Your first (or even fifth) house purchase is a huge decision. It seems like there are a million things to know before buying a house.
From figuring out how much you can afford to hire the right home inspector, there is a lot to keep in mind.
1. Hire a Home Inspector
A good home inspection will cost you several hundred dollars. When you are already spending so much money, it may be difficult to write another check for a professional to inspect your home.
The cost of a home is far more than the purchase price. I wish I would have taken into account how expensive everything else is when budgeting for my first home.
In a competitive real estate market, buyers are doing all they can to become “The Chosen One,” including allowing the sellers to stay in the property and rent it back from the buyer for a set amount of time after closing.
4. Be a Stay at Home Landlord
Mortgage payments can feel intimidating, but especially if you’re buying a house while living alone, it’s easy to offset your mortgage (or even make money each month) by renting a room or your entire house on Airbnb during major events.
5. Home Improvement is Expensive
Many people will buy a fixer-upper when buying a home to save on the initial cost thinking they can simply put money into the home when they can. It is a solid strategy, but many fail to realize how much home improvement can be. Most of us want to fix everything quickly, but fail to realize how much even the smallest of updates can be.
6. Think About the Future
Selling a house and buying a new one is expensive. By planning now for a house you can grow into you can save a significant amount of money down the road.
7. Aggregate Your Paperwork
Do yourself a favor and tee up all of your accounts so that you can skip the questions. You’ll save yourself a lot of time and stress!
8. Ask About Warranties
Automate these savings if possible. Find an appropriate fund to invest your money in or go with target-date funds that automatically adjust with your child’s age. See our post on Saving For College Early.
9. Know How Much You Can Offer
Initially, we thought a larger home with a higher price tag was within reach, however, after learning about the rules for measuring your debt to income ratio, not all of our income would count in that equation.