Being A Successful Buyer In Today’s Market
Becoming A Powerful Home Buyer – NOW It’s time to rise above the other ordinary home buyers Becoming the most powerful home buyer(s) takes work and dedication. Why? Because other buyers out there aren’t going to put in any work or dedication! Remember, it’s always the ones that stand out that stand tallest. …okay, maybe I just made that up…but it makes sense! In addition to putting in work and dedication, having the correct mindset according to the current real estate market is incredibly important as well. In this blog, I am going to go over what “work” translates into, what “dedication” translates into, and what type of mindset you should have as well whether it’s a “buyer’s market” or a “seller’s market”. Let’s get started! One Part Work; One Part Dedication You put in the correct effort and it will all go your way Work and dedication. If those words have you cringing then you already understand why so many buyers fail before they begin, or worse yet, fail while they’re trying to buy their property. Getting the proper real estate agent to help you with your property purchasing journey is an absolutely critical component of the process and will reduce significantly the amount of work that you have to do. You can CLICK HERE to visit our Home Buyer learning page to see what we do for our buyers and how we make it the best experience possible for you. Work: Let’s face a very real fact; buying a property is one of the largest transactions in a person’s life and it should be treated as such. Buying a property is a big life step and is not to be taken lightly. There are many steps to the journey and once you’ve succeeded, you’ll be bound to a lifetime of memories and the anticipated building of equity and wealth. Dedication: You have to be ready to respect the process and to prepare mentally, there are going to be highs and lows, there is going to be excitement and disappointment, and you’re going to experience it all…and if you don’t, then you either got very lucky, or you voluntarily backed out of buying for any variety of personal reasons. So now let’s get to the major points and get you ready to get out there! Understanding Your Housing Needs The beginning path, where you find properties that best suit you This is the very beginning part of the process and is oftentimes the simplest. Grab your smartphone and/or go to your laptop or tablet and begin visiting the popular real estate websites. The first thing you’re going to want to do is figure out the types of properties that you’re most interested in according to style. Do you like a Colonial style house? How about a Ranch style house? Maybe you’re more of a 2-Family house? Perhaps you’re into a beach Bungalo or how about a small to medium Cape, heck maybe even a mansion? Whatever it is, you’ll quickly determine this for yourself as you browse the different homes currently listed for sale. Going forward from there, you need to determine how many bedrooms and bathrooms you will want and then how many you will need. Remember, in many cases, price follows these two parameters closely, so if you’re focusing on price, then you’re going to want to be careful here. Next up you should take note of the towns you’re interested in the most. Watch the home prices you’re seeing in those towns you’re interested in. If you’re finding that the homes that interest you most cost, for example, $600,000 but you feel your budget is set for $525,000, then your best bet is to change your parameters. I understand that negotiating price might be a thing (more so if a buyer’s market, less so if a seller’s market), but keep in mind that you don’t want to start from a point of weakness, you should always start from a point of strength, having the right budget is strength. The Pre-Approval, Down Payment & Closing Costs The pre-approval letter tells you what your budget truly is A mistake many initial home buyers make is to assume what they can afford. What they feel they can get will almost always be far different than what a bank calculates their affordability to be. Why would that be? Remember the great crash of 2008? Yeah, that was the bank’s fault. The banks were giving mortgages to literally everybody, including animals and the deceased (for real). Debt-to-income ratios were not thought about, income was oftentimes fabricated, and the types of mortgages being offered were (at the time) deemed legitimate and safe. Welcome, to the crash. Today things are far, far different. The banks are much more protective of how much they lend and are far more interested in income and debts. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people say “I can get a mortgage easily. I make $200,000 per year!” but what they don’t realize is that however much someone makes in a year guarantees nothing, especially if the bank calculates what they owe each month versus what they earn to cause them to be pre-approved for far less than anticipated. The next common statement is “I have a 800 credit score! My “Carma Credit” score says so!” which is equally as cringy since the only credit scores that matter are your FICO scores (a great way to discover your FICO scores are at www.MyFICO.com). So how does the bank do it? How do they determine your pre-approval amount? The bank will collect (at the very minimum) the following documents and information from you to determine this: Last 2 Years Tax Returns Last 2 Months’ Paystubs(Or equivalent time of other legal income sources) The last 2 Months of Bank Statements Social Security Number Driver’s License(s) From this information, the bank will understand your income, monthly debts, and how much money you have for down payment, closing costs, and