Thinking about buying your next home without a real estate agent but not sure what paperwork you’ll need during the process? We’ve got you covered. Certain documentation is required in order to legally purchase a home. Luckily, Bōde provides all the information you’ll need to not miss a thing and industry standard contracts too!
Our digital system streamlines everything for home buyers, makes the paperwork part of the transaction straight forward, and also helps the environment by significantly reducing the actual ‘paper’ used during the transaction.
To get started, let’s go over what documents you may need when buying your own home.
Home data
When you’re ready to start looking at homes on the market, it’s a good idea to do some research on the areas you are looking in and the recently sold properties in those areas. Bōde’s market data, sold data, and comparables tools makes researching transparent and easy for home buyers. Prior to viewing a home, you may also want to see the detailed fact sheet on that specific property – our team can help with that!
Mortgage pre-approval (if applicable)
Obtaining a mortgage pre-approval is often recommended before starting your home search. It helps determine how much home you can actually afford, and it can help make sellers (and their agents) take you more seriously as a buyer.
Get easily approved online with Trilogy Home Mortgage here.
Purchase contract
To make an offer to purchase a home, you will need a purchase contract! When you utilize Bōde’s online offer process, our system will populate an industry standard purchase agreement with all the particulars that you indicated and send it directly to the seller (or their agent). The seller will have the opportunity to decline, counter, or accept your offer. You will be able to negotiate back and forth until you reach an agreement – all conveniently online. All changes made during negotiations using the Bōde platform will be reflected on your purchase agreement so once an agreement is reached all you’ll need to do is digitally sign with DocuSign. If any changes are made to the contract after the offer has been accepted, there would be an amendment that would be required.
Home inspection report
As a buyer, you’ll like want to have an inspection completed prior to entering into a firm sale with the seller. The home inspector will provide you with a detailed report for the home, including recommended repairs. You may choose to use this information to negotiate further with the seller on price, or to have some aspects of the home repaired prior to the possession date.
Financing documents (if applicable)
If you’ve added a financing condition to your offer, you’ll need to obtain the financing (and paperwork that goes along with it) through your lender. This is separate from your initial pre-approval. Often to obtain financing you will be required to supply proof of income, and other documentation.
Condominium or Strata documents
If you are purchasing a condo, you will likely want to review the condo documents. You may choose to do this yourself, or hire a professional to thoroughly go over the documents. Reviewing condo documents is very important to get an overall picture of the financial status of the condominium building and management. As the home buyer, you will need to make sure to include condo document review as a condition of the home purchase.
Learn more about condo documents here.
Waiver of conditions
A waiver of conditions will be required to remove conditions and have a firm sale after a conditional sale.
In the purchase contract, you will indicate who is to take care of conveyancing the deal. As a self-represented buyer, you can indicate the seller’s brokerage and the lawyers will handle it from there!
Additional paperwork
You may also want to request some additional paperwork from the seller in addition to what is required to complete your home purchase. Being prepared for what you’d like to know about properties you are interested in ahead of time can save valuable time during the home purchase process and provide extremely important information about the home. Some examples include:
– Copies of Electric and Gas Bills
– Property Tax Information
– Invoices (of past renovations or repairs)
– Rental Information (if home is rented)
Buying your own home isn’t rocket science. And it’s made ridiculously simple with Bōde. From providing all the necessary paperwork, to ensuring buyers know what is the next step in their home purchase process, Bōde creates a seamless and completely digital experience for home buyers – without a real estate agent.
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