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"Smart home buyers avoid the stress Of the home buying process. They avoid the mistakes Other home buyers make Because they get facts and not guess".
My philosophy is
when a person knows what not to do they'll have a better chance of
doing what they should do. I don't know how accurate this is in all
cases but it works like a charm when buying a home.
Follow these 10 Don't
Do's and watch how it keeps you out of trouble on the way to your first
home.
1. Don't Buy More House Than You Can Afford. One of the
biggest mistakes many first time homeowners make whose dreams are
bigger than their incomes.
The bigger,
newer, fancier house is a lot of fun until the payments start to
squeeze you harder.
2. Don't Move Into A fixer Upper If You're Not Willing or Able To Fix It Up. So, you've
watched a few hours of the home improvement channel. Now, you've
convinced yourself how easy making that rat trap of a house look like a
palace. But unless dust in your hair and the smell of paint fumes
excites you - think twice before buying a fixer upper.
One fact all
fixer uppers require is time, money and physical labor; not necessarily
in that order.
3. Don't Buy Your Home As An Investment - Buy It As A Place To Live. Apply solid financial common sense and you'll stay out of the trouble many starry - eyed homeowners get into in a flat real estate market. 4. Don't Buy A House If You're A Bad Money Manager. If you can't
manage your money, put off buying a home until you can get yourself
under control.
Don't depend on a
high salary, anticipated home appreciation or an "I'll get by attitude"
to save you from bad spending habits.
It's funny how
time and a home has a sneaky way of revealing bad spending habits.
5. Don't Buy A House If You Have Bad Spending Habits. This is a
continuation of #4. If you don't have a clue about how much you spend
each month. Could care less whether you pay your bills on time or not.
And would rather spend money on a quick trip to Vegas, than new copper
pipes or insulation, hold off buying a house.
Yes, a home can
often pay you back many times what you paid for it. But it requires you
to pay first and in most cases keep paying for a long period of time.
6. Don't Buy A House If You Hate The Neighborhood or The Neighbors. Don't settle for
a house or a neighborhood you feel uncomfortable in. In most cases your
first home may not be your ideal choice, but it can be a spring board
to a better home and neighborhood.
But if you hate
the neighborhood or your neighbors, all the house will bring you
besides a monthly mortgage payment is headaches.
7. Don't Guess At Your Earnings or Expenses. If there is
anything, other than a teenage child, that will squeeze more pennies
out of you - it's a house.
This is not the
time to guess at what you earn or what your expenses are after
you buy the home. The more accurate you estimate these figures at the
start -the less stress you'll experience in the long run.
8.
Beware Of Racial Steering.
This
is a form of "quiet" housing discrimination. Where
African
American home
buyers are shown houses in neighborhoods less desirable than those
shown to comparable whites by real estate agents.
Being limited by
the amount of homes shown compared to white buyers, many African
Americans give up on looking for a home.
This
practice often prevents many African Americans
from buying a home because they don't want to purchase in
certain high crime neighborhoods.
Many real estate
agents have a tendency to steer whites to white communities and blacks
to black or interracial communities. Racial steering is
when agents do this despite African Americans having the ability
to qualify for non-minority neighborhoods.
All things being
equal, if your agent is only showing you homes in minority
neighborhoods and you can clearly qualify for other neighborhoods, you
may be a victim of racial steering.
For more
information on racial steering and what to do about
9. Don't Forget To Communicate With Your Spouse.
With all the
information, facts and figures going through your head it's easy for
couples to be on different pages when buying a home.
In my former life
as a real estate agent, the hardest part of the sale was getting a
husband and wife to agree on the same house at the same time. Don't
laugh it's not as easy as it looks. In fact, it's like hitting a moving
target in the middle of an earthquake in many cases.
Most of the
problems occurred because they remembered to listen to the loan
officer, the agent and others. But they forgot to listen to the needs
and wants of each other. Dah!
10. Don't Settle For Something You're Uncomfortable With. With so much
money, time and long term commitment that comes with a house, it's
almost crazy to settle for a house or neighborhood your uncomfortable
with.
Many homeowners
buy a home hoping it will grow on them. That's always a gamble because
a house is not a plant - you can't depend on it growing on you.
If your first
impressions or gut feelings of a home make you uncomfortable, you
should probably keep looking.
If you follow these 10 Don't Do's as a home buyer, you'll escape a mountain of problems, wasted money and stress caused by hasty decisions. If your're a
first time home buyer discover how to get a free grant to buy your
first home - even if your nervous, shaky and have
doubts Click Here!
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