Get pre-approved for a mortgage to know your budget and show sellers you mean business.Now comes the fun part – house hunting!

Get pre-approved for a loan, set up alerts, and assess older properties.

However many times they won't tell you that, they'll just deny coverage and act like they fought so hard to get it approved but the coverage is just not there (when it certainly is).A good public adjuster will more than pay for their fee with the extra $$ they'll get you.

Charlie, you are correct on RESPA as Federal regulation, but finder's fee for unlicensed individuals in real estate is state by state regulation - In California, for example as long as it is diclosed this is legal - "In California, a “finder’s exception,” allowing an unlicensed person to be compensated for introducing parties to a real estate transaction, has been judicially approved since 1923.

The best thing to do would be to consult an attorney, but likely, that is not an option for everyone starting out.I'm not an attorney, and this is not legal advice, but some of the information that we include in our contracts is:- A clear scope of work - Payment schedule / Milestones- Change order approval process- Allowances for finished materials- Reasons to terminate the contract- Expectations for start date (X amount of time after final plans /permits are received or X amount of time after the contract is executed)- General schedule and timeline (This is where you could specify an end date - however it may be better use incentives rather than liquidated damage if your general contractor is late - we've done both, but found General Contractors respond better to getting something if they get done early instead of being punished for being late. 

After approving a bid, I would have to follow up for weeks or even months to see if anything had been done. 

Section 8 will need to approve your initial rent based on the property and what the tenant can afford.

Other buyers were not willing to deal with the sometimes frustrating process of short sales and the associated lienholder approval process, so he was able to come out on top due to his patience and insistence on buying based on the numbers.

@Bacongo Sandou Cisse- thanks ...if you will need financing - make sure you can get pre approved  or have access to funds to use to buy  before you spend too much time looking for proeprties - thanks 

I’m fine with buying land first if approved for a land loan.