1: Can You Afford it

step 1:  Get a Rough Idea of How Much Home You Can Afford
While it is fun to dream about the mansion you may own someday, and real estate voyeurism (looking at homes you
can not afford yet) is practically a national pastime, a productive home search begins with coming up with a rough idea
of how much you want to spend on your new home.

If you are still in the exploratory stage of finding a new home, iNest offers a simple mortgage calculator that will allow
you to calculate the approximate monthly mortgage payment of a new home.

Our parent company, Lending Tree, offers a full suite of calculators to help you in determining the homes you can afford.

In determining the features that are most important in selecting your new home, the iNest scorecard provides a list of
home characteristics that can serve as a useful reference.

2: Searching for New Homes

step 2:  Searching for New Homes
Once you have determined how much home you can afford, the iNest website offers a variety of methods to search for
new construction homes. Visit the Animated Tour for tips on the best ways to use the iNest website.

Search Options:

• Detailed Search allows you to input search criteria such as location, price, home type, bedrooms and bath-
  rooms, with results being returned based on your selections. If an initial detailed search returns too many or too
  few new home communities, you can re-run the search with either tighter or less specific new homes criteria.
• Distance Search assists you in finding new homes being built within a given distance of any address.
  For example, use your workplace address to find new home communities that are within an easy commute
  of your job.
• Browse by Location provides a list of the counties and cities within a metropolitan area in which new home
  communities are being built and serves as a directory of the new homes being developed in each city.
• Featured Builders includes a list of home builders that have already joined the iNest Featured Builder
  program. Clicking on a builder's logo shown on this page displays information about all the nearby new home
  communities that the home builder is developing.

Buttons featuring these different types of search will appear on the upper left portion of the screen after you
have clicked through to a metro area.

Signing a Buyer Agency Agreement, the iNest perspective on the Do's and Don'ts.

Start your new homes search now!

3: Pre-Qualify for a Mortgage

step 3:  Get Pre-Qualified for a Mortgage...
Once you get really serious about buying a new home, you will want to get pre-qualified for a loan, because you
can't play if you can't pay. Whether it's where you do your banking, Lending Tree, or elsewhere, the first thing to
do is to find out just how much house you can qualify to buy.

That will depend on:
(1) how much down payment money you may be able to fork over by the time you move in
(2)your credit score
(3) what type of loan you choose
(4) the prevailing interest rates and, last but certainly not least,
(5) your income and income-to-debt ratios.

Let's touch on each of these briefly (including some terminology) from an at-the-starting- gate approach as well as
from the standpoint of purchasing a newly constructed home.

Down payment monies constitute your entire initial investment in the property and won't be required until the
close of escrow. With 100% financing and FHA/VA financing, down payments can be small to non-existent. But
most lenders like to see their borrowers demonstrate that they have funds in reserve, having prepared for a rainy
day. Your earnest money deposit is that amount the builder requires to open escrow - a good faith, up-front
chunk of your intended down payment. The more money you put down on a house, then the lower the loan
amount and the less risk a lender takes. If you are walking into this as a credit-challenged person, the lender may
indeed give you the choice of coming up with more cash or offering you a higher interest rate just because of that
risk factor.

When qualifying for a mortgage loan, your FICO (credit) score is kind of like taking the SAT for college. It's not
really how much you know, but how well you take the test. To see how credit scoring works, go to
www.myfico.com. What this important number tells a lender is pretty much how you conduct your financial ebb
and flow over time using or not using credit -- as well as your timelines in paying back debt. Are you one of that
person who opens a new credit account just to get 15% off the day's purchases and then doesn't pay off that
account each month? For each new account opened an inquiry is generated on your credit. Enough inquiries
and enough accounts not managed perfectly and your credit score goes down.

A mortgage lender will be looking for a great deal of information -- how much you have saved up for the down
payment, how long you intend to occupy the house you want to buy, your gross monthly income and how long
you have been in that line of work, your debt load exceeding ten months in duration, etc. Ratios are calculated
that give the lender some guidelines to use. Then they will run a lightening quick online credit check using a
consensus number gleaned from the three credit reporting agencies - Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. At that
point they have a snapshot of you and can launch into the various loan programs they believe might work for you.
Be cautious here. Most financial advisors agree that borrowers should always look at the worst-case scenario
for any loan they consider, no matter how secure they may feel with it at first. So now it's time for you to ask the
questions!

Strangely enough, once you have found a new home that suits you, the lender to whom you just regurgitated your
financial life story may not necessarily be the one you use when you buy your newly built home. Why? Because
builders usually have either their own preferred lender or an in-house mortgage company owned by the same
entity that owns the builder AND they my tie any and all incentive monies ("play" money towards your upgrades
or financing costs) they offer to your using that lender. Seem coercive? According to Wikipedia.org, an incentive
"provides a motive for a particular course of action, or counts as a reason for preferring one choice to the alterna-
tives." You don't have to take the builder up on the $10,000 towards design center upgrades or to be used
towards non-recurring closing costs, but it may be tough to pass up.

4: Choosing Your New Home

step 4:  Choosing the New Home that's Right for You
Ultimately, you are going to want to get out and check on new homes in person (iNest has had a couple of
members that have bought their new homes without ever visiting the homes, but that is not something that we
recommend). While builder sales center office hours vary from one development to another, many open at 10:00
am on Tuesdays through Saturdays and before 1:00 pm on Sundays and Mondays. The majority of builder sales
centers are open seven days a week, but it is not uncommon for them to be closed on Monday mornings and
holidays.

1) call iNest at (800) 98-INEST and we will confirm the hours that the sales office is open, or
2) check the builder's website.

To judge the quality of a builder's homes takes some study and time. It's easy to tour the models, find a floor plan
that suits you to a tee and make an appointment then and there to buy the house. But asking a few questions are
in order before plunking down your life savings. To get the insider's scoop on judging location, quality, builder
reputation and value, take a good, long listen to iNest's PodCast, Uncharted Waters: Navigating the Purchase
of a New Production Home. The iNest newsletter archive is also a valuable source of information for new home
buyers. Included are articles on "Why Buy New", "Financing and Pricing", "The Buying Process" and "Working with
Your Builder".

Prior to visiting the sales office of an iNest Featured builder, print out an iNest coupon. If visiting the sales office of
a builder that is not featured on the iNest website, contact iNest prior to 48 hours prior to visiting the builder and
iNest will register you.

Please be aware that to be eligible for the iNest rebate program and earn a 1% cash back bonus on the
purchase of your home, the builder must be aware that you are an iNest registered user and that you learned
about their homes from iNest Realty. Even a phone call to a builder in which you do not mention to them that you
are working with iNest and learned about their development from iNest could put your opportunity to earn a rebate
in jeopardy. Builders are more than willing to pay iNest a commission when we play a role in helping our members
find their new homes. However, builders are not in the business of giving away money, and if you visit a builder's
development without registering with iNest, then we will not earn a commission and you will not be eligible for a
rebate. Sorry, but iNest coupons that are presented after an initial visit to a builder development do not comply
with the terms and conditions required to earn a rebate from iNest.

Conclusion

Today's buyer's market makes this a good time to be in the market for a newly built home. You may be able to
negotiate thousands of dollars in free upgrades. While the base price of newly built homes is often set in stone,
the cost of optional upgrades may be very negotiable. The builder's motivation to "move through the dirt" in their
new home neighborhoods is always a strong one, so don't hesitate to ask for free or reduced priced upgrades.

Summing up, it's true that buying your first home can be a daunting experience. Many liken it to giving birth - all
the planning, anticipation and permanency of it can be thrilling as well and somehow you tend to forget the scary
stuff after it's over with.

In the end your new home can be a reflection of your tastes, your accomplishments and your dreams. So on that
first night in your new house with boxes piled high around you, we encourage you to take the time to pat yourself
on the back. You just became a part of the American Dream.

Should you have any questions about searching for and buying a newly build home, please do not hesitate to
contact an iNest New Home Specialist at (800) 98-INEST. The iNest New Home Specialists average over three
years experience exclusively focused on helping buyers of newly constructed homes and will gladly assist you with
your new home search.