Section 1

• The Serious Home Buyer

• Putting Real Estate Into Proper Perspective

• Workshop Objectives

• 6 Steps To Buying A Home:  Throughout the course we’ll explore each of the 6 steps in detail, until all your questions are answered.

• The Lending Process

• How To Avoid The Ten Deadly Mistakes:  If You Don’t Know What They Are, You’re In Trouble Already.  We Cover Each in Detail.

A Personal Action Plan.  We’ll be covering this in later detail, but for now it’s important to understand how vital this is to your overall success in buying a house.

• How To Conduct A Personal Planning Meeting

• What Is A Realtor?

• What Are The First Principles You Should Learn About Choosing An Agent.

• The Biggest Financial Decision Of Your Life!

Section 2 

• Deadly Mistake #1

• Benefits Of Home Ownership

• Rent Vs. Buying

• Interest Rates And How They Affect What You Can Afford:  After this section you’ll never listen passively to the interest rate numbers on the nightly news again. How a tenth of a point in interest can mean a whole different house! 

• Hidden Savings Account:  You'll learn where to find money you didn’t even know you had! 

• Buyer Vs. Seller

• There Are Many People That Stand Between You And Your Home. 

• The Buyers Agent:  How to get a pro to stand in the gap for you, and not have to pay them a dime!

 Section 3 

• Financing

• Deadly Mistake Number #2:

• Pre-Qualification Vs. Pre-Approval

• Mortgages

• What Is A Mortgage? Sounds simple enough, but a mortgage isn’t something you get…YOU give the mortgage to the bank!  We'll explain how all this works, and why it’s there to protect your legal rights!

• Interest Rates

• Loan Choices

• What Are The 4 Major Types Of Loans? Do you know?  If not, you could be paying THOUSANDS more than you have to, on a loan program that’s good for the lender but not for you! 

• Loan Terms

• ARM’s – Adjustable Rate Mortgages:  Have you considered an ARM because of lower payments or lower current rates?  If so, this section could be crucial to your security in your home.  We cover the upside and the darkside of ARM’s, so you won’t risk having your payments skyrocket in the future! 

• Credit Scores And History:  Do you know how your Credit Score is arrived at?  When you do, it puts you in the power position in all of your dealings with lenders!

• What Can I Afford?

• PITI:  Your Monthly Payment (Principle, Interest, Taxes and Insurance)

• Budgeting For Your Home

Section 4 

• Step #1 To Buying A Home: Create A Game Plan:  If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll probably end up somewhere else!  We’ll create an Action Plan for Success… your personal roadmap to owning your own place!

• Lender Counseling

• Agent Counseling

• Maximizing Your Buying Potential

• Specific Loan Types

• Interest Only Loans:  Wow! The payments are really low!  What’s the downside to paying Interest Only?  Is there an upside besides low, low monthly payments?  And, what’s the catch?

• Helpful Hints

• Getting Much More Home for Your Money

Section 5

 In this chapter we’ll cover all the money areas of your closing, looking at each one in detail and explaining how they all interrelate.  Also, we’ll look at strategies to limit your costs and maximize the value of any money you may have in the deal.

• Down Payment

• Cash To Close

• Prepaids

• Closing Costs

• Interest Rates

• Dissecting A Good Faith Estimate

• Types Of Homes

• Real Estate Marketing Tricks

• Taking The Mystery Out Of The Process:  It really IS mysterious to a lot of people.  We pull back the curtain and show you every part of the process… from the ground up, so you can see the entire picture from beginning to end.  This gives you confidence and understanding as you work with your professionals to buy your house.

 Section 6 

Step #2 To Buying A Home

• Simplifying The Real Estate Industry

• Agency Law: Who Really Represents You?

• All About Agents:  Did you know there are times when you can “fire” an agent and not be held liable for any commissions?  We show you how and when this is in your best interest and appropriate.

• Real Estate Agency

• Duties Of The Seller’s Agent

• Duties Of A Buyers Agent

• Benefits Of Having Your Very Own Agent So How Do You Know, If You Are Signing A Buyer Broker Agreement, That It Is In Your Best Interest? 

• Dual Agency

• A Few Things That Buyers Do That Get Them In Trouble

Deadly Mistake #3

• How Agents Get Paid: It May Surprise You

• Red Flags When Buying A New Construction Home

• Who’s Best Interest Is Being Served?

• Deadly Mistake #4

• Deadly Mistake #5

• Window Shopping

Section 7

• Referral Fees And Affinity Groups: How Can You Benefit From This Information:  All the knowledge in the world is useless unless we have a clear plan and apply it in our lives.  We give you both a clear plan, the information you need, and ways to immediately begin using it to buy your own home.

• Deadly Mistake #6

• Deadly Mistake #7

• Properties To Avoid

• Step #3 To Buying A Home

• Deadly Mistake #8

• Earnest Money

• Understanding Your Market:  You may think you know real estate in your areas… We'll show you pretty quickly that most of what you think you know is probably wrong!  (Don’t make financial decisions based on wrong or outdated information!)

• Step #4 To Buying A Home

• Common Real Estate Myths

Section 8

• Presenting The Offer

• Step #5: Mutual Acceptance

• Deadly Mistake #9

• Step #6: To Buying a Home

• Escrow

• Deadly Mistake #10

• Your Next Step

• Glossary Of Real Estate And Mortgage Terms:  So if you ever have a term tossed around and you’re not sure of what it means, you can slip out your workbook and immediately find out for yourself!