Nashville Real Estate - A Buyer's Guide

How to Buy a Home in the City of Nashville, Tennessee

A 2006 article on Kiplinger.com listed 50 "Smart Places to Live" in the United States. Basically, the article was a list of cities that were good real estate investments. The editors of the article ranked Nashville, Tennessee at the top of the list.

To quote the article: "Although 'Music City' may have worked fine in the days of Hank Sr., our top pick among great, affordable places to live needs a new moniker. We suggest 'Nashville: Music Is Just the Beginning.' Southern hospitality. Gently rolling hills with big, affordable homes. A mild climate (albeit with occasional tornadoes). Oh, yes, and a phenomenal entertainment scene that goes far beyond country." -Source

This is only one article. There are many more real estate articles that state similar things about Nashville, Tennessee. So there is plenty of information online to support your decision to buy real estate in the Nashville area.

This article, on the contrary, is not about why you should buy a home Nashville, but rather how to go about it. So let's examine the path to buying real estate in Music City:

Basic Steps to Buying a Home

This article is a combination of two things. First of all, it outlines the various steps to buying real estate in Nashville, Tennessee. Secondly, it offers a variety of tools you can use to simplify your home-buying process. Below, you'll find tools and services to help you obtain your credit report, shop for mortgage loans, find a Nashville real estate agent and more. Best of all, these tools are either free or they offer a free trial of some kind.

1. Get Your Credit Reports / Scores

Before buying real estate in the Nashville area (or anywhere else for that matter), you should give your financial situation a thorough review. After all, you can bet that those Nashville mortgage lenders will do the same! You can begin this process by requesting copies of your credit reports and credit scores — yes, you have more than one of each.

Thanks to the Internet, there are ways to request all three credit reports and scores at one time. This is clearly the most convenient way to go about it. Credit.com is one of the places where you can get a "three-in-one" report, and it's also a trustworthy website (an important consideration when you're dealing with personal and financial data. Check out their free-trial offer below:

Click here for a free credit report

Once you have obtained copies of your credit reports and scores by using the service above, you can do two important things. For one thing, you'll know what your credit score is and how you compare to other home buyers in Nashville and elsewhere in the U.S. If your score is below average, you've got work to do on improving it.

You should also check your credit information for errors. It's not uncommon for erroneous data to show up on your credit report. It might be an administrative error, or it might be a sign of credit fraud. You won't know until you request your reports.

You can kick off this stage of the Nashville real estate process by ordering your credit reports and scores. And you should do it as early as possible to avoid any delays in your mortgage-approval process.

Request your credit report here

2. Find a Nashville Real Estate Agent

Are you a "newbie" when it comes to buying a home? If so, and this is your first Nashville real estate experience, it really does make sense to have professional assistance. Obviously, this will come in the form of a professional real estate agent.

Why should you hire a Nashville agent? For one thing, consider the amount of money you are dealing with in the purchase of your new home. There's a lot at stake financially, so you'll want some guidance to avoid making costly errors along the way. Your Nashville real estate agent will help you in this regard. But that's not all...

You can find an agent in several ways. Referrals from family and friends are a common source. But if you want to make the process quick and easy, you should use the Internet. For example, by using the HomeGain website link below, you can have multiple Nashville real estate agents send you their information and credentials. Best of all, it's free and anoymous — through this service, the agents won't know your contact info unless you initiate contact with them first.

Find and Compare Nashville Realtors

3. Find a Home in Nashville

It's time for the fun stuff now. It's time go house hunting for your little slice of Nashville real estate. During this process, you will seek and evaluate homes in the area to see whether or not they meet your needs — and whether or not they're in your price range.

As you might have guessed, this is another aspect of the home-buying process where the Internet can save you time and effort. Do you notice a theme here? By looking at Nashville homes on the Internet first, you can save time by weeding out the ones you're not interested in. If the home is not within your desired price range, or if it's too small or just plain ugly, you'll know without making a trip out to see it.

As with everything else related to Nashville real estate shopping, there are plenty of websites you can use to shop for homes within your desired location and price range. Here's one such website:

Shop for Homes

4. Get Mortgage Quotes

When shopping around for a mortgage loan, it's important to get multiple quotes for multiple lenders. That way, you can compare the rates they offer you (along with the terms and finer details of the mortgage) to find out which one best suits your needs.

And you guessed it, we are about to sing the praises of the Internet again. It really is efficient when you think about. You can go online and use a service like LendingTree (see link below) to get quotes from multiple mortgage lenders. You can't beat that in terms of convenience, and it's also a good way to find the best interest rate available to you.

LendingTree is a great place to begin the process, because they have access to a large number of mortgage lenders. This equates to more offers and options for you. Check out their service below:

LendingTree Mortgage Loans

5. Consider Buying Nashville Foreclosures

When buying real estate in the Nashville area, there's a chance you could save a lot of money on a home by purchasing a foreclosure property at a real estate auction. And if you've watched the news or read the paper lately, you'll know that there's no shortage of foreclosure homes in Nashville and around the country. In fact, there are record-breaking numbers of them available.

By purchasing a Nashville foreclosure home, it's possible to pay less than market value for the home. You see, when a bank is forced to foreclose on a home because the owner cannot make the payments anymore, they will want to sell the home as quickly as possible. After all, banks loan money ... they are not in the business of managing real estate properties.

With that said, you have to be able to track foreclosures in the Nashville area if you want to purchase one. Using a tracking service such RealtyTrac (see link below), you can get notices whenever a new home is going into foreclosure in the area.

View Tennessee Foreclosures

Conclusion and Summary

I hope you've enjoyed this buyer's guide, and I hope the tools I've provided above make your home-buying process a little easier. Remember, education is the key to a successful home-buying experience. So don't view this tutorial as the end of your learning process, but the beginning of that process. Good luck with your Nashville real estate experience!