5 Tips For Purchasing A Home

So you’re thinking about buying a house? Awesome! Allow me to share some tips with you –some of which I learned the hard way.

1.      SAVE. Before buying our house my husband and I had just came off of what was literally the worst financial year of our lives. Although we knew that we could afford a mortgage (it would be significantly lower than our monthly rent at our townhome) we just didn’t take into account all of the other expenses. Our closing cost ended up being over $2000 more than what we were originally quoted and after we got finished with all of the surprise repairs we were left with a whopping $0.00 for the fun stuff—that’s right, no new furniture for me.

2.      DON’T ALLOW THE BANK TO TELL YOU WHAT YOU CAN AFFORD. This is the one thing that my husband and I got right. Although we were preapproved for a much higher amount we decided on a price range we were both comfortable with on our own. Remember, the bank is just going strictly off of numbers—gross numbers at that. They won’t take your lifestyle into consideration, so you have to be mindful of that yourself. If you like to travel or are engaged in other hobbies, too much of a house note can put a halt to your pastimes. While we wanted a house that we liked, we didn’t want to spend every waking moment in it because we didn't have any money left over for other things.

 

 

Need I say more?

 

3.      HAGGLE (like it's a swap meet). We paid exactly the asking price for our house. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing (we still got a deal), in retrospect I wish that we would have gone about things differently. I’d made the mistake of getting emotionally attached to the house, and after coming out of a bidding war where we were on the losing side, I was a tad bit vulnerable too. Had the circumstances been different I am sure we could have gotten at least five or six grand knocked off. Hello new furniture!

4.      MAKE A MUST HAVE LIST AND STICK TO IT. There are very few things I find more annoying than the people on House Hunters with a long list of demands and a short amount money. I didn’t want to be that person. I wasn’t that person; in fact I was the total opposite. I required only the bare necessities. Looking back I see where I went wrong and I am convinced there has to be a happy medium. Considering my lack of requirements I did pretty good; my main grip is the fact that I don't have a master bedroom with en suite. There's time for that later, right?

 

 

 

NOW this is the life! However, my tolerance for dirt/germs would never allow me to let my bedding hang to the floor...it looks nice though..

 

5.      TAKE TIME OFF FROM YOUR HOUSE HUNT. Buying a house can be fun, but it can also be pretty stressful. If you begin to feel overwhelmed it’s ok to take a step back. Chances are you won’t miss out on the home of your dreams during your break and your sanity is so much more important.

So there you have it, my 5 tips for purchasing a home. Do you have information that you think is beneficial to those looking to buy? If so, drop a few lines in the comments. Hope this helped!