Thinking About Buying A House
At beginning purchase a real estate might seem very complicated particularly if you’re a first-time home buyer . You feel overwhelmed between down payments, credit scores, mortgage rates, property taxes, interest rates, and closing the deal. There’s so much being risked with a first home.
But if you familiarize yourself with what it takes to buy your first home, it can help you navigate the real estate market with ease.
1) Is your down payment ready?
For sure the first step should tackle is to figure out your finances. Buying a new home requires a mortgage, where a lender fronts you the money and you pay it back over time. However, in order to get a mortgage, you’ll need some sort of down payment.
2) What is your credit score?
In addition to having a down payment, you will need a decent credit score. This number is a numerical summary of your credit report, a detailed document outlining how well you’ve paid off past debts like for credit cards. You need to not forget to pay off your credit cards if not it’ll affect your credit score. A lender will check your score and report to decide whether or not to approve your file.
3) Apply for a mortgage
Before you head out home buying, you should seek pre-approval from a lender for a home loan. Each mortgage lender will scrutinize your financial background—such as your debt-to-income ratio and assets—and use this info to determine whether to loan you money, and what size monthly payment you can realistically afford. This will help you target homes in your price range. And that’s good, because a purchase price that’s beyond your financial reach will make you sweat your mortgage payment and puts you at risk of defaulting on your loan.
4) Find a real estate agent
Most first home buyers prefer to have a great real estate agent beside, who will help them find the right houses, negotiate a great real estate deal, and explain all e nuances of home buying along the way. Did you know that buyer agent’s services are free ?
5) It’s time to buy your home!
As a home buyer, you can peruse thousands of real estate listings on sites and then ask your agent to set up appointments to see your favourites in person. But to not get overwhelmed it is wise to separate your must-haves from those features you’d like, but don’t really need.
6) Make an offer
If you have found the one you really want it now it’s time to make an offer to the seller.
7) Home inspection
It’s time you hire a home inspector to check out the house from top to bottom to determine if there are any problems with it that might make you think twice about moving forward. Think: termites, faulty foundation, mold, asbestos, etc. Sure, a lot can go wrong, but rest assured that most problems are fixable.
8) Head to closing
Closing brings together a variety of parties who are part of the real estate transaction, including the buyer, seller, mortgage representative, and others.
Closing is the day you officially get the keys to your new home—and pay all the various parties involved. That will include your down payment for your loan, plus closing costs, the extra fees you pay to process your loan.
9) Move in!
Congratulations! Now it’s time to kick back and enjoy the many benefits of becoming a homeowner.