Buy a Home
Buy a Home with TheKabza.com, From Pre-Approval to Keys in Hand
Buyer representation across Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Phoenix-Scottsdale, Miami and Nashville, with one licensed agent on the file from the first showing to the funding wire.
Buying starts with financing, not with listings, and the first distinction matters more than any other. A pre-qualification is a conversation: you state your income, assets and debts, a loan officer runs a ratio, and a letter prints. A pre-approval is underwriting: pay stubs, W-2s or two years of returns, bank statements, a hard credit pull, and at the better lenders a desk review by an actual underwriter before you write anything. A listing agent can tell the two apart in about ten seconds, and in a multiple-offer file that difference is often the whole margin. Ask every lender you speak to for the Loan Estimate rather than a rate quote; the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's homebuying guides show where points, lender credits and cash to close actually sit on that form.
Earnest money is not a down payment. It is a deposit delivered to the title company or escrow agent within a few days of a signed contract, credited back to you at closing, and at risk only if you walk outside the protections you negotiated. In Texas those protections start with the termination option in the TREC One to Four Family Residential Contract: a negotiated option fee buys a negotiated number of days, commonly five to ten, during which you may terminate for any reason and recover your earnest money. Arizona and Florida contracts use an inspection period to similar effect. Whatever it is called, that window is your entire diligence budget, and we spend it on a general inspection your agent attends in person, a structural opinion where soil or age warrants one, a sewer scope on older stock, the survey, HOA documents, and an insurance quote that is bound rather than estimated.
Lenders lend against appraised value, not contract price. A $620,000 contract that appraises at $600,000 leaves $20,000 for someone to cover: you in cash, the seller in price, or nobody, and the contract terminates under the financing addendum. Appraisal gap coverage is a real cash commitment, so we put the number in writing before you agree to it. Seller concessions work the other direction. A closing-cost credit or a temporary rate buydown often moves your monthly payment further than the same money taken off the price, and both are capped by loan type and down payment.
We run this process in all six market areas, and the local mechanics differ enough to matter: MUD and PID assessments north of Austin, foundation diligence on Dallas-Fort Worth clay, flood zones and elevation certificates in Houston, condominium reserve studies in Miami. If you are buying and selling in the same window, read how we prepare and launch a listing so the two calendars line up, and if the purchase is a rental, it belongs in investment underwriting before it belongs in a showing schedule. USA.gov's buying a home overview is a neutral starting point for first-time buyers, common questions are answered in the FAQ, and a consultation can be booked here or by calling (512) 555-0142.
How it runs
What actually happens, stage by stage
Each stage ends in a document you keep, not a phone call you half-remember.
- Step 01 Days 1-5 Deliverable: written budget
Financing before listings
A pre-approval, not a pre-qualification letter
We start with the money, because a budget built on a rate quote falls apart at the offer table. Bring two lenders, compare the Loan Estimates side by side, and we will read them with you.
- Income, asset and credit documents submitted for a real underwriting review
- Loan Estimates compared on points, lender credits and cash to close, not on headline rate
- Property taxes at the post-sale assessed value and insurance quoted, not assumed
- Down payment, closing costs and reserves stated as one cash-to-close number
- Step 02 Day 1 Deliverable: signed scope
A written scope and a narrow search
Buyer representation agreement with the fee and the agent named
Written buyer representation agreements are now standard practice nationally. Ours states the fee, the term, the services and how to end it, and we read it with you line by line before anything is signed.
- Fee, term, covered area and your agent's name written in before the first showing
- Search criteria defined by exclusions as much as inclusions, so you see fewer homes
- No referral hand-off: the agent who tours with you is the agent who negotiates
- Any compensation offered by a listing broker disclosed to you in writing
- Step 03 Offer week Deliverable: comp file
Touring, comparables and the offer
An offer built from closed sales you can drive past
Before we write, you get the comparable addresses, their close dates and terms, and the adjustments behind our number. Offer strategy then covers price, earnest money, option fee, closing date and what each term actually buys you.
- Comparable file with MLS numbers, close terms and adjustments, delivered before the offer
- Earnest money and option fee set deliberately: what strengthens the offer, what only spends cash
- Escalation, appraisal gap and leaseback terms modeled in dollars before you sign
- Local mechanics checked per metro, from MUD rates to condominium assessments
- Step 04 Days 1-10 of contract Deliverable: repair position
The option period is the diligence budget
Five to ten days in Texas, an inspection period elsewhere
This is the only stretch of the transaction where you can leave for any reason and keep your earnest money. It gets used, not waited out.
- Your agent attends the general inspection and reads the report with the inspector
- Structural, sewer, roof, HVAC and pest opinions ordered where age or soil warrants them
- Repair requests priced from contractor bids rather than round-number guesses
- HOA documents, survey and, where relevant, flood zone and elevation certificate reviewed
- Homeowners insurance quoted and bound inside the window, not after it closes
- Step 05 Weeks 2-4 Deliverable: title memo
Appraisal, title and the financing contingency
Schedule B read exception by exception
The title commitment is ordered in the opening days of contract, not the closing week. We walk Schedule B with you: easements, mineral and solar reservations, liens, survey gaps, anything that does not belong on your title gets a cure path and a deadline.
- Title Review Memo listing each exception in plain English, marked accept, cure or walk
- Appraisal managed, and an under-value result answered with data rather than panic
- Financing contingency and appraisal terms tracked against the dates in your contract
- Rate lock expiry, HOA transfer documents and survey delivery watched as dated milestones
- Step 06 Closing week Deliverable: possession
Closing Disclosure, walkthrough, possession
The day the keys actually change hands
Your Closing Disclosure must reach you at least three business days before consummation, and we compare it against the Loan Estimate line by line. Wire instructions are verified by phone to a number you already had, never to one that arrived by email.
- Closing Disclosure reconciled against the Loan Estimate before you sit down to sign
- Wire instructions verified by call-back, because wire fraud in real estate is common
- Final walkthrough run as a checklist: repairs completed, systems on, property empty
- Funding, recording and key handover confirmed, with your agent present
Also from us
The rest of what TheKabza.com runs in-house
Every service is delivered by our own licensed staff, each on its own written agreement.
Start with a conversation, not a contract
Sixty minutes on your goals and constraints, and you leave with a written scope: what we will do, who will do it, the fee in dollars, and how to cancel. Nothing at TheKabza.com starts on a handshake.
- No obligation, no pressure
- A named agent on your file
- Written plan within 48 hours