Buying Your First Home With Confidence By Gnifrus Urquart
Purchasing your first house should be a wonderful experience for everyone. It's such an important milestone in a person's life that it just seems like everything should go smoothly. Unfortunately, that is not how it always happens. There are several things you should do in order to prepare for the ups and downs of buying your first home.
Knowing where to draw the line between a necessity and a desire is a very important key to enjoying this process. You must understand the things you want, aren't necessarily the things you need. Our emotions can often times muddy the lines between the two, which can cause problems in the long run.
If you work from home you probably need a home office, or a space which can be used as one. You might also love to have a sun room in order to be close to the outdoors in the winter time. If the house has the office space, but no sun room, does it still make the short list?
After figuring out the difference between the necessities and the desires, it's time to figure out how much you can actually spend on a piece of real estate. Get prequalified for a home loan in order to determine what your budget is, as well as to be ready once you make an offer. It would be pretty disappointing to put in an offer on the perfect house, only to find out it is significantly out of reach financially.
Keep in mind that just because the numbers say you will be able to afford a certain price, does not mean your lifestyle can afford it. You need to sit down and crunch the numbers of different monthly payments, along with other monthly payments. This will allow you to get into a comfortable price range.
Spending less than the maximum on a home may be a real bummer in regards to what you get for your money, but remember this is your first house and it may not be perfect. Having some extra cash on hand will help you to make improvements to the structure as well as the yard. It will also allow you some extra monthly spending for fun and entertainment.
Buying your first home does not have to be a scary or intimidating process, just know what you need versus what you want. Wants will help sway you for or against a possible house, while needs will prevent you from looking at houses which will not work. Have fun in the search and stick to your predetermined budget so you don't get into too much debt.
Knowing where to draw the line between a necessity and a desire is a very important key to enjoying this process. You must understand the things you want, aren't necessarily the things you need. Our emotions can often times muddy the lines between the two, which can cause problems in the long run.
If you work from home you probably need a home office, or a space which can be used as one. You might also love to have a sun room in order to be close to the outdoors in the winter time. If the house has the office space, but no sun room, does it still make the short list?
After figuring out the difference between the necessities and the desires, it's time to figure out how much you can actually spend on a piece of real estate. Get prequalified for a home loan in order to determine what your budget is, as well as to be ready once you make an offer. It would be pretty disappointing to put in an offer on the perfect house, only to find out it is significantly out of reach financially.
Keep in mind that just because the numbers say you will be able to afford a certain price, does not mean your lifestyle can afford it. You need to sit down and crunch the numbers of different monthly payments, along with other monthly payments. This will allow you to get into a comfortable price range.
Spending less than the maximum on a home may be a real bummer in regards to what you get for your money, but remember this is your first house and it may not be perfect. Having some extra cash on hand will help you to make improvements to the structure as well as the yard. It will also allow you some extra monthly spending for fun and entertainment.
Buying your first home does not have to be a scary or intimidating process, just know what you need versus what you want. Wants will help sway you for or against a possible house, while needs will prevent you from looking at houses which will not work. Have fun in the search and stick to your predetermined budget so you don't get into too much debt.
