Buying your first home can be an exciting and stressful experience. The process of journeying through the home buying process is not for the faint of heart, but with the help of a trusted RealtorⓇ and financial advisor, the hard things instantly become a lot easier. Just knowing a thing or two about how to navigate the home buying process instead of going in blind will give you assurance that you are on the right path to achieving your dream home. 

Understand The Expense of Homeownership

Buying a house is a little different from paying rent. Although buying a house is a great investment, the payments are not as cut and dry as rent. There are other costs to consider when buying a house, such as the down payment and the closing costs. If this is news to you, do not let it discourage you from your dreams of becoming a homeowner. There are other options out there that make payments more affordable! If you do your research and talk to your financial advisor, you can discover loan options that require small down payments or no down payments at all. There are also programs out there that offer payment and closing cost assistance! Make sure that you take advantage of your resources to help you achieve your dream home with ease.

Shopping For Your Dream Home

 Instead of driving along the street of ideal your neighborhood in search for your dream home or scrolling through thousands of listings with no direction, it is best to get your consultations out of the way first to help you turn your vision of your ideal home into something more attainable. When it comes to shopping, we’ve all had those moments when we see something that looks nice to the eye that isn’t going to be quite as nice to our wallets. Usually, in moments like that, we have a huge choice to make, either to walk away or to take a financial risk and purchase the item anyways. To avoid such scenarios when house shopping, speak with your mortgage professional first to give you a clear idea of what you can afford. Once you have met with your mortgage professional, you can now shop with confidence that you can afford your future home. 

Credit Cards and Home Buying

Of course, having good credit is necessary for applying for loans, but it also can make or break your chances of attaining your dream home even up till closing. Although this may be surprising, this unfortunately happens. It is not unusual to want to buy a few items to put into your dream home but making big purchases like buying a new car or getting a new credit card after closing can affect your credit score, which will, in turn, hurt your chances of closing on your future home.

While your lender has already approved your credit score to qualify you for a loan, they will take another look at it near closing to make sure that you are still financially eligible. If your credit score no longer meets the requirements, you could miss out on your dream home altogether. To avoid such unfortunate circumstances, make sure that you do your research and speak with your financial and real estate experts to get as much help as you can get.  

The American Dream aims to help first home buyers achieve their dream home in the simplest way possible. Do not go about the home buying journey alone; our real estate experts are here to help!