Most Common First-Time Home Buyer Mistakes And How To Avoid Them
If you’re looking to buy your first home, take a moment to feel good. This means you’ve saved up enough money for a downpayment. This means you’re adding a strong asset to your financial future. Yes, this process is daunting and overwhelming, but the very fact that it’s happening is pretty cool. To help you along on your home-owning journey, the following will look at some common mistakes first-time home buyers make and what you can do to avoid them.
Becoming House Poor
What’s becoming house poor, you ask? This is a situation wherein a person or a couple put everything they have into the purchase of a house, accepting a mortgage payment that takes all of their efforts every month. The result of this kind of situation is that, even though you have a home, you don’t have enough money left over at the end of each month to have anything else. It also means that if one thing goes wrong in the month—let’s say you need to take time off work due to illness or a death in your family—you might not make your mortgage payment.
Avoiding becoming house poor is actually pretty simple. You need to figure out what you can comfortably pay per month and keep your offers to an amount that suits that number. It’s easy to find yourself offering more than you can rightly afford in the heat of a bidding war. It’s easy to be charmed by the perfect kitchen or a lovely neighborhood. It’s also easy to assume that you’re going to be making more money in the future; this isn’t always the case.
And even in the instances where you are making more money in the future, you don’t know what other expenses might pop into your life. People have children without planning on it. Parents get injured or sick. Inflation goes rampant and makes even the most basic purchases painful. Calculate what you can afford based on the money you’re making right now. And if you make inconsistent money; calculate what you can afford based on a bad month.
Not Understanding Problems With The Property
Another common mistake involves not knowing what secret issues lurk within a house. Mould hidden beneath the tiles in the bathroom, a chimney that requires a $2000 fix before it’s safe to use, a termite infestation—these are all expensive problems that can damage your health or your wallet (or both). The easiest way to avoid this issue is to pay for a building inspector. An inspector will walk through the property and look for red flags and maintenance issues that you should be aware of before purchasing.
It’s okay to discover a problem and purchase the home anyway, but it’s important you understand what an issue is going to cost you so you can use that information to present a more appropriate offer.
Not Understanding What Features Will Cost
Of course, the property itself isn’t the only cost you need to consider. The type of heating or cooling the home has can dramatically influence your monthly expenses. There are different kinds of heating and air conditioning, and each has its own benefits and drawbacks. If possible, ask for the cost of utilities throughout the seasons when looking at houses so you can plan your finances accordingly.
It’s easy to assume that you’ll be able to keep expenses down by turning the thermostat down or up a few degrees, but you need to understand that being at the wrong temperature for an extended period of time increases the chances of you getting ill considerably. This might not be a good long-term plan, especially not if you have children, pets, or pregnancy in your future.
Not Grasping What Renovations Mean
Many people buy a property with the intention of making some changes. This is completely okay; the house is yours, and so it should feel like home to you. What first-time homebuyers don’t anticipate is how much money and how much time renovations take.
At the bare minimum, you can expect renovations to cost 30% more than estimated and last 30% longer. Renovations are loud and messy. Scheduling might be tricky depending on how many people offer the services you need in your area.
It’s fine to cut expenses by doing some work yourself, but you need to be realistic about what this is going to look like. If you work forty hours each week, go to the gym, run your own errands, and do your own housework, you’re looking at having maybe ten hours per week you can use to get home repair and renovation stuff done.
Again, this is all okay as long as you’re comfortable with having a torn-up living room or a half-finished bathroom for several weeks or even months. Complete renovations can sometimes take years. This can be hard on a person and hard on a marriage or relationship. It might mean not having access to enough rooms for everyone to get the alone time they require. It might mean living in a construction mess for longer than leaving you feeling sane.
Big renovations are massive undertakings, and you need to be aware of what you’re getting into before you jump in. As long as you’re expecting chaos, it can be a blast. Cultivating a homey feeling on your own property is incredibly rewarding. You might also need to schedule time away from the project for your own peace of mind. This could be a proper vacation or simply a weekend staying at your grandparents’ house where everything is fixed and in working condition.
Not Researching The Air Quality Or Water Quality
If you’re planning on living somewhere for a while, you need to test the air and water quality. You can still buy a home with less than stellar air or water, but you want to promptly address these issues by getting proper filtration. Having clean water and air can increase your life expectancy by several years, sometimes even decades. It also helps improve your mood and your concentration levels, which can positively impact pretty much every aspect of your life.
Everyone makes mistakes. Some mistakes are costly, and others are cheap. The best you can do is learn all you can and make the best choice you’re able to with the information you have. A real estate professional can often help you avoid common pitfalls that occur in the area you’re looking for a property.
