Whether you’re new to the process or you’re an old pro, buying a home is a nerve-wracking experience. The financial stakes are high, and it can be difficult to know whether you’re making the right decision. And it’s especially hard when you’re buying a new house for the first time, because you don’t have the experience to know what you’re getting into. Sometimes first-time home buyers fall in love with the wrong house, and they don’t know they are making a mistake until it’s too late.
How do you avoid that pitfall? By making sure your potential new home doesn’t fit these five criteria. Here are some home buying tips.
1. It’s too small.
You may be so excited to get into your first home that you’re willing to settle for a tiny starter home with one or two bedrooms. This may make sense in your financial situation, and it may be okay if you’re not planning to have kids. But if you do think you’ll have children in the near future, you may find that they take up exponentially more space than you think they will. If you’re planning to have two kids within the next several years, you’ll want at least a three-bedroom house now. Otherwise you’ll probably find yourself moving with small children in tow. If you think home buying is stressful now, wait until you have to do it with babies or toddlers around.
2. It’s too big.
On the flip side, be careful not to buy too much house. You probably don’t need five bedrooms right now. Maybe you will someday, but paying the mortgage on all that space you’re not using is going to hurt. Better to buy closer to what your immediate needs are, and save the difference in mortgage payments for your next down payment.
3. It needs a lot of time or money.
If you’re watching a lot of HGTV, buying a fixer-upper and doing the work yourself might seem like an easy and fun thing to do. The odds are that it will be neither. If you buy a house that needs a lot of work to be comfortably livable, virtually all of the work it requires will cost you more time, money, and stress than you can anticipate now. And that also goes for a house with features like a pool, a hot tub, or extensive landscaping. It’s okay to buy a house that needs work if you know what you’re getting into, but if you haven’t rehabbed a house before, it’s probably going to be harder than you anticipate.
4. It’s going to be hard to sell later.
It may seem like you’re going to live in this house forever, but according to the National Association of Home Builders, the average first-time home buyer stays in their home for eleven and a half years. A lot of things can change in that amount of time, but there are some things about your home that probably won’t. Is the yard small? Are the closets tiny? Are the neighborhood schools bad? Those are things that might not bother you now, but they won’t be selling points later.
5. It’s too good to be true.
If you’ve found a great deal on a home you love, congratulations! But before you put in an offer, you should ask yourself why the price is so great. What is motivating the sellers to move so aggressively? It might not have anything to do with the home—maybe they’ve lost a job or are planning to relocate close to an ailing parent. But there might also be something going on with the house that isn’t clear on the surface. If you decide to make an offer, hire a home inspector to do a thorough check of the house before you buy, and make sure your offer is contingent on a clean inspection.
Need more home buying tips? Call us.
If you’re unsure whether the home you love is the right one for you, call us at (301) 882-8186, or use our contact form. We specialize in property valuation and negotiation. We can help you make sure you’re getting a great deal on your first home.