By now you’ve purchased more things online than you can possibly remember – from hotel bookings to take-out food to your favorite gourmet coffee delivered right to your doorstep. But what about a house? Is it really possible to purchase your next home from the comfort of your living room?
It sure is.
And with Taylor Morrison’s convenient suite of virtual home buying tools, it’s easier than ever to find and buy the house you’ve always wanted.
We’ll walk you through the process and lay out the basic steps of buying a home online. If you have questions or concerns, simply contact the Internet Home Consultant for your area.
Step 1: Set a budget
Begin your home search early to determine how much real estate you can afford. Everyone’s financial situation is different, but you’ll want to figure out how much you can pay each month and then work backwards to find the purchase price. Be sure to account for all your other bills and commitments, with money left over for food, gas, entertainment, vacation, and savings.
Using a mortgage calculator is a great way to plug in numbers and play around with interest rates and loan size to figure out your monthly payment.
Know for sure that your budget estimates are correct by getting a pre-application for your mortgage. Preapplication also speeds up the process once you find the home you want to buy.
Step 2: Go house hunting
Once you’ve narrowed down your area of interest, go to TaylorMorrison.com and select a state to begin exploring new home communities.
Be sure to check out move-in ready homes in your favorite communities to see if construction on your dream home is already complete or is already underway. You can also choose to purchase a to-be-built home from a wide selection of open-concept floor plans.
To make house hunting even easier, consider reaching out to our Internet Home Consultants at the communities you’re most interested in. Our Internet Home Consultants are not just valuable resources for having your questions answered about specific communities, floor plans or ready-now homes, they have years of experience matching home buyers to the right house in the right location. They’ll help you narrow down choices and guide you through the home buying process.
Tool #1 – Online Virtual Tours
Today’s virtual real estate tours give you the ultimate freedom to explore new homes on your own terms. Using your smartphone or computer, navigate every room in the home at your own pace and really take your time to look at the details that matter to you most.
With the power to shop a virtual open house from the comfort of your sofa, you can easily see 10x-20x the homes compared to in-person viewings in the same time frame – and a virtual home tour is a perfect tool for a potential buyer shopping homes in a different part of the country without getting on an airplane.
Virtual tours are available for many move-in ready homes, meaning you can purchase the exact home you’re viewing in the tour, and also for model homes, giving you the opportunity to discover different interactive floor plan layouts and optional upgrades to better design your to-be-built dream home.
And now, it’s easier than ever to find all available virtual home tours for your area of interest. Visit our virtual tours page and start exploring!
Tool #2 – Self-Guided Tours
Taylor Morrison is excited to announce a new way to tour new construction homes near you all by yourself. The way it works is easy. When you’ve found a home you like offering self-guided tours, just sign up and reserve a time slot online. Then, during your scheduled hour, the home is all yours – simply let yourself in using a code sent to your smartphone!
A self-guided tour is convenient but more importantly, they give you the freedom to come and go as you please, take as many photos as you’d like, speak freely about your thoughts on the home and spend more time in the rooms that matter to you most. If you’ve got a question, we make it easy to contact the community sales team.
Tool #3 – Guided Virtual Tour
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our workflow in many ways and the real estate industry is no exception. You’ve likely already done a work meeting over Zoom or Facebook Live so why not tour a home in the same way?
Get in touch with the sales team for a community you’re interested in and they’ll be happy to set up an appointment for a virtual walkthrough. This way you’ll enjoy the convenience and comfort of a virtual tour while getting all your questions answered in real time. Plus, your new home consultant will be able to provide unique insights into the home and valuable information about the floor plan and home features that only a new home specialist can provide.
If you prefer a traditional in-person showing vs. a virtual showing, just stop by the community during regular business hours or call to schedule an appointment! Please keep in mind that not all communities will be open, so please call before heading our way.
Tool #4 – Reserve Your Home Online
Never worry again that someone else will swoop in and buy your dream home out from under you.
With our new online home reservation feature, you can lock in the real estate you love and breathe a sigh of relief. It doesn’t cost a penny and once you’ve reserved your home, you’ll have 24 hours to schedule an appointment and complete the purchase agreement.
Step 3: Secure financing
The next step to homeownership is to work with a mortgage banker to secure your loan. Most lenders offer online service, so you can apply for financing and be approved without ever setting foot in a bank.
To purchase a Taylor Morrison home, you can either use the lender of your choice or work with our affiliated lender, Taylor Morrison Home Funding. Check out our new online state-of-the-art mortgage technology, Dorothy. She’ll simplify the mortgage application process to get you home in no time.
Note: A professional appraisal will be required for the final approval of your mortgage. After an appraisal is ordered, the full results will be sent to you via e-mail.
Step 4: Buy your new home
Once you’ve decided on the ready-now or to-be-built home you’d like to purchase, you’ll sign a New Home Sales Contract and officially start the homebuying process.
Also called a New Construction Purchase Agreement, signing this contract protects you from having the home sold to someone else. The document will also include pertinent information about the deal, including the price and location of the home, the projected closing date, contract terms and the obligations required of both parties.
Additional information may include the last date for finalizing design options, the date by which you need to have financing approved and the amount you’ll need to pay in earnest money.
Earnest money is a good faith deposit between 1% and 5% of the value of the home paid into escrow to show that you are serious about buying the home.
You’re almost there!
Finally, when the purchase of your new home is ready to close, you’ll coordinate a contactless signing to finish your paperwork.
Taylor Morrison is paving the way in the homebuilding industry by keeping each home buyer safe during these challenging times. It’s now possible to complete all closing paperwork and document signing while maintaining social distancing guidelines using virtual tools.
Contact your Internet Home Consultant to get more information on how contactless signing works for a buyer in your area.
Congratulations! You’ve just purchased your dream home online. Just one more way home builder, Taylor Morrison, offers you the best home buying experience possible.
