Buying a Home requires a few initial Steps
Your first steps should be;
• Meet with a Realtor and start receiving Free Home Lists that matches what you are looking for.
• Meet with a Lender and know what you can afford.
• View only homes within your price range.
• Next, choose the homes you want to view with your Realtor.
Buying a Home – Use your Head not your Heart
No matter how many times home buyers, especially first time home buyers hear “buy with your head not with your heart”, this phrase falls on deaf ears early in the process. The reality is; home buying is an emotional process.
Initially, the heart creates the interest. Later you will realize that your heart will cost you money, and your head will save you money when buying a home.
Buying a Home with Bob and Mary
Like hundreds of families since 1988, the pattern has not changed much. Guys seem to focus on where their large screen TV is going to fit comfortably and the Ladies are picky about their kitchen area. Guys like big garages and a spot to bar-b-que, and the ladies like separate tub and showers in the master bedroom area and a formal dining area.
Bob knows what he wants, he wants a “man cave”, a place where is he going to set up his big screen TV for the “Football” games.
Mary knows what she wants, she wants the modern practical Kitchen. Now, if there is not a suitable room for “man cave,” ok, but if the kitchen does not measure up, it’s off to the next home.
Buying a Home – Desire for Man Cave and Spacious Modern Kitchen
Buying a Home – Bob’ Man Cave
The first home on our list features a separate game room upstairs, the prefect “man cave” but the kitchen area does not measure up. The kitchen is small and out-of-date and Mary says “next” and Bob was slow to leave.
Buying a Home – Mary’s Kitchen
We pull up to the next home that had the most beautiful kitchen, very spacious with granite table tops, stainless steel appliances, Mary’s dream, but the man cave at best is part of the Family room and not as exciting as the previous home.
Bob says “next!”
Mary was slow to leave.
Buying a Home is an Emotional Process
Back at my office, after viewing 8 homes, the discussion gets louder. The ‘man cave” home was at the extreme maximum of their qualifying range and the “kitchen” home was about $10,000 less… The bedrooms, bathrooms, family room and garage were pretty much a tossup for the homes we viewed so it comes down to “man cave” vs “kitchen home” as we could not find both in their price range.
We decided to take a break … I told them to sleep on it and we’d meet the next day … on Sunday.
I was hoping they would let me know which home to make an offer on.
Buying a Home – Understanding Your Wants or Your Needs
It is important that every home buyer creates a list of what they want and another list of what they need in their home. Falling in love with a home is nice, but not a good enough reason to buy it. If you are comparing several homes, you will be able to figure out how much extra that “man cave” room will cost, and how much those granite table tops in the kitchen are really worth.
Buying a Home – Dollars and Sense
Mary says they talked about the homes they viewed.
They decided that the “man cave” at a $10,000 higher price lost out to the big kitchen home.
We made the offer, they got their home, and they both agreed that saving dollars made sense when buying a home.
On the way out, Bob told me “happy wife, happy life.”