrough properly
Confirm agreed repairs are done, the property is in the condition you agreed, and nothing has been removed that was supposed to stay. Run the taps, test the heat.
Go through it with someone who has done it before.
In English or Spanish, and at whatever stage you are actually at.