Links of Interest

Buying a new home or property is a major financial and legal transaction. The more informed you are, the better. Your Realtor and partner in the process at the Dunes Marketing Group will help make the process of buying a new home, condo, villa on Hilton Head Island as easy as possible.

To start off the process, here are a collection of links that will help you better understand the process and equip you with important details and information.

Post-Contract Pitfalls

Many people think that once that the seller has accepted their offer and they’ve signed the contract that everything is downhill, smooth sailing from then on. We try to make it that way, but more than a few sales fall through or get mired up AFTER the contract is signed.

You need to be prepared and informed. These links can help:

• What happens if you see major problems on the home inspection report? http://money.cnn.com/2006/05/11/real_estate/inspecting_before_buying/index.htm
• The National Association of Realtors (NAR) advice on post-contact pitfalls http://www.realtor.org/realtororg.nsf/pages/post_contract_pitfalls

Consumer Protection Tips

As a homebuyer, a consumer, you have many rights specified by law. Know your rights.

• The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has an excellent site filled with information about buying a new home. This is a great place to start: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/buying_a_home
• The Real Estate Report Card has an excellent one page review of home buyers’ rights: http://www.therealestatereportcard.com/2009/05/home-buyer-rights.html
• Ginnie Mae has a full listing of the federal laws and regulations that protects home buyers: http://www.ginniemae.gov/1_learn/homebuyers_ref.asp?Section=YPTH
• The South Carolina Department of Consumer Affairs maintains a site filled with consumer protection information. You can review their publications here http://www.scconsumer.gov/publications.htm and contact them for more information here http://www.scconsumer.gov/contact_us.htm.
• We recommend the National Association of Realtors (NAR) guide  "Understand Your Credit - It makes sense to find out about your credit and correct any errors now." http://www.realtor.com/home-finance/buyers-basics/understand-your-importance-of-credit.aspx
• You can also receive your credit reports for free here: (don’t be taken in by the commercials—here’s the real, mandated by federal law site): https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
• We also recommend the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)'s booklet entitled "Shopping for Your Home Loan - HUD's Settlement Cost Booklet." It provides extensive details on how to shop for a new house, securing loans, Good Faith Estimates (GFE) and settlement and HUD-1 documents: http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/documents/huddoc?id=DOC_12164.pdf

And, of course, you can always ask your Realtor at the Dunes Marketing Group. Just call, we’ll be happy to help.