Get New Home Ready In 2024!
December 19th, 2023
With the new year comes plenty of change. Some may find themselves with new jobs, some may make additions to their family, and some may get married or any number of life changing events. Buying or selling a home is one of those life changing events that can cause tremendous amounts of stress. But planning ahead can help alleviate most of the issues a new home may bring, so let’s discuss my list of to dos, and some to DONT’S!
Follow Mortgage Rates Closely
There is no more important factor in choosing your new home then the amount you will be paying to finance your new mortgage. Experts are all over the place when it comes to predicting what the rates will do. Will they go up, will they go down? The one sure thing is that you can follow trends. Rates typically move slowly, so follow the rates of several mortgage companies you trust, and see how they fluctuate over time. This will give you an idea of how much they move, and you can coordinate your expected moving date and gauge what the rates might be. If you need help choosing a bank or mortgage company, I can show you how to pick the right one for you and give you several options, including our very own Howard Hanna Mortgage.
Check Your Credit Report
Before you walk into any bank, you should have an idea of what your credit report looks like. Are there any lines of credit that have balances on them you weren’t aware of? Are there loans you paid off but are still showing as active? How about credit that just simply isn’t yours? All of these issues may have an affect on your potential loan. Take care of these by logging on to AnnualCreditReport.com. This is a government backed website that allows you to access your credit report and see what’s on there. This won’t give you a credit score, just a list of your current credit. We can talk about credit scores and their value during my buyer/seller consultations.
Analyze Your Finances
We all have bills. Sometimes we pay for stuff that we don’t even know about! That subscription for whatever streaming service was important to you 6 months ago is still being charged to your credit card ! Ugh! You have car payments, insurance, internet, and the list goes on. As time goes by, we forget about how much we may be paying for our recurring bills. Sitting down and really looking at everything in your budget and where you can make changes could do wonders as you plan out your next home.
Getting Your Current Home Market Ready
If you currently own a home and now you’re planning on finding your next home, you have to be sure your current home is ready for the market. You may have issues you’re aware of that are pricey and or time consuming to resolve, so starting now and having them addressed before the spring or whenever you are ready makes sense. I have a booklet of information that covers what you should do and what you shouldn’t do based on the general amount of return that we can go over so you aren’t wasting time and money.
Get A Home Inspection
Yes, get a home inspection BEFORE you list your home. “Why would I do that in a day and age when sellers are turning down offers with inspections in them?”. This is a really good question, but the answer is simple. The offer with the home inspection may be a higher offer than the offers without an inspection. “What if the buyer’s inspection uncovers a problem?” . That’s why we try and get an inspection done beforehand. This gives you the knowledge you will need in order to decide which of the offers is best. Any issues you may find in your own inspection can be corrected as soon as possible, and you wont have to worry about how to handle these issues later or how much they will cost. We can talk more about the pros and cons of this issue in detail when we meet.
Don’t Avoid Obvious Problems
Many homeowners get into trouble or have issues they are aware of, but hope they don’t come up during the home sale. That’s why I as your Realtor want you to know that we are a team, and you need to let me know of any issues that could cause a problem, because it’s a distinct possibility that we can find someone or someway to fix your problem.
Start Getting Your Loan Approval Paperwork Ready To Go
Banks require plenty of documentation to get your loan through all the steps you need to get you to closing. This would include recent paystubs for you and or your loved one, W-2’s, documentation for any closed loans, bank statements, etc. Create a folder with this information and set it aside, in fact I can give you a very nice Howard Hanna folder to keep everything nice and neat!
Let Me Sign You Up For Automated E-Mails
Now this step comes with a caveat I will discuss in a later section, but getting a list of homes that meet your needs and what they will actually cost versus how much you can afford is an important step in the home buying process. This e-mailed list will start getting you familiar with what the actual values of homes are and help guide what you can and cannot afford.
Get Pre-Approved
At some point, it will be time to sit down with a mortgage professional and find out what you qualify for. This is a very time dependent step in the new home process, so let’s sit and talk about when this should happen.
Don’t Do This!
Ok, so you’re probably not going to like this step, but trust me, it’s for your own good! Do not, and I mean do NOT, go and look at homes until you have completed all of these steps, and especially without talking to me! This is a recipe for disaster! We all know what’s going to happen, and the scenario plays out a little something like this…You are driving around on a lazy Sunday with your spouse and you come across an open house of a home that from the street looks great! “Let’s take a look!” you say….before you know it, you have fallen in love and are ready to buy now! Or are you??? This situation can put you an emotionally driven state of mind, without the benefit of accomplishing the tasks mentioned above. The likely scenario will be that you somehow write and offer, and it most likely wont get accepted. Why? You don’t have your stuff together and you weren’t ready to make an offer. This puts both of you in a sour mood and dulls the new home search. Let’s avoid this scenario because I assure you, you will find another place to call home!
The Most Important Step!
So I might be a little partial, but the most important step would be to contact me ASAP and we can set up a consultation and review all of these steps and talk about anything else you may have questions about.