Buying Your First Home? 3 Tips To Help You Get Started

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If you are a first time home buyer, you are likely confused as to what you need to do. To help you, below are some tips that you should find helpful. These tips should help you find a home that is perfect for you without having any problems along the way.

Know Your Credit

Before you do anything, you need to know what your credit is, as having a low credit score can prevent you from getting a home. If your score is not considered very low, you might still be able to get into a home, but your interest rate may be a lot higher, resulting in higher payments. You can get a free credit report once per year from the three major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.

Look over your credit reports carefully to ensure there are no mistakes. It will show all the companies that you owe, the balance, how much you have paid, and if the account is paid off or not. It will also show if the account is in good standing, as well as how many late payments you have made.

If you find problems, contact the credit bureau directly and they can help you get things corrected.

Get Qualified

Before you start looking at homes, you need to know how much money you can afford to spend. This will ensure that you do not get in over your head and end up having to foreclose on your home.  

There are calculators online that you can use to help you determine this. These calculators determine your debt to income ratio and then will factor a down payment that you will be able to afford each month, as well as how much money you can afford to put down on the home. The real estate agent may also be able to help you with this, as well as the lender you are planning to use.

Choose the Right Home

Take into consideration the type of home that you want. If you are single right now, you may plan to get married in the future. For this reason, you may want to purchase a home that has three bedrooms instead of one. If you plan to have children, make sure the yard is large enough for them to play in, as well as ensure the local schools are reputable.

You should also consider the neighborhood and make sure it is safe for you, as well as any future family members. This is important, as buying a home is a big investment and you do not want to get into one and then find you don't like something about the home or where it is located.

Your real estate agent can give you many more tips to help the process go smoothly for you.

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8 July 2017

Prioritizing Your Wish List

After I decided to buy a new home, I realized that I probably needed to prioritize the things on my wish list. Since I am not wealthy, I realized that I probably couldn't get everything that I wanted out of a single home--at least, not this time around. Fortunately, I worked with an incredible real estate agent who helped me to figure out which type of property would pay off in the end. Finding a home took a lot of time, but I am really pleased that I found the right one. This blog is all about learning to prioritize your home hunting wish list so that you can have the home and financial situation of your dreams.