3 Things To Avoid As A First-Time Home Buyer
Buying a home for the first time is a big deal. Not only are you taking on a lot of personal and financial responsibility than you likely have before, you’re also going to be making some big decisions about your life going into the future as well.
To help ensure that you make all the right decisions here, take a look at three things that you should try to avoid as a first-time home buyer.
Spending More Than You Can Afford
Figuring out how much you can afford to spend on a home takes more than just knowing what your monthly mortgage will be.
In addition to this cost, Alex Gailey, a contributor to Time.com, shares that you also need to account for things like insurance, property taxes, HOA fees, maintenance, and more. These costs can all add up, dropping down that amount that you can actually afford to spend on the house you’re hoping to buy. With all of this in mind, you should make sure that you have a very firm understanding of your financial situation as well as what your costs will be once you’re a homeowner before you go forward with buying a property.
Discounting The Neighborhood
While you can always do renovations on the home, what you can’t do is change the neighborhood in which your home resides.
Knowing this, Zach Wichter, a contributor to Bankrate.com, suggests that you spend just as much time checking out the neighborhoods in the areas you’re considering buying as you spend looking at the actual houses. Ideally, you should look for a house in a neighborhood that has everything you want as far as school, safety, and other amenities rather than just finding the perfect house and hoping that it’s in a good neighborhood.
Not Looking Into All Possible Loan Programs
Choosing your lender and your mortgage options is going to be one of the most important pieces of buying your first home. Because of this, it’s going to be very helpful to you if you look into all possible loan programs that you have available to you.
According to Holden Lewis, a contributor to NerdWallet.com, there are all kinds of first-time homebuyer programs as well as FHA, VA, or USDA loans that many people may qualify for if they only took the time to find out. So while you might be excited to move into your first home, make sure you go about financing it in the right way first.
If you’re going to be buying your first home in the near future, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you avoid some common first-time homebuyer mistakes and miscalculations.
