Top Items To Know When Buying Your perfect spot
- Know your schools - even if you don't have school aged children, when it comes time to sell your home being in a good school district helps boost your home's value.
- Get pre-approved vs. pre-qualified - Save yourself time and money by knowing what you can afford. Getting pre-approved from your lender is based on your actual income, credit history and debt where as getting pre-qualified is just a cursory review of your finances.
- Always do a home inspection -You should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road
- Have buyer representation -Even though the Internet gives buyers access to home listings, most new buyers (and many more experienced ones) are better off using a professional agent. A buyer's agent will have your interests at heart and can help you with strategies during the bidding process.
Do your homework before bidding -Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months, not a year ago. This is a different market today.
