First Time Home Buyers need to Buy Soon to qualify for the $8000 Tax Credit

A lot of people looking to buy their first home are excited about the $8000 Tax Credit and most know the deadline is November 30, 2009.

But most buyers I have talked to misunderstand the deadline and think they can make an offer for a home up to then. This leaves buyers thinking they have plenty of time to purchase a home, what they don't understand is that the loan has to close by November 30, 2009.

The problem is in order to close by the deadline, an offer must be made and accepted, which sometimes includes counter-offers and rejections or acceptance. It also includes inspections, repairs, re-inspections, and appraisals. The Title company must do title searches and the Loan company has to prepare documents. A lot of paperwork is involved by several different companies and everything must follow strict guidelines set out by governing bodies before a loan closes. A reasonably short time frame is 30 days, but if anything causes a stall in the process it may cause days, or weeks to be added to the amount of time needed for closing.

Of course a Realtor can't guarantee the Home Buyer's edibility, but to help insure a buyer meets the deadline, the Buyer should be under contract to purchase a home by Late September or Early October.

I am not trying to push buyers into doing anything they are not comfortable with, I am simply pointing out how the deadline works, so they don't miss out because of confusion.

Of course we all hope the government extends the credit, or replaces it with a new one, but with our government, there are no guarantees.