Choosing The Right Home

Choosing the right home for you and your family is the most important decision you make.  It is also the most enjoyable aspect in the home buying process.  In order to keep the experience positive, you will need to implement the wants and desires of anyone who may be directly impacted by your decision to buy.  This may include individuals such as your immediate family, significant other, girlfriend, boyfriend, or anyone else that may have an interest in the home.  Meeting with these individuals and examining all things that are important to them can help determine the type of homes with which to begin your search.  Before you begin to look for a home, you should understand a few things that are often overlooked and should be considered as you look for the right home.   

The very first thing you should consider is a payment you are comfortable with, and can continue to manage without putting yourself into any financial risk.  Don’t put yourself in a situation where eating rice cakes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is the only way to make ends meet each month.  Be realistic and develop a budget you can live with.  Once you have established your budget it will be simple to figure out where your payments need to be.  The payment you consider should include the entire monthly house payment which consists of principle and interest, Home owners insurance, Taxes, and HOA’s or Mortgage Insurance, if applicable.  Our website (www.onlinemortgagebank.net) has a mortgage calculator to help you determine what your payments will be.  If you want to estimate it, I generally use a payment of $65 dollars for every $10,000 in the sales price. 

Once you have determined what your desired monthly payment range is, you and your realtor will be able to begin inputting your home search criteria.  You and your realtor can condense the search criteria by listing the type of floor plan needed in a home that will serve your needs.  Hopefully, you have involved input from anyone that has a vested interest in the home you buy.  Any stipulations should be communicated to your realtor so they have the proper criteria to begin your search for the right home.  Most realtors will then initiate a process, by providing you with a number of MLS listings that fit your preliminary search criteria.  

Floor plans will typically display the number of rooms, the types of rooms, and the size of the rooms located in a home.  It is self-evident that you must establish what elements are needed in the floor plan to meet your expectations.  By focusing on a specific floor plan, you and your realtor will be able to pinpoint all the homes that comply with these standards.  For example, there is no reason for you to look at homes with two bedrooms when you must have three bedrooms.  Another consideration is whether you or anyone in the family might be limited in their ability to climb stairs.  If so, your search criteria should exclude homes having stairs, or include homes that are conducive to the handicapped.  You would be amazed at how many people settle on the wrong home because their expectations were not addressed with the realtor from the start.  Do not settle; insist that your realtor only show you homes that measure up to your standards.  If the home you are deliberating on does not feel right, just keep looking, because you will find something that fits within your expectations.

It is important that when working with a reputable realtor you adhere to what your realtor has to say.  Realtors look at homes on a regular basis and they understand all of the normal concerns that arise while looking at homes.  Ask your realtor as many questions as you want.  Believe it or not they want you to ask questions, because it demonstrates a higher level of interest in buying a home.  Your realtor will educate you on everything you need to know when buying a home.  Their in- depth knowledge of the market should prevent you from making any common mistakes.  For example, realtors should always recommend a home inspection to help you identify any issues with the home that may have escaped your notice in your initial walk through.  We want to be your real estate representative for life; in order to be that we must demonstrate to you that we are real estate and lending experts. We must also demonstrate that we can, in fact, be trusted to help you make the right home buying decisions. 

You will need to carefully consider what kind of shape the home is in, as you walk through it.  Ordinarily, a home that is listed on the market will be shown at a higher standard of quality than the home’s original condition.  You can confidently expect that most homes listed on the market will show well.  Odds are that if the surface items look to be in excellent condition, then the rest of the home will likely be in pristine form as well.  Contrarily, if the home looks a bit suspicious in what was done to maintain up keep, odds are there are even larger issues not yet noticed.  Take a quick glance at what the brand names are on the appliances, fixtures, and anything else that is offered to you if you decide to buy this home.  When sellers decide to cut corners, these items will be an example of what you first notice.  Also, inspect the quality of work completed as an upgrade on the home; for example, any tile work, flooring, counter tops, decks, and other custom jobs completed in the home.  You can soon see if these projects were done by a professional or by someone trying to do just enough to meet with approval.  Currently, there are many sellers that will cut corners on a number of things needed in order to make the home presentable enough to be listed on the market.  If sellers are willing to go to such lengths to make the home appear better than it is, you cannot help but wonder what you may have missed.  If it does not feel right, simply move on to the next home.

Have fun!!  This should be a pleasurable experience for you.  We enjoy seeing the happiness that evolves from homeownership and we yearn to see how it invigorates you.