Technology Powers the Home Buying Process

The home buying process has evolved significantly over the last twenty years. What used to be a totally in-person business is now increasingly taking place online. If you’re shopping for a home but prefer a tech-enabled journey to a physical one, here are five tips you can use to buy a house using online tools:

Efficient Scheduling & Information

Right now with recent events, Legacy Homes schedules private tours guided by licensed realtors that allow you to pick the best time for your tour. All you need to do is sign up using our Calend.ly link!

If you’re not quite ready for a tour, we have a plethora of information on our houses available on the website. We are available for any questions via email and Facebook, a technological reality that’s really not that old!

Empowering Internet-Based Research

The internet has made it easier for everyday people to carry out research from the comfort of their desk, couch, or bed. That means it’s easier to approach purchasing real estate or buying a house for the first time from an informed perspective than ever before.

If you’re looking to purchase a brand new home in a great community where you’d be the first resident, you can use the Legacy Homes site to view available floor plans, new houses just hitting the market, and model homes that help you get a sense of some of Alabama’s fastest growing communities.

If you’re satisfied shopping for an existing home, sites like Zillow, Realtor.com, Trulia, and HomeFinder, you can search homes in your desired area to get a sense of the market, refine your understanding of what you’re looking for, and discover homes or neighborhoods for further scouting and follow-up.

Many of our customers are looking for a new home, one that they alone can call their own. We strive to create content and resources to help our business rank well when it comes to home builders in our area. 

One-Click Connections with a Realtor

Partnering with the right buyer’s agent and knowing your potential seller was working with a trustworthy professional used to require connections and a wealth of local knowledge. It used to be that if you didn’t “know someone,” it felt like you were going into the negotiating process with no support.

Virtual Tours for Home Buyers

People used to drive hours – even days – to tour prospective new homes, but that travel no longer needs to be part of the home buying process thanks to virtual touring.

A virtual tour allows you to “walk through” the inside of a home (just like you would do in person) through the internet. 360-degree cameras capture every nook and cranny of the house, so there’s no way to hide damage or cherry pick flattering angles. That means you can get a feel for each individual room and determine whether the home fits your need without ever setting foot in it. Check out one of our virtual tours here!

Apply for your Mortgage Online

Okay, so you’ve researched homes in your area, found a few you liked, and connected with a realtor who hooked you up with virtual tours of each option. You’ve gotten all the information you need to identify the perfect home for you without even going outside. What’s left? The money, of course.

Getting a home loan quickly used to require knowing someone at the bank or having impeccable, well-documented credit. Now, you can use the internet to find a lender in minutes and get a quote faster than ever.

Our Legacy Homes team has eliminated a lot of that online legwork, preselecting a list of great area lenders that you can use to connect with a mortgage to buy the house of your dreams.

App-Enabled Remote Closing

If you’ve ever been to a closing, you know they’re not fun. Sure, someone’s about to become a new homeowner, but it’s mostly hours of pushing papers across a table and lawyers running in and out of the room. Thankfully, technology is starting to make that better!

Thanks to online banking, signature capture, and conferencing technology, it’s no longer necessary to even be in the same state as your house or lawyer during your closing. That makes life much easier for people who are relocating significantly or want to be able to focus on their move rather than formalities.

The Future!

As you can see, it’s now possible to manage the entire home buyer’s journey and discover, negotiate, and pay for the home of your dreams online. If you think shopping for a house is still a bunch of in-person running around, you don’t know what’s possible in the 2020s!

Technology will continue to improve this process. At Legacy Homes, we strive to be on the cutting edge. Feel free to try out our scheduling software via Calend.ly and tour a home today!