It’s a big moment when you consider moving from renting a place to buying your own. Ever since leaving the nest, you have been living in someone else’s space. This is a moment of truth.
It can also be super scary. After all, it’s a new experience. Buying a home can be a great thing, but there are definitely some things to consider when buying a home.
Look at the Market
The housing market is one of the most important things to consider when buying a home. Never, I repeat, never buy real estate without researching what the market is like.
Jumping in without research can lead to a disastrous financial situation. You need to be sure you can get a good deal, or at the very least ensure you aren’t getting a bad one.
The housing market has ups and downs. As a result, house prices, interest rates, and the average time to sell all go up as well. If you carefully look into what is going on, you can jump in at the right time and get a decent price and a low-interest rate.
Save a Down Payment
You’ve probably heard of this before. A down payment is a lump sum of the total amount paid up-front, reducing the amount you borrow. If you are buying a $200,000 home and were able to make a 10% down payment, you would pay $20,000 out-of-pocket and borrow $180,000.
Historically, people have always said you should make your down payment 20% of the total price. More of this isn’t expected, and you can get away with smaller down payments. It just increases how much you have to borrow, and therefore how much money you have to pay interest on.
Know Your Credit Score
Credit scores essentially give a three-digit number representing the likelihood of you paying back borrowed money. Lending companies, banks, and credit card companies use this information to gauge whether they feel good about lending you money.
You should know your score so you know where you stand in the ability to borrow money. There is a widely circulating myth that checking your credit score will lower it. This can be true, but there is more to it than that.
There are two types of credit checks- soft pulls and hard pulls. A soft pull is a check that does not lower your credit score and can be done by anyone. Landlords, credit card companies, and others use this to do a basic check to see your credit history.
They use companies like www.softpullsolutions.com to check your credit score and pre-qualify you for a loan. You can check your own credit this way and not affect your score. You can use websites like Credit Karma or Experian to check your own score.
A hard pull requires your permission to perform and can lower your score. This is what will have to happen before you get a loan for a house, car, etc. So you can check your own credit to ensure you are in a good spot without affecting your score, but the mortgage loan could drop it a couple of points.
Find the Right Loan
Ever heard the term “shopping around”? Do that with loans. It is important to find the best interest rate, loan period, etc. Don’t rush it.
You have to do this wisely, as multiple requests could mean your credit score dropping multiple times. Many companies that track credit scores allow request made within a certain window of time to be considered as one request.
Do your research, and make the request in a timely fashion so it won’t ding you too much.
Finally, these are important things to consider when buying a home. Make sure you prepare for it financially. By taking simple steps, you can buy a home that will be your own. Do your research, be wise, and when the time is right, go for it.
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