Get Pre-Approved
Getting pre-approved for financing or mortgage from financial institutes or other entities is the utmost important step in today’s market. Even if you have lump sum cash sitting around to buy a house, it’s still highly advisable to get pre-approval for house loans. Seller may look upon this as a financials backup guarantee and builds confidence that the deal won’t fall apart if they accept your offer in the worst case. Most importantly, it will help you understand the exact dollar amount you can afford by factoring in your GDS, TDS, and other financial liability and assists.
But of course, there is a catch in here, as it again depends on the situation. Let’s say your bank pre-approves you for $ 900,000, and you put in offer this amount. But now, your bank as a lender will have an appraiser sent over to determine if the house is valued at $ 900,000 or not. If the appraiser reports that $900,000 is an absolute value of the home, then you are gold and consider it all done. But yes, a huge ‘BUT’ if they appraise it at $ 750,000, which is lesser than the pre-approved dollar amount, then your lender will provide the actual loan for just $ 750,000. Now you become short of $ 150,000 and might have to look for other resorts to arrange this. The opposite of this situation is highly unlikely practically.
Thus, it’s recommendable to go out of your budget in no scenario, especially when it’s your first home, as you do not have experience with property ownership.
Before Starting – Decide on
Property type
When it comes to buying a home or condominium, there are various distinctive types that you should decide where you can likely see yourself living. There are fully detached, semi-detached, linked, townhouse, duplex, triplex etc., and much more you can select from. Check out HERE for more details.
Location
Location is the one that plays a massive role in determining the value of the house or property. Moreover, you should decide on a convenient location for you and your family as you will live here year-round and most likely for a couple of years. Therefore, compromising on location might add inconvenience to your life. Not just that, even if you are buying a home, let’s say to live forever; still, you don’t want to select the location where there is the possibility of property value depreciation in the future.
Amenities
When looking into condominium purchases, where you are obligated to monthly maintenance fees, it’s essential to decide what kind of amenities are important to you personally. Such as gym, rooftop deck, guest suites, swimming pool, concierge, sauna, yoga studio, and much more are available inside your condominium complex.
Other
Based on your lifestyle and requirement you might need to consider few more things such as access to public transport, nearest grocery stores, walkable score etc. And, if you have family might need to look for accessibility to nearest schools, community centers, playgrounds, library, religious place etc.
So overall, you should prepare for what’s most appropriate for you and when the home buying process begins, which are the things you can adjust or are willing to compromise on.
