Buying a New Home? Make Sure You Do These FIVE Things.
Where to start? Does it feel like all of your plans for buying a home are a jumble of mess inside your mind and you’re not sure how to organize them? As a first time home buyer, there’s everything to consider and nothing to lose if you do it right! We’re here to help make things easier to achieve and most importantly, to ensure your home buying plans stay on course.
Follow these tips and keep in mind that your first home should be an achievement and not a burden:
1. Find a Home Builder Whose Style You Love
Your vision for a home begins to come alive when you find a builder with design and home concepts you’re especially fond of. Spend time exploring El Paso home builders and make a list of what you like about each of them. It’s important to match your ideas with the home builder. Also, you want to determine how high certain home concepts are for you. For example, if the builder tends to create homes with open floor concepts, you want to determine where that falls on your priority list. Start with the areas of the home you feel are most prominent for you and your family.
2. Be Honest With Yourself
This is probably one of the most critical aspects of buying a home for the first time: your budget. How much can you afford and what do you expect your monthly mortgage to look like? Being honest with what you can afford in a home will help you avoid feeling like you made a huge mistake. We should emphasize the HUGE part because buying a home is no small move. Take a deep dive into your finances and determine what you are 100% comfortable with.
3. Create an Emergency Fund
So many things can go wrong when you own a home. You want to make sure you’re as prepared as possible. Do your best to set aside an emergency fund for that unexpected expense. Whether it’s replacing a faulty front door or having your windows treated. Aim for the fund to be three to six months of emergency expenses. It’s not always feasible to do this but this exercise alone will also teach you how to budget.
4. Attend As Many Open Houses
Who doesn’t love playing home? And when there’s free food involved, even better! Open houses are your sneak preview into what your future home will entail. It gives you a real feel for the builder and you can begin imaging yourself living there. The more open houses you attend, the better. You’ll begin to notice which homes stand out to you the most and this makes it easier to weed out those you’re not crazy about.
5. Think Long Term
Even if you don’t want to consider this your “forever” home, you should envision yourself there long term and plan for what life would be like if this was going to be your forever home. Make sure you’re in it for the long term even if the long term for you is a year to five years. Your home and neighborhood is a large part of your life. It can affect your quality of life.
As your journey to buy a home begins to unfold, be sure to talk to everyone who has gone through the motions. Their advice will be invaluable to you and your success as a new homeowner.
Connect with Zia Homes today to explore our exceptionally beautiful homes and be sure to check our page on The Buying Experience.