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I suggest poking around with a competent realtor and seeing what you like before you even apply for a pre-approval for a loan, but be realistic about what you can afford, look at lower cost houses at first to get an idea of what you want and don't want. Buying a house you hate is not worth it. There are also mortgage calculators on some realty websites and you can mess around with those without hurting your credit and it can help give you a better understanding of the cost, they're definitely not 100% accurate but, it can help. Consider the area and your needs as well, if you want to be close to things or have fiber internet, make sure that's available at the property you're looking at. Don't get a septic tank if you can help it, they are terrible. Look at how quickly houses in the area are being sold. Faster sales generally means places start asking for more. You can negotiate in due diligence to have things repaired, but if you see anything listed "AS IS" they probably won't do anything, so what you see is what you get (and even then, the day we went to sign the paperwork for our house as a "final walk through", we found out they removed a lot of curtain rods etc that we were expecting to transfer with the house). Also consider if you're moving into a larger space: it costs more to power, heat and cool, and depending on the type of heating especially, it can get way more expensive real fast. Make sure the property you want to buy is not in a flood zone too. That's a very expensive risk to take. I don't know if all states allow this, but ask (politely demand) when you're going into due diligence that the money for the DD can be used towards the final sale cost of the house. If you break out of your contract and end up not buying the house though, that money is typically forfeit. Talk to a mortgage broker. Do your research, make sure to know what the average interest rates are for your area and don't do the dumb buy credit points thing to lower your rate, you could just use that money towards paying your mortgage quicker to get rid of any PMI and then refinance the loan later, and if you're going to talk to more than one broker, you have a limited amount of time before additional credit checks will hurt your credit a second time. If you're getting an FHA loan, which is what my husband and I did, you can put down a lower down payment than many other loans. We opted to put more down because I happened to have money in the bank to do so, and rent for a much smaller space around here is actually MORE than what our monthly mortgage cost is (if you factor in property tax, it's a smidgen more expensive per year, but it was worth it for us). We more than doubled our usable space by buying instead of renting. There's a lot of math and a lot of reading, and if you can, having a lawyer look over the paperwork is a good idea. Don't forget the inspector, get a thorough one and be prepared to be there for hours while they do their inspection (it doesn't hurt to ask them questions as they go and a good inspector will bring up concerns as they go along). Also, and I cannot stress this enough, READ THE PAPERWORK. ALL OF IT. SERIOUSLY.
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Jan 8, 2020 15:56
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| # ¿ May 18, 2024 13:58 |
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