First Time Home Buyer Tips
Posted on October 28, 2008
Filed Under Foreclosed Homes |
For the first time home buyer, buying your first home is one of the most exciting things you will ever do. If you have spent years living in apartments, there is nothing more satisfying than owning your own property. The process can be a little lengthy and you might hit a few bumps in the road to home ownership. The following tips will help the first time homeowner avoid some of the hiccups.
Step one is to talk to a real estate agent about the home buying process. It should not be a sales meeting and you should be able to find an agent that will agree to meet with you about the basics without having to sign a sales agreement with them. If you cannot find a good agent to talk to, you might want to consider talking to a loan officer at your bank or a mortgage broker.
An equally important tip is to get your finances in order before you apply for a mortgage. Order a copy of your credit report so you can check it for accuracy. Mistakes are common and you want to make sure that there is no fraudulent activity. You have the right to dispute errors on your credit report. If you come across something that you know is an error, circle it and send it to the reporting agency along with a letter of dispute.
Next, you should really study the mortgage industry. You need to be able to find the right loan and lender most suitable for your needs. Familiarize yourself with industry terms like debt to income ratio and adjustable rate mortgage. Learn the difference between pre-approval and pre-qualified. It will all seem foreign at first, but taking the time to learn the business will spare you from headaches in the future.
Also, you need to figure out what your wants and needs are. What kinds of amenities are you looking for? How many bedrooms? One story or two story home? You also need to consider the size of the down payment and figure out what you need to do to come up with the money for it.
You must learn about how real estate agents work. There are buyers agents and sellers agents. A buyers agents responsibility is to negotiate the best deal for the buyer. The goal of the sellers agent is to get the price that the seller most desires. The best way to find the right agent is to ask your friends for suggestions. They have all probably been in the same boat, so they can probably recommend a good real estate agent.
When meeting with a potential agent, pay attention to how they treat you. Make sure they listen to you when you talk about what you want. Also, how are their follow up skills? Do they take the time to return your calls or emails? If they do not take the time to respond, move on. There is a better agent out there for you.
When looking for a home, consider all of the possibilities. Look up real estate agents websites. Do not rule out For Sale by Owner Properties and foreclosed homes. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) homes can often be found for very reasonable prices. You do need to find an agent that is approved to sell HUD homes if you choose to take that road to home ownership.
Before you even think about making an offer, you need to consider the resale value. You might plan on being there for a long time, but you just never know. You might opt for a different climate to alleviate your allergies or you could simply be transferred by your company. You want to pick a good location that will be attractive to others as well.
Another issue that cannot be ignored are the deed restrictions, which govern what you can and cannot do with the property. If it has always been your dream to have a pool, you want to make sure that you do not buy a home in a subdivision that will not allow it because of deed restrictions.
Home inspections are an important part of the equation. Talk to your agent to find out when the inspection will be performed. It varies state to state. Sometimes the inspection will be right before the contract is signed and other times, they are performed right after an offer is made.
Finally, make sure you stay on top of things. Any number of problems can crop up at the last minute and delay the purchase of your home. If you are not sure about something with the paperwork, do not be afraid to ask questions. You might think of something that everyone else has overlooked.
Purchasing a home is a time consuming and sometimes frustrating task, but it is worth it when you have your backyard barbeques.
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7 Responses to “First Time Home Buyer Tips”
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Potential first time home buyer tips?
Here's the deal, I really want to purchase a mobile home since I am single and just want a small place for myself. I have lived in two rental properties with my family and it has been less than stellar. What kind of things should a person going into this situation need to know or ask before buying into a mobile home? And no, not a redneck trailer just to get that out of the way.
hire a good inspector,pay attention to the landscape,and the type of trees,root systems can do a great deal of damage.check for history of flooding in the area.ask for receipt and warranties for previous work done.
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Why you want to buy a mobile home??? You can get a small house in ohio for less than 70,000 $. Payments would be about 625 $ a month with insurance and taxes. I have a house for sale right now.
First off you want to get preapproved for the financing and find out how much you can actually afford. Once you are preapproved then you will know what price range you can look at. Then you get online and make a big list of the propertys you want to see. I like going out and looking at them without a realtor, basically doing a looksee around the outside, if I like the neighborhood and all that, then I contact my realtor and schedule to go inside. No sense wasting the realtors and your time going there if the neighborhood sucks.
Once you find a place, you make an offer. And I would take 10 % right off the top of the list price immediately. Its a buyers market. People are dying to sell properties right now. Then get someone qualified to inspect the property, the realtor will know many good people for this. And if possible, go to a small bank, like a credit union and get the mortgage thru them, they take less time to get the paperwork done. I got my mortgage in 2-3 days thru my credit union. They rock. A big conglomerate of a bank will take a month to process it at least. Look for bank owned short sale properties. If the banks can't move them, then they send them to sheriffs auctions and they don't like doing that. They will take any offer you throw at them.
And above all, make sure anything the cheeky realtor tells you about prices is in WRITING. Do not accept verbal agreements.
If you need to know anymore, send me an IM or email.
And Good Luck!
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If you can, buy a good used mobile home. Purchasing a new mobile/manufactured home is like buying a new car, it is never worth what you paid for it once you drive it off the lot.
If you can purchase a MH on its own land, all the better.
Have a home inspector look over homes that you are considering putting an offer on. Or put in an offer and ask that the seller pay for a home inspection. It is money well spent.
Good luck!
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Oregon Realtor
Until you place it on a permanent foundation, it is considered a mobile home, which you can purchase and insure without the ordinary things needed with a home/mortgage purchase. It's treated like purchasing a vehicle.
Your main concerns should be:
1. Where will you park it? Are you purchasing land to put a permanent foundation on to, or are you planning to rent space in a trailer park?
2. If in a trailer park, what does the lease say about the water and sewer system. How long is the lease for? How are lease increases discussed?
3. What's the safety record (number of police calls or other calls for service) at the trailer park?
4. If you're purchasing land, does it come with well and septic already? If you're in a municipality, can you hook up to water and sewer? Is the land zoned for that particular type dwelling?
5. If buying a used unit, be sure of the maintenance. If it's really cheap, it could have had problems with the heating and air or water damage. If you're purchasing new, make sure you look at the interest rate. If you have a credit score over 600, they should not try to charge you an insane interest rate.
Congratulations on making a big step. Remember that when you decide to purchase a house, that the more attention you pay towards keeping this unit maintained, the better chance of renting it out to recoup some of your money.
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On of the other answerers got it dead on. A mobile home is like a car you can live in. It will lose its value. In fact, it can be hard to get financed to buy one because the bank knows that the home will lose value so that if you default, they get screwed. A co worker of mine had a difficult time selling one last year because of that. If that’s the route you go, just do so with the understanding that you will not be able to sell if for as much as you paid.
Otherwise, make sure you have a buyer’s agent representing you and that you get a home inspection.
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Check with some local lenders as well as some big ones as a lot has to do with whether or not the mobile home is single or double wide and whether or not it is on a full and permanent foundation. Even then sometimes the lender could ask for 20% down payment.
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