Moving is no small task, but choosing where to live can be even more stressful especially if you plan to buy a home. A house is one of the largest purchases a person will make in their lifetime. So what can you do to reduce the stress of such a long term financially binding purchase?
17 Things To Do When Buying A House
How can you get more bang for your buck and feel less stress when buying a home?
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- Know what you can afford by calculating your realistic debt-to-income ratio
- Don’t make any large purchases six months before you plan to purchase a house
- Don’t change jobs six months prior to buying a house
- Don’t borrow money or open new credit cards six months before you plan to purchase a home
- Get copies of your credit report from the top three reporting agencies
- Get pre-approved for a home loan at a bank you can trust and a bank that can provide all kinds of tips, tools, advice and motivation to give you confidence through home buying, owning and beyond
- Keep a list with notes about each house you visit
- Make a list of what you can’t live without in a house and a separate list for things you would like in a home if possible
- Hire a real estate agent that you like and one who listens to you
- Don’t choose the largest, most expensive house in the neighborhood (bad for resell value)
- Continue saving money throughout the whole house-hunting period so you can put down 20 percent of the cost as a down payment
- Hire a home inspector to thoroughly check out the physical condition of the house
- Visit the neighborhood morning, noon, night and midnight on different days of the week
- Don’t buy a home at the max of your financial budget and live under your means
- Obtain a property survey
- Get an independent appraisal of the house
- Pay attention to the view when looking at the home and the view looking out the windows of the home
Buying a new home and moving CAN be exciting if you make the proper preparations to help the process run smoothly.
I’ve been adding to my “must have” and “like to have” list for awhile. The older I get, the more solid I become on the “must have” list. The “like to have” list has almost dwindled because of my clean everything out and get rid of it attitude.
What kind of things are on my “must have” list? I’ll share a few of them with you…
- Two room house – One bathroom with a roll in tub floor and one room for everything else
- A front porch swing
- Enough yard/land for a garden
- A large pot belly stove
That’s not very demanding is it?
Oh! You want to know what’s on the “like to have” list? Sure!
- Enough land for chickens
- A crystal chandelier
- A walk in tub
- An unfettered view of the ocean from the back of the house and the mountains from the front of the house – yeah, this is practically impossible
Sometimes dreams come true…especially when you work to attain them.
