Buying a home can strike fear into your heart, and that is especially true if you haven’t bought real estate before. However, it can also be the best investment you make and also has the added bonus of improving the quality of your life. Read on to find some tips which will help you to choose the right property for you no matter what your level of experience is.
Try using an online calculator in order to figure out how much you can realistically afford to spend on a house. You will be able to input your expenses, your income, and the debt that you already have. The result will be a figure approximating what you can reasonably afford, without overextending your finances.
When you are looking for investment property, consider using a licensed real estate agent to help you with your search, or a real estate broker. These people will have resources that may not be directly available to you. For instance, real estate agents have computer programs that make searching through MLS easier. These tools can help you find what you need without having to look through the MLS yourself, and you may find better deals.
Real Estate
Ask your real estate agent how long she has lived in town when you are interviewing her to represent you. A long-term resident will know more about the community’s infrastructure, local laws and neighborhood characteristics that a newcomer may not know. You should work with real estate agents who have lived locally for at least a decade.
When negotiating your sales contract, ask for a home warranty. Anytime you purchase a new or older home, ask the builder or previous owner for a warranty. Builders should be willing to warranty their home products for a certain time period. Likewise, serious sellers are usually willing to cover the cost of the warranty to ensure your repair costs are covered. A period of one year is not unreasonable for the warranty.
Even if the home is just for you, don’t go it alone. It is always helpful to have an experienced person at hand. Many people may notice things in the homes that are wrong that you may not have. Before you view a property, make sure you let the person know that he or she is free to ask the agent questions about the home.
You should be pre-qualified for a mortgage before you even start to look for a home. A big reason for this is that you do not want to find the home of your dreams, only to discover that you cannot get a big enough loan for it. Also, securing a loan can take a long time, and waiting until the last minute to start finding one is not a smart decision.
Before you run out and purchase a property simply because you like the way it looks, you should first stand back and examine the home as a whole. The main thing that you should look at is how solid the house is. When basing a purchase on the decor of the house, you might overlook serious defects which can be expensive to fix after the purchase.
When considering a foreclosed home, consider the repairs that you will likely have to complete. Homes that have been foreclosed are often unoccupied for a while before they are sold, so necessary repairs and maintenance may have been neglected. If you are buying a foreclosed home, it will probably need new heating and air conditioning systems, as well as pest control services.
Financial Incentives
Try asking the seller to aid you in closing costs or giving financial incentives. It is not uncommon practice for sellers to pay or “buy down” a portion of the loan’s interest rate for a period of a couple of years. A seller is less likely to negotiate over the sale price if financial incentives are attached to an offer.
Prior to signing a lease, speak with the future landlord about the gardening, if you’ve got a garden. You should know that in some cases, a renter is expected to take care of a yard or garden or to pay someone to do the job. Many places have this task included into the monthly payments.
Go for your dream home. There is a controversy over whether this is the right time to buy and sell real estate; therefore, consider both sides before making a decision. You might want to buy your dream home now, housing prices will probably go up from here.
Purchasing a piece of real estate can be one of the most significant investments of your life. The suggestions outlined in the above article may give you more confidence and help you with those big decisions, and may help you to avoid the many pitfalls that others have fallen into when it comes to buying real estate.