Straight answers about buying, renting and selling a home

One question per page, answered in the first sentence and then properly. General US practice, with the state specifics called out as state specifics rather than assumed.

How long does it take to buy a house?

From accepted offer to keys, a financed purchase usually takes 30 to 45 days, and a cash purchase two to three weeks; finding the house first is what takes months rather than weeks.

Do you need a realtor to buy a house?

No. No state requires a buyer to be represented by an agent, and buyers close without one every day; what an agent gives you is access, negotiation and somebody who has done it before, and since 2024 you have to agree in writing what that costs before they show you a house.

How to buy a house without a realtor

Get pre-approved, find the house yourself, have a real estate lawyer draft or review your offer and contract, open escrow with a title company, and pay for your own inspection and appraisal; the agent's tasks do not disappear, they become yours.

What credit score do you need to buy a house?

Roughly 620 for a conventional loan and 580 for an FHA loan at the minimum down payment, with FHA going as low as 500 if you put 10% down; VA and USDA set no official minimum but lenders apply their own, usually around 620.

How much down payment do you need for a house?

As little as nothing on a VA or USDA loan, 3% on some conventional loans, 3.5% on FHA, and 20% only if you want to avoid mortgage insurance entirely; the 20% figure everybody quotes is a way to avoid a fee, not a requirement.

How to buy a house with no money down

VA and USDA loans genuinely require no down payment for those who qualify, and state down-payment-assistance programmes plus a seller concession can cover most of the rest for everybody else, but no legitimate route removes closing costs entirely.

Can you buy a house with bad credit?

Yes: FHA lends down to a 580 score at 3.5% down and to 500 with 10% down, and VA and USDA set no programme minimum, but a lower score means a higher rate and more mortgage insurance, so it costs more every month for as long as you keep the loan.

What to look for when buying a house

Look hardest at the things you cannot change and the things that are expensive to fix: location, the roof, the foundation, the cooling and heating, the plumbing and the electrical panel; kitchens and paint are the cheapest things on the list and the ones that get all the attention.

Is it cheaper to build or buy a house?

Buying an existing home is usually cheaper and much more predictable; building can beat it on price per square foot for a plain house on land you already have, but the land, the site work, the permits and the time are what people leave out of the comparison.

Is now a good time to buy a house?

For an individual buyer the answer is set by how long you will stay and whether the payment works, not by the market: the honest market signals are how long homes are sitting, how many sellers have already cut their price, and how much is for sale, and all three are published below for the market we cover.

How much money do you need to buy a house?

Plan on the down payment plus 2 to 5 percent of the price in closing costs, plus a few months of reserves, so a $400,000 house bought with 5 percent down usually needs somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 in the bank rather than the $20,000 the down payment alone suggests.

How much are closing costs when buying a house?

For a buyer, 2 to 5 percent of the purchase price, and the lender has to hand you a written estimate of every line of it within three business days of your application, which makes this the one cost in the transaction you can compare between lenders before you commit.

What do you need to buy a house?

Steady documented income, a credit score a program will lend on (580 for FHA, around 620 for most conventional loans), enough cash for the down payment and closing costs, a debt load that leaves room for the new payment, and a pre-approval letter before you look at anything seriously.

When is the best time to buy a house?

For price and negotiating room, the last three months of the year, when inventory that did not sell over the summer is still listed and competition has gone home; for choice, late spring, when the most homes come to market and you pay for the privilege.

How long do houses stay on the market?

The typical American listing goes under contract in roughly one to two months, but the number that matters is your own market's median days on market this week, because the same figure that reads as normal in one metro reads as a stalled market in another.

How much can you negotiate on a house?

In a normal market most homes close within a few percent of the final asking price, so the real negotiation is rarely a big discount off the sticker; it is whether the seller has already cut, how long the home has been sitting, and what the inspection turns up.

What happens after an offer is accepted?

Escrow opens and a clock starts: earnest money goes in within days, inspections and the appraisal happen in the first two or three weeks, the lender underwrites, and every contingency has a date by which you either approve it or can walk with your deposit.

Is it better to rent or buy a house?

Buying beats renting when you stay long enough for appreciation and principal to outrun the roughly 8 to 10 percent round trip cost of buying and selling, which in most markets means about five years, and renting wins whenever you might move before then.

Do you get a tax break for buying a house?

Yes, but far fewer people get one than expect to: mortgage interest and property tax are deductible only if you itemize, and since the standard deduction roughly doubled in 2018 the large majority of homeowners take the standard deduction and get no housing-specific benefit at all.

Can you use 401k to buy a house?

Yes, in two ways, and they are not equally sensible: a 401(k) loan lets you borrow up to $50,000 or half the balance and pay yourself back, while a withdrawal before 59 and a half is taxed as income and usually carries a 10 percent penalty, with no first-home exception (that exception belongs to IRAs, and is capped at $10,000).