Tips for Buying a Home

Define Your Needs for a New Home

Your first step toward buying your new home will be to analyze your needs. Carrie can help you determine exactly what you want your new home to look like and how it should function for you and your family.

First, write down why you are looking for a new home. Second, establish a time frame for buying your home. Depending on your reasons for wanting a new property and the current state of the market in the area you are looking to buy, you should be able to come up with a rough guideline. Finally, you probably have a mental picture of what your dream house looks like.

Turn these ideas into two lists: one should describe your dream home and the other should list features that are absolute must haves.

Pre-approval vs. Pre-qualification

Now that you know what you want in a home, you need to find out what you can afford. There are two ways to go about this: pre-qualification or pre-approval for a loan. Either way, you can contact Carrie about choosing a mortgage company.

Pre-qualification is the simpler of the two processes. It can even be done online or over the phone. When you contact a mortgage company, they will ask you for some basic information about your finances – how much money you earn, your debt load, etc. They will take this information and give you a rough estimate of how much of a loan you might qualify for.

Pre-approval is more a more in-depth process. The lender will perform an extensive check of your finances including your credit rating, whether or not you’re a first time buyer, what your debt load is, how much money you have to put as a down payment, etc. This figure will be a much more reliable estimate of what you can afford.

In most markets, pre-approved buyers are preferred over those that are merely pre-qualified. Being pre-approved lets the seller know you have gone through an extensive financial background check and there should be no unexpected obstacles to you buying their home.

Neighborhood Information

Now that you have your list of needs and wants and know how much you can afford to spend, it’s time to look at some houses. People don’t just buy a house; they buy the neighborhood where the house is located. You will need to consider things like drive time to work and major destinations, amenities such as swimming pools, tennis courts, parking, etc., area schools and the demographics of the surrounding area.

Home Search

At this point you will have a good idea of what you can afford and the type of area you will want to invest in. If you don’t know much about the city to which you are moving, you will want to start by finding areas that meet your criteria and then narrowing your search to particular properties in those areas.

The most efficient way to find homes is to allow Carrie to keep you up-to-date on available properties that meet your criteria, and then allow her to screen them for you. When Carrie presents you with a home that interests you, she can arrange for you to tour it at your convenience.