The Home Buying Process (Newbie Question)

[Rickie Camarato]

This is somewhat of an embarrassing question, but what are the exact steps in the home buying process? A simple timeline would be very beneficial to help me gain some clarity on what exactly I need to do at various stages.

I have binged almost 200 episodes of the BP podcast and I still do not understand the process that goes into buying a home. When do you put in earnest money? What is earnest money? When do you get the inspection? Are you supposed to have your own appraiser? What the heck is escrow?

I want to buy a rental property out of state, but I still don’t know what I don’t know.

Thank you to anyone that can help fill in the gaps.