9 Things YOU MUST KNOW Before Buying Your First House – Tips We Learned During the Buying Process

Buying your first house can be overwhelming. How do you even go about it? Are there any home buying mistakes you need to avoid? Are there any tips that would be helpful for a first time home buyer? These are questions we try to answer in this video.

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0:00 - Introduction
0:33 - Interest Rates
2:38 - Researching the Area
4:34 - Preparing for Mistakes (New Construction)
6:30 - Upgrades (New Construction)
7:39 - Keeping a Paper Trail
9:54 - Recasting Your Mortgage
12:27 - Budgeting Wisely
14:25 - Warranties
15:58 - Costs of Lawn Maintenance

1) The interest rate is only one part of the equation in buying a home. There's a lot of emphasis placed on getting the best interest rate (with good reasons so). But, you should also consider shopping around for total cost to close. One brokerage may have a better interest rate, but their closing costs and other fees may be a lot higher, possibly making it more expensive to go with that lender even though theirs is the better rate. Especially if you don't plan on being in the home for more than ~5 years.

2) This is one home buying mistake Brittany and I made before buying our first home. Areas can completely change between day and night. Get a feel for the neighborhood/area you’re looking in at different times of day AND on the weekends. Things may have a totally different vibe at night than they do during the day, or vice versa. Your next door neighbors could throw loud parties every night. You won't know this unless you research the area during the evening/night time.

3) If you’re building new construction, expect things to go wrong. Things WILL go wrong. It’s okay. They can be fixed. Make sure to speak up about it as soon as possible.

4) It's possible to lose money on upgrades for new construction. Try to only upgrade where it makes sense, where you can get a decent return (if you're not buying your forever home). Get as much info about standard features as possible – brands/looks/colors/etc. Don’t spend money on things it doesn’t make sense to spend money on. Don’t over-upgrade for the neighborhood or else you run the risk of not getting your money back.

5) Save every document/email/text. Worst case scenario, you'll have a paper trail of everything. Plus, this makes things a lot easier for you if you need to remember what's going on when.

6) Many mortgage brokers will allow you to recast your loan. This is something we had no idea about. Recasting basically allows the borrow to throw a large sum of money to the principle of the loan, while the lender works that sum into the mortgage payments, either lowering them or shortening the term of the loan.

7) Being house poor has negative consequences on other areas of life. Don’t max out the amount you get approved for. If you’re getting a mortgage and not paying in cash, make sure you have a monthly payment that fits comfortably with your lifestyle and doesn’t put you at risk of not being able to pay if an emergency happens. This also allows you to tend to other areas of life that may need your financial attention. Investing, etc.

8) Warranties cover almost everything with new construction, and it's also possible to get warranties on resale homes. Take advantage of your warranty if you have one. There have been 3 or 4 things that needed to be fixed on our home so far, and our warranty covered them all.

9) Lawn maintenance is expensive. There are a lot of things that go into maintaining a lawn. Buying a lawn mower or paying someone to mow it, controlling unwanted shrubs and/or weeds, pest control, etc. It almost makes having an HOA worth it in our minds.

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Видео 9 Things YOU MUST KNOW Before Buying Your First House – Tips We Learned During the Buying Process канала Mike and Brit