Hey everyone, I’m Amanda from Movoto Real Estate and we’re here to help you along an exciting home-buying journey.
Just thinking about the whole house hunting process can definitely seem a bit intense at first, but with careful planning and budgeting, you’ll be right on track towards homeownership.
But How Do You Know Where To Start?
The first few steps can sometimes be the hardest—you might not know exactly what kind of house you want, where you want to live, and you might not have your finances totally in check yet.
But starting your research early is definitely key, since it can actually take you a lot longer than you think to get everything you need to apply for that loan.
Start flipping through local real estate magazines to get ideas of prices and styles of homes you’re interested in. Browse online listings to see market trends of your target area over the past few years. Save properties you like—after viewing so many it’s easy to lose them, and sharing your favorites with an agent can help you get started on the right foot. Make a list of must-haves for your home, and a list of things you really don’t want or need.
You’re allowed to be a little bit picky when it comes to your list of must-haves, but remember that it is pretty hard for even the best real estate agent to find you every single thing on your list while staying inside the budget you gave them.
You can browse Movoto’s listing page to get an inside peek at all the features of a house, from floor plans to amenities. You can even see what the neighborhood has to offer with a list of nearby points of interest like grocery stores and libraries.
What Can You Afford?
When it comes to the budget, you might have a little more flexibility than you think. Your budget largely depends on not only how much house you want and where, but also on what kind of mortgage loan you end up with. We’ll talk about it next time, but there are ways for you to get a house without a 20 percent down payment.
Search online for resources like affordability calculators. You can enter details about your income, your down payment, and your debts and it’ll give you a pretty good idea of how much home you can comfortably afford.
Once you learn what you can borrow based on your budget, you should try to get pre-approved for a home loan. Although not all lenders require a pre-approval letter, many do, and just having that letter will allow you to put in an offer as soon as you find that perfect home.
What’s Next?
So we talked about researching listings, calculating affordability, and getting pre-approved, but there’s a whole lot more to learn.
For more information, visit our blog at Movoto.com/Foundation for all the insight you’ll need as a first-time home buyer.
Be sure to check out Part 2 of this video series to learn all about mortgages.
See you next time!
