Desi fam. My wife and I are considering buying a house in NJ but are pretty clueless about how to go about the process apart from look at houses on zillow. Anyone who recently went through the process willing to share their experience? We're both on the h1b, if that matters. Appreciate any help, thanks!

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My brother in law is a realtor. I can connect you if you like and he can guide you through the process and can also help you in buying a house. Please DM me if you are interested. Thanks

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1.Find the area where u want to live including school district
2. Your comfortable mortgage payment and check your max limit for home.
3. Get an initial pre-approval letter from bank for the loan amount.
4. Get a realtor . Typically they are paid by seller(3%) and not directly by you.
5. Put an offer with earnest money.
6. If offer accepted, inspection ( your realtor will guide you)
7. Closing - actual purchase

Your realtor is your guide . So get good reference for your realtor through friends. All the best

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Find a local realtor. The realtor should know some loan officer who can give you a pre approval letter. Ask your realtor to set up appointments for the house you like, go see the house and start bidding.

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First step is setting parameters. Where you want to live: city/neighborhood, how much your comfortable spending, home minimum specs: #of bedrooms, other intangibles such as school district. Do a quick check against Zillow or Redfin to see if your expectations meet the market and then reach out to a local real estate agent.

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Thanks all. Appreciate the responses. What is the best way to get a realtor? Apart from referrals, I saw that zillow, redfin and better offer realtor services. Are they reliable?

Will check it out , thanks. The other thing to consider is the opportunity cost. With the interest rates being so low , you could use that additional principal you would put on a 15 year term to invest elsewhere. Index funds have almost a 8% annualized return over a long period that beats any additional interest you pay on 30% . I dont think its a straight answer of 15 is better than 30 when interests are so low.

Visit the open houses in your area. There will usually be a realtor there showing the house.. you can be super honest with them and talk to them get your questions answered. Really basic ones if they seem free. Otherwise they’ll try to get you on a consultation appt. Then if you find that any one of them really resonates with you.. carry the relationship forward. You need to be able to trust your realtor because there is inherently always going to be a conflict of interest when working with them - they split their pay from the sellers agent commission. But they are always looking for buyers and they can give you indications of the market, their thoughts on a house, and a bunch of contacts to get pre approvals, inspections, appraisals etc. I would try to get my own attorney because I don’t want to have my agents attorney just pushing through the paperwork to get it done. But the rest I would rely on my realtor.
I’m also looking to buy a place in central NJ. But inventory is so dried up. Where in NJ are you guys looking?

NJ homes are so expensive and also mostly unavailable.

Anyone here have any realtor recommendations for the Central and North NJ areas?

I'm currently in the process but haven't closed yet, looking in the same areas. Feel free to DM me and I'll share the information I have.

We are in the same boat and looking for a house in NJ. Everything is so expensive and old. I would just wait.

Wood ridge, NJ? Is that decent area?

I can give you my realtors number. We were first time home buyers last year and she helped us a lot in guiding everything. Made it so stress free for us.
She even has good connections in case any work needs to be done on the house.

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