7 Vital Steps to Buying a House You Shouldn’t Skip
Everyone’s thought about buying a house at some point or another. It’s easy to see why, as it boasts more than a few benefits. Once you own your house, you’ll feel much more independent and secure in your life while having something to call your own.
It’s an area everyone works towards as much as they can. Once you’re in the position to buy, however, you shouldn’t just rush through the process as fast as you can.
You’re much better off knowing what you’re doing ahead of time. There are more than a few steps involved in buying a house, and some of these can be relatively easy to overlook. You wouldn’t want to end up in a position where you need to rush around getting things done.
Thankfully, this doesn’t need to be as complicated as you might’ve thought. Knowing which steps you need to take is recommended, as they’ll help quite a bit. Seven of them stand out.
1. Assess Your Finances
One of the first steps you should focus on is making sure your finances are in order. You’re not in a position to buy a house until you’ve done this, and there can often be quite a bit of work involved. Make sure everything’s buttoned up ahead of time.
Getting a deposit together is the most obvious part of this. But, you’ll also need to worry about your credit score and similar areas, as these can have a significant impact on mortgage rates. Assess your finances and figure out what you need to do about them.
2. Get Quotes From Lenders
Depending on your finances, you could need to get a mortgage to help buy your house. This doesn’t always have to be a bad thing, but you’ll need to be smart when you’re getting this. Get quotes from several lenders before making a decision on which one you’ll go for.
With at least three mortgage lenders, you can figure out which deal is the best one for you. Focus on the interest rates and similar terms when you’re doing this. It could end up saving you more than a bit of money by the time you, eventually, pay off the mortgage.
3. Shop Around
There are plenty of properties out there to view, even if you’re keeping it limited to a specific geographic area. Go out of your way to shop around with them to see what you’re interested in. While your budget can limit this, you can still look around within your budget.
Start off by going through real estate websites that have properties in the area you’re looking at, before arranging a tour of the property to see it. This takes a little bit of time, but it’ll help you figure out what kind of properties you like and which ones actually stand out.
4. Shortlist the Properties
After a while shopping around, you’ll find more than a few properties you might have an interest in. Take the time to compare each of them to create a shortlist. This list will end up being three or four of the properties you liked the most and are actually interested in.
Focus on your non-negotiables at first when you’re doing this. These help you make sure you go with a house that actually meets your needs, and then you can use your nice-to-haves to compare and rank them even further. It’s worth the effort.
5. Put an Offer In, Fast
There’ll eventually come a point when you find a property you want to buy. When you do, be quick when you’re putting an offer in. The last thing you want is to spend a few weeks thinking about it, only to find someone else made an offer and had it accepted.
While you’ll need to take a little time to figure out if it’s actually the right property for you, you shouldn’t take too long. Once you and your partner make a decision, put the offer in straight away. Keep it within your budget but make the offer as appealing as possible to the seller.
6. Survey the Property
Once your offer has been accepted, you’ll have a certain amount of time to sort out the legalities and similar areas. Many of these will be obvious, but others mightn’t be. Having the property surveyed and inspected can be easy to overlook but they’re both recommended.
A professional, like Aston James Associates, can find any potential issues with the property that you mightn’t be aware of. These can have a significant impact on your decision. You wouldn’t want to end up in a position where you’d have to deal with them unexpectedly.
7. Sign on the Dotted Line
Once any inspections and other steps are taken – and you’re happy with everything – it’s time to sign on the dotted line. You’ll have found the property you wanted, and there shouldn’t be anything stopping you from going for it. It’s time to legally buy the house for yourself.
Make sure you’ve read through everything carefully to make sure you understand what you’re actually signing. There’s also the likes of closing costs and other areas to be aware of ahead of time, as they could have a significant impact on your ability to close on the sale.
Home ownership is something that everyone dreams about. But, that doesn’t mean it comes easy to everyone. You’ll need to spend a decent bit of time getting through the process.
Once you’re in a position to consider buying a house, however, it’s natural to want to rush into it as quickly as possible. You’ll be excited to actually own a home. Don’t just jump into it, though. Make sure you know what you’re doing ahead of time.
By knowing the most important steps, you should have much less to worry about. Some can be easy to overlook, despite how important they are. You’ll avoid more than a few headaches and quite a bit of rushing around by knowing about them ahead of time.
