Buyer Tips

Tips for Buying Your Home

Buying a home can be stressful or joyful time in your life. By following these tips and preparing yourself, you will make the home buying process much more enjoyable and even fun!

1. Determine your budget. The first step in any home buying process is determining how much you can afford. It’s important to realistically factor in all of your known expenses. There are many Internet calculators to help you with this. Click here for a Yahoo calculator.
2. Be prepared to stay. If you can’t commit to remaining in one place for at least three to four years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. When you purchase a home you will pay numerous closing costs, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner – even in a rising market.
3. Get pre-approved for a mortgage. You’ll want to get pre-approved for a mortgage so that you can shop for your home with a greater sense of freedom and security, knowing that the money will be there when you find the home of your dreams.
4. Know your needs and wants. We all have wish lists, but before you get caught up in the excitement of looking, it is very important to know what you want and what you need in a home. Begin by making two lists a “what do I absolutely NEED in my next home” list and a “what would I absolutely LOVE in my next home” list. Use these lists as a yard stick with which to measure every home you look at.
5. Do your homework. When you find a house you like: talk to local residents about what they like and don’t like about the neighborhood, observe traffic patterns, and find out what schools and area businesses are nearby.
6. Don’t bid blind. In order to make an informed offer on a house, you will need to research the market to understand what comparable homes are selling for. Without this knowledge of market value, you could easily bid too much, or fail to make a competitive offer at all on an excellent value.
7. Understand all fees upfront. Make sure you identify and uncover all costs, large and small, far enough ahead of time. When a transaction closes, you will sometimes find fees for this or that sneaking through after the “sub” total fees such as loan disbursement charges, underwriting fees, etc. Understand these in advance by having your lender project total charges for you in writing.
8. Title search. Make sure very early on in the negotiation that you will own your new home free and clear by having a title search completed. The last thing you want to discover when you’ve almost completed your home buying transaction is that there are encumbrances on the property such as tax liens, undisclosed owners, easements, leases or the like.
9. Schedule an inspection. Ensure that you conduct a thorough inspection of the home early in the process. Consider hiring an independent inspector to objectively view the home inside and out, and make the final contract contingent upon this inspector’s report. If the home has problems, ask the seller to agree in writing to make the repairs.
10. Don’t rush the closing. Take your time during this critical part of the process, and insist on seeing all paperwork the day before you sign. Make sure this documentation perfectly reflects your understanding of the transaction, and that nothing has been added or subtracted. Is the interest rate right? Is everything covered? If you rush this process on the day of closing, you may run into a last minute snag that you can’t fix without compromising the terms of the deal, the financing, or even the sale itself.