I am thrilled to see hear and read news of my friends getting ready to venture into being homeowners. Let me give you a few words of advice that I recieved from a very wise woman who has had ventures in real estate and has been a realtor (my mom). Some of these words are also things that have learned through our own experience and have witnessed others having to learn as well. 1) never set your heart on the first house you see. Chances are, you will find other homes that you will love even more. Also, its probably already had quite a few viewers who are in an offer war. 2) Stay out of offer wars. Play hardball, and make sure you realtor knows how to play harball too. Games arent fun in real estate, so if you love the house and find it perfect condition (to your standars -but dont be too picky, cause that will just make the experience last even longer) then offer a little more than what is asked (we did this with our house and the selling realtor ended up offering to pay all closing costs, plus a little more, which really saved us money in the long run). 3) dont go for a house that is the price of your higher side of the approved loan, especially if it needs 10s od thousands of work done. Be humble, try to aim for a house thay is low to mid range of your approved loan, and that leads little work done and is pretty much move in ready. Having to wait to kove insucks, especially if it is a later date then your move out of rental date. 4) if you get an fha loan and there is work that needs to be done before closing can occur, save some money on contractors. Small DIY projects are very full filling to do on your future investment. There is lots of information on the web, use it! 5) it is a stressful and heartbreaking experience, yet fun add exciting at the same time. just go in to the experience open minded and knowing that you will probably end up looking at a 100 houses before you get an offer accepted. 6) when you go into a house, start imagining its potential, because the house may not look great now, but it will change once you start making it your own. 7) check out the history of your house and the area it is in. You will never know what you may find. So dont be afraid to go to the city or county and do your research, especially if its an older home. For instance, our home is a 50s home and the city has no information on where our underground pipes are layed out. Also, the wiring is a bit hard to get to and crazy, having known this in the beginning, I probably would have waited on purchasing ceiling fans. It isnt unfixable, its just a matrer of getting it done. So far those boxes of fans have been sitting in our garage for 2 years now. Or more......? 8) make sure that your payments are going to be able to be paid if you or your spouse lose a job. Will you or your spouse be able to take on the payments on your own if one loses a job, or something else happens? Seriously, this is the most important rule of all! Think of the mortgage payment as yours, solo. Make sure you can still pay it no matter what, with all the other neccessities needed to live. 9) aim for a low, fixed rate. The economy is constantly changing and interest rates do to. Get locked into one that wont change, so you never have to deal with increases in mortgage. In fact, our mortgage just decreases a few dollars, and never will it increase! 10) last but not least, when you buy a home, make sure to call you auto insurance agent and make changes to it now too! You have a huge increase in assets now, and accidents happen with sue happy assholes! Protect your home.
Posted on: Sun, 30 Mar 2014 03:39:21 +0000
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