Fixing a broken home buying model

Homeownership is an opportunity for you to grow wealth, stop renting, and satisfy your needs at various life stages. These are a few of the many reasons why you may consider buying a home, but the truth is, the process to do so can be cumbersome. Given the technology available today, we believe home buying is broken. But, it can be fixed!

This year, with rock bottom interest rates, home buyers have been incentivized to buy a home during the pandemic. However, coupled with low inventory for sale, this has fueled record high home prices. Bidding wars and offers with little to no buyer contingencies became the norm, especially for single family homes. The budget conscious home buyer in this scenario was left out.

It doesn't help that home buying today is riddled with bad experiences (you can read about some here). Many home buyers complain about having a painful experience, citing the slow process, lack of transparency, and difficulty navigating multiple handoffs between agent, lenders, real estate attorneys, and home inspectors.

This is where Nuhom comes in. Nuhom has created a seamless online home buying experience that puts the home buyer first.

Making home buying more affordable for you

Unlike traditional agents, one of the biggest values Nuhom provides is we give back 1% of the home purchase price back to the buyer. So, if you bought a home for $600,000 you would get back $6,000. We promise, there is no catch here! You simply get 1% of the home purchase price back.

Nuhom is able to do this because it recognizes that today most (7 out of 10) home buyers find the home they want to buy by searching on Zillow or Redfin and going to open houses. Much of the process in finding a home is now in the hands of the home buyer themselves and not the agent. Home buyers best know what they want in a home and see it well before an agent might. With the agent commission fee still being the largest transactional expense when buying a home, Nuhom believes giving back half of the buyer agent's fee to the buyer for their search efforts is the right thing to do. Buyer agents are quick to explain to buyers that they pay nothing to the agent to purchase the home, but we consider this untrue. See our write-up on how the buyer's agent commission is just built into your purchase price.

Additionally if you work with a Nuhom preferred lender, its possible that you could save an additional $500. With average total savings of $8,000, you can choose to cover a significant part of your closing costs or stretch your offer price to better compete against other buyers.

Searching for homes, but by what you can afford

We regularly ask ourselves, why can’t home buyers search and filter for homes by monthly cost to own vs. the home's asking price? After all, isn't that how people can budget what it means to own their home?

Home buyers comprehend the monthly cost to own a home better than just looking at a home’s asking or sticker price. Current renters especially appreciate this perspective. How much will it cost to own this home? After I budget that in, with my income, how much money do I save per month to put towards fun trips, family expenses, or savings? These are the questions buyers want to answer early on in the search process.

Nuhom is building helpful budgeting tools to help home buyers find homes they can afford.

Search homes and filter by your budget:

Finding the right home for you

Most home buyers spend weeks searching in hopes of finding the perfect home which meet their needs and wants. Nuhom has created an easy and interactive buyer on-boarding flow to quickly learn your needs and the type of home you may be looking to purchase. This data is then used to match you with exclusive homes publicly available or available off-market.

Buyer on-boarding:

Submit an offer online, on your terms

When a home buyer has found a home and is ready to make an offer, they can use the make an offer feature that allows them to quickly draft an offer online. You are in the driver seat, but with guidance at every step of the make an offer flow with helpful tips on pricing and what contingencies to include. Once completed, the draft offer is reviewed and finalized by a Nuhom Agent. The agent then handles all the paperwork, submits the offer to the seller, and negotiates on your behalf to get the offer accepted.

So, in a seller's market today, having the ability to write up an offer at a moment's notice can be the difference between getting the home you want or missing out. Time is indeed of essence.

Make an offer online:

Lenders, attorney, and home inspectors all under one roof for you

Buying a home requires navigating through multiple lenders to get the best rates, working with real estate attorneys to get purchase documents drafted, and coordinating with a home inspector to evaluate the home condition. Undertaking this effort can be like a second job, especially for a first-time home buyer. To reduce the pain and streamline the multiple handoffs, Nuhom has built a preferred list of partners with the top mortgage companies to help home buyers get the best rates, trusted real estate attorneys to handle the legal paperwork, and one of the friendliest and thorough home inspectors. You're free to use this team of partners as needed. We believe a team that has history in working together only makes for smoother transactions.

Nuhom's core is the home buyer. Nuhom is creating a buyer-first digital experience that is re-thinking how people buy homes. We are making it more convenient, faster, and rewarding for the modern home buyer. Learn more at www.nuhom.co