Buying your first home is one of the most exciting decisions that you make in your life. It brings you face to face with several emotions, responsibilities, and jittery feelings.
But more often than not, first-time home buyers let their emotions overpower their rational approach, and they end up making a decision in haste.
And, by the time they realize it, it’s already too late.
They find themselves living in an unpleasant neighborhood in a substandard home with unconquerable debts.
Buying a home is a decision grounded in reasoning, commerce, security, and vehemence.
It should be made with patience. If you are planning to buy your first home, these tips might help you.
Tip #1: Clear all your debts and create an emergency fund
Buying a house is more expensive than you anticipate.
The majority of home buyers live in a delusion that they can easily churn out the monthly repayments for their new house.
The monthly payment of your new house may be equal or cheaper than the rent you pay, but the cost of upkeep and maintenance can add up.
And, to manage this cost, it’s best to be prepared beforehand.
Before you invest in buying a house, make sure you pay off all your debts and create an emergency fund of at least 3 to 6 months of your expenses.
With this financial preparation shielding you, you will be able to enjoy your new house without having to worry about the monthly repayments.
Plus, you can plan to spend money on furnishing and decorating your new home.
Tip #2: Save for the down payment
Saving for the total price of the house is neither practical, nor reasonable, but you should at least save enough to pay at least 20% upfront.
If you save money for the down payment, you save yourself from paying for PMI (Private Mortgage Insurance), which costs between 0.5% and 1% of the mortgage loan amount annually.
Also, you may come across many home buyer programs, like ARMs (Adjustable-Rate Mortgages), VA loans, and FHA loans, but you should try to resist the temptations of low down payments as they cost you a great deal of money in the long run.
Tip #3: Get pre-qualified for a loan
When you accumulate enough money to handle the closing cost and down payment of your home, you are likely to get preapproved for a loan.
Getting a pre-approval letter puts you across as a serious buyer in the eyes of the seller, and this gives you an edge over other home-buyers.
Tip #4: Look for a resourceful real estate agent
Buying a home has its sets of complexities and hurdles.
Preparing for home closure, looking for new properties, preparing for loans and mortgages, checking out properties, and the list goes on.
The entire process becomes overwhelming, especially for first-time homebuyers.
Real estate agents make this process easy for you.
They guide you throughout the process and take care of everything, right from documentation to scanning a pool of properties to taking you around the shortlisted homes.
Furthermore, with expertise and experience in their field, real estate agents introduce you to hard-to-find properties.
They manage to find homes that fit the tailored needs of their clients.
Moreover, buying a home in a new locality or city may seem like a humongous task due to the lack of knowledge of a new place.
But, a resourceful real estate agent is likely to know the real estate situation of most states and cities.
By following the above tips, you should be able to find a Spokane WA real estate agent whom you can trust with finding you a home in a safe neighborhood in an unknown city.
Bottom line
Buying your first home is more than an investment.
Several emotional strings will get attached to it now and in the future.
It will be the host to many pivotal life celebrations and experiences, and therefore, it should be nothing less than perfect.
We hope these tips help you in buying your definition of the perfect first home.