Buying a house is, for most people, the largest purchase a person will make in their lives. Experts from real estate services give the following tips for buying a first home.
- Take some time and carefully you review your finances. You need to run a credit report on yourself and do a thorough audit of your finances. Take a good look at what money you have coming in and what your expenses are. When you start talking to real estate services, you should know where you stand. This will also help any real estate agents you talk to you narrow down the homes they show you to ones that you may be able to afford. This is an essential first step when you are making any big purchases like buying real estate.
- Do not move your money. When you are getting ready to look at homes for sale, you need to refrain from taking your money out of your bank account or making any other big purchases. You need to be careful about your money for at least six months before you start the process of buying a home. This is because when you move your money or chance the amount of credit you have available will change your credit score and can impact what kind of loan you will qualify for. You need to also resist the urge to get a new credit card for at least six months before you home search begins.
- Work on getting a pre-approval for a mortgage. If you work with a bank or financial institution, you should talk to them before you set out to talk to real estate service companies. If your bank or financial institution does not approve a mortgage, you may want to talk to community banks or the local credit union. They are in the business to help people in the community get home mortgages and start new businesses. Because they are locally owned, they do not have to answer to a corporate office that may be located far away. They are much more likely to help you get your first mortgage.
- Have a survey done of the property. They say that “fences make good neighbors.” Before you buy a property, real estate service experts recommend having a survey of the property done so that you can know what exactly comes with the home you are buying. There are a number of reasons to want do this. One problem that can be prevented by taking this step is a border conflict with your neighbors. When you have a accurate and recent map of your property, you can make sure that does not happen.
- Buy the house you need. Some people think that they are getting a better deal if they get a bigger home but this is just not true. There are a lot of factors involved in picking the right home for you and your situation. Size may be important to you if you have a lot of people moving in with you but if not, you have other things you need to think about like the neighborhood, the commute to work, what else is in the area. If you have children, you want to know the schools are good and the neighborhood is safe. When it comes to buying a home, the biggest house may not be the best.
- Spend time in the neighborhood. You should check out the area at different times of the day and on different days in the week. You may tour the home with the real estate service at a time when the area looks really great. Maybe at 10:00 am on a Thursday, the neighborhood is fantastic but what is it like at 10:00 pm? What about Saturday evening? When you move into a home, you need to know what the area is going to be like 24 hours a day and seven days a week. Look into local schools, even if you do not have children. Having good schools in the area means your property values will be much higher.
You can have a good experience buying a home with these six tips.
