This is the first in a series on how to buy a house. What are the steps? What are the decision points? What documents will you send and receive? What should you pay attention to? And most important what can you ignore?

Before we bought TMP house on Valencia in June, the last single-family home (SFH) we bought was a cabin on the East Verde River north of Payson.

That was in 2005, almost 15 years ago! When we started TMP and I started working with Jeff, our outstanding real estate broker, I was surprised by how much had changed in the buying process for a SFH in those 15 years. Although we had done several commercial real estate transactions including loan refinances, an apartment complex purchase, and even several commercial loan renegotiations, the process was different.

In this series of posts and videos, we will go through this spreadsheet that explains the house buying process; line by line, column by column and address all of the elements of buying a house. This includes the TIMELINE, the DOCUMENTs you receive and/or are required to provide, and the KEY DECISIONS in the process. We will tell you what is important, what is REALLY important and ‘what you can safely ignore’.

Buying a house, especially for the first time, can be a hectic experience. You are bombarded with information. Everything is URGENT! IMPORTANT! If you don’t do this in the next 10 minutes the deal is off, and you will DIE. And your whole family too!

Slow down. Buying a house for the first time is like driving for the first time. At first you are overwhelmed by all the information and a panic sets in. Like this guy;

After you’ve learned to drive a car, you can do it while doing all sorts of dangerous, distracting activities such as texting, eating, shaving, putting on makeup, or even DUI.

Why can these people do these incredibly distracting things while driving a boat when a newby named SpongeBob crashes just by turning on the motor? Because they have learned what they can ignore and what they absolutely must pay attention to. In this series we’re going to explain the process and point out what you can safely ignore.