To buy or not to buy
Owning versus Renting
Without question, owning a home comes with responsibilities and risks that you don’t have to worry about when you rent, such as a mortgage, taxes, homeowners insurance, and maintenance repairs, to name a few.
However; financial advisors- not to mention homeowners themselves say there are far more advantages to owning:
- Historically, it has trended that over time, you’ll lose money by renting instead of owning your own home. Why not build up equity in a home instead of paying your landlord’s mortgage?
- Although there are periodic market drops, historically owning a home has been a prime financial investment.
- You could take advantage of many ongoing tax benefits, like deducting the interest on your mortgage and property taxes from your income tax.
- Owning a home isn’t just a good investment in financial terms, It’s also an investment in a higher quality of life – particularly if you have a family or if you’re planning one.
- There’s a special kind of pride in the ownership and upkeep of a home that you won’t get with renting.
At the end of the day, it just feels good to own your own home. You can decorate it any way you like, renovate or build additions, and personalize your landscaping.
Do you qualify to own?
There’s only one way to find out: go to your bank and/or another lending institution and allow them to perform a credit check and analyze your financial situation generally.
You might be surprised, because the pity is that there are many renters who financially qualify to own their own homes but don’t realize it. Are you in this category?
a resource for the complex steps of buying a home
- Define your goals
- Contact a Real estate Agent
- Get pre-approved for a loan
- View homes and select THE one
- Make an offer and negotiate with the seller
- Secure your financing
- Close the Deal
The home buying process- a brief step-by-step overview.
If you’re like most people, buying a home represents your single biggest investment- and debt. As such, the home buying process can be one of the most exciting, but sometimes also stressful, experiences you ever go through.
There are so many factors to consider and many decisions to make. That’s why, when buying, it’s crucial for you to have all the available resources necessary to make a well-informed decision, together with the time required to make complete use of them. That’s also why you should enlist the help of a trusted real estate agent.
- Define Your Goals, Research Your Options, and Make Your Plans
Given that buying a home is such a big step, it’s all the more important for you to educate and prepare yourself as much as possible in advance. It also means examining your current financial situation and projecting how much you can afford. You may want to do this yourself, but you may also benefit by consulting an experienced real estate agent right from the start.
2. Contact a Real Estate Agent
Buying real estate is a complex matter at the best of times, given that there are so many factors to consider and no two homes or transactions are alike. However, with all the unique opportunities and potential pitfalls of the current market, it’s even more important for you to contact a real estate agent once you’ve definitely decided to buy.
In choosing a real estate agent to guide you through the property search, financing, negotiation, and transaction processes, you should consider their local market knowledge, experience, and track record.
3. Get Pre-Approved for a Loan
Generally, it is recommended that you get prequalified for a loan before you start viewing homes with the serious intention of buying.
The benefits of pre-qualification include:
- You’ll have information about what you can afford and be able to plan accordingly.
- As a qualified, motivated buyer you’ll be taken more seriously when you make an offer on a home
- Lenders can tell whether you qualify for any special programs that will enable you to afford a better home (particularly if you're a first-time buyer)
4. View Homes and Select THE ONE
The key to the home search process is knowing what you’re looking for and distinguishing between “must-haves” and ”like-to-halves”.
You should ideally view homes with the help of an experienced and eagle-eyed real estate agent who’ll notice things you might miss, provide expert analysis, and act as an impartial sounding board.
5. Make an Offer and Negotiate With the Seller
Now that you found the home you’d like to buy, it’s time to make an offer. In addition to drawing up the contract, your real estate agent will be happy to address all your questions about the offer process. A home's eventual sales price is subject to supply and demand – and will depend on what kind of market you’re in, generally, though, the seller can accept your offer, reject it, or counter it to initiate a negotiation process. Successive counter-offers, with deadlines for responding and meeting conditions, will be exchanged between you and the seller until a mutually-satisfactory pending agreement is reached or the negotiations collapse.
6. Secure Your Financing
Once you have a pending agreement with the seller, it’s time to go back to your chosen lender to finalize your mortgage details so you can close the deal.
As noted in the section on loan pre-approval, if you’ve already been qualified with a lender for certain loan and home purchases, this phase of buying your new home should be a relatively straightforward matter that centers around finalizing the loan details and signing the mortgage papers.
7. Close The Deal
Key steps to the closing also referred to as the “escrow” or “settlement”, include:
- Getting a title search – a historical review of all the legal documents relating to ownership of the property.
- The final walk-through – you’ll be given the chance to look at the home to make sure it’s in the same condition as when you signed the sale agreement.
- The settlement- typically, on the Closing Date you’ll go to the title company to verify and sign all the paperwork required to complete the transaction. At that point, you’ll receive the property title and copies of all the documentation pertaining to the purchase.
Oh, and one more thing- you’ll get the keys!