Tips When Purchasing a Home

Before buying your first home, there are plenty of people who will be feeding you advice — your parents, your friends, your real estate agent, your accountant, your psychologist — and although a lot of the advice may be repetitive, there are still so many important things that slip your mind.

1. Be clear about why you’re buying a home. Every large decision you have to make about home ownership should somewhat tie in to this. Make sure the reason makes sense after you and your significant other (if applicable) sleep over it a few times. Don’t get in to home ownership because your friends or coworkers are telling you how much they love owning their home. It might not be the same for you.
2. If you’re buying a home together with your significant other, sit separately with different pieces of paper and write down what each of you wants in your home. Be realistic. Indicate what you’re okay with compromising on and what is absolutely a must have (or must not have). Once you’re satisfied with the list, tally what you have and combine what you want, don’t want, what’s a must have and what you can compromise on. Be realistic.
3. Use one of the online tools to calculate ‘how much house can I afford’. Don’t spend more than 30-40 percent of your annual income on home ownership — this includes your mortgage, insurance, property tax etc.
4. Look at houses based on the lifestyle you have not the lifestyle you aspire to have. You may have loved a large green lawn but realistically you would never maintain it and probably wouldn’t spend on a gardener. That’s just one example. Don’t dream of building a home theater in the basement if you’re the outgoing type.
5. ‘Buy the biggest house you can afford’ is horrible horrible advice. Buy the house that you need today with some consideration for tomorrow’s needs. Tomorrow’s needs is something along the lines of growing family NOT anticipating profits from business or promotions.
6. Avoid borrowing money from friends or family in order to afford a bigger home. This is kind of an off shoot of the point above. Both points will just lead to additional stress that you don’t need. This is true even if they’re willingly offering you money without you asking.
7. REALLY look in to total cost of home ownership. If you’re looking in to a fixer upper things can get very tricky. We recommend not going for a fixer upper for a first time home owner. Even in a relatively new home the cost of minor fixes may surprise you. 
8. Drive around the neighborhoods that you’re interested in on different days at different times of the day. Get a feel of the place. Chat with people who’re out for walks or something and see what they think. This might lead to interesting results.
9. Feel free to use your agent to do the ground work. Give your agent a list of questions you may have about the houses/neighborhood/HOAs etc that you are interested in. A good real estate agent will know that it takes to get answers.
10. Have your own Buyers agent representative. It’s in your best interest to not have the same agent as the seller.”
11. Don’t skimp out on the essentials — for example home inspection. It may be expensive to do but it’s better than being stuck with a flawed house.
12. Find out how the HOA is if it exists. Some can be very strict.
13. After you buy your home, don’t feel compelled to set it up immediately. That means it’s okay to use the current furniture you have. It’s okay to have older appliances for a while. It’s okay if one or more of your rooms look a little empty for a year or two.

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