We have been house hunting for a couple of weeks now and I wanted to write a post about some of the common mistakes when buying a house. These are just our own personal experiences and I am sure there are plenty of people who have had different experiences, but I thought it would be interesting to write about the 7 biggest blunders we made on our way to buying a home.
1. Not having a plan before looking at houses
It was so easy to get excited about each house we looked at, but none were exactly what we were looking for. This made us look at more houses, and so on. After a couple of weeks we finally realized that none of the houses really met all of our needs, so we took some time and really thought about what we wanted in a house. Now that we have our list, it is much easier to say no to things that do not meet our criteria. Now I actually feel bad everytime I look at Zillow (which is probably too often). We know exactly what we want and can order our search results by price, location and features with just one click.
2. Not knowing the area
The first thing you should do when looking for houses is check out the neighborhood statistics on websites like AreaVib
The road to home ownership is a process like no other. We had the privilege of buying a house and in the process we learned a lot along the way.
This blog is about some of the common mistakes that we made on our way to buying this house. We hope that our story will help you avoid some of the same costly mistakes we made.
1. Not getting preapproved for a loan.
We didn’t do this first, which means that when we found a house that we loved, we couldn’t make an offer immediately. In fact, we lost out on this home because another buyer was able to make an offer before us. The seller chose the other buyer and their higher offer because they had already been approved for a loan.
2. Not looking at enough homes
We only looked at a small handful of houses before deciding on one that we wanted to make an offer on. It’s important to look at as many homes as possible so you can really get an idea of what’s available in your price range and area, and how much each home is worth. Consider how each home compares to others in terms of location, size, price and features – are there any which are overpriced? Look carefully at other homes similar to yours if
My wife and I are planning to buy a home in the next 18 months and I thought it would be helpful to share some of the biggest mistakes we’ve made on our way to buying a home. The goal is to avoid making these mistakes again. Please feel free to share your own experiences, both positive and negative.
1. Focusing too much on price per square foot: We spent many weekends looking at homes that had great price per square foot numbers but were in terrible locations or had other problems. For example, there was a house right by the highway with no backyard that had a great price per square foot number. But since we have a dog, this house wasn’t a good fit for us.
2. Not getting pre-approved before we started looking at homes: When you are buying a home, you should always get pre-approved before you start visiting open houses. Being pre-approved will save you time because you will know exactly how much money you can spend on your home purchase. It will also make negotiations easier because the seller will know you can afford it. If you are having trouble getting pre-approved, consider going to LendingTree first which can connect you with several lenders in your area who may be able to help.
3.
The first time we looked at houses, we were in our early 20s, had only been married a year, and were renting an apartment. We went to one open house, fell in love with the place, and decided to buy it.
Fast forward four years later. We’re now 26 years old, have been married for five years, and own two home businesses that allow us to travel whenever we want (think: no boss). In other words, we’re ready to buy a house again.
The problem? The housing market has changed dramatically since we bought our first house. It’s not just about finding a nice house for under $250k anymore. Now we have to worry about making the right offer on the right house so that we get approved for our loan AND get into escrow before some other buyer makes a higher offer on the same house.
We made a lot of mistakes along the way, so I thought I would share them with you today:
We had been looking for a house for a long time. In fact, we started looking when we were first married and have been looking off and on ever since. We finally found something that we really liked in our price range.
It was a fixer-upper and needed some work but it was located in just the right neighborhood with all the things you would want nearby: parks, schools, stores, etc.
We felt like this home was perfect for us…but then we found out there were other buyers interested in it too. We quickly made an offer, but it wasn’t enough to beat out the other buyers who were offering more money than we were.
Sometimes you just get outbid. It doesn’t mean that there’s anything wrong with your offer or that you’re not going to be able to buy a home somewhere else. Sometimes people are willing to pay more than what the property is worth. You just have to know when to walk away.
1. We didn’t get a pre-approval letter from a lender before we began our search
This is a biggie. Without a pre-approval letter, you don’t know what price range to shop in. If you’re not careful, you can start looking at homes that are out of your price range, which is just asking for heartache. Even worse, if you do find something in your price range, it’s going to be far more difficult to make an offer on the home and actually close on it.
We learned about this the hard way when we first started looking for a home. We didn’t have our funding lined up and made offers on three homes in one day (not something I’d recommend.) We ended up losing all three deals because we didn’t have our finances in order.
2. We didn’t understand the difference between taxes and insurance
If you’re used to renting, buying a home can be confusing because there are so many different recurring costs associated with homeownership. It’s easy to mix up taxes and home insurance, but they’re two very different things:
Taxes: You pay property taxes directly to your city or county government every year or every quarter, depending on where you live (this money goes toward