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Buying Your Home With Less Stress

LESS STRESS AND MORE SUCCESS IN BUYING YOUR NEW HOME

How do you determine whether the purchase of a home makes sense? What's the easiest way to examine the whole picture from emotions to economics? In this report you will learn how to separate wants from needs. You'll learn how research effectively, choose wisely, finance properly and endure the whole way through.


DETERMINE HOW MUCH YOU CAN AFFORD

Set a realistic budget for yourself. Based first upon your income, decide how much you can really afford to invest for your monthly payment. Most financial institutions suggest that your payments be no more than 28 percent of your total monthly income. This is called your GDS, or Gross Debt Service ratio. A good Realtor will help you determine this if you are unsure.


ESTABLISH YOUR NEEDS AND WANTS

Begin your search for a home by making a careful appraisal of the kind of home you need and want. Write it down take the time to be specific about your particular requirements. You may want a hot tub, but you may only need a bath tub.


FIND A HOME THAT MEETS YOUR NEEDS

Some tips for successful house hunting:

Keep a record of all your research data. Write down comments about the homes that you see. Keep track of your likes and dislikes.

Make sure that your agent is aware of your time schedule and your expectations. Do you like to look at one or two homes in a session etc? Discuss all of this with your agent.Tell your agent about any homes that perk your interested.

Price your home realistically.

Sales statistics show that properties that are initially priced too high eventually sell for less than properties that were correctly priced in the first place. Also, over-priced houses can take months or even years to sell, while properly priced houses usually sell in a matter of weeks or even days. When selecting your agent, make sure that each Realtor you interview presents a CMA (or Comparative Market Analysis) that shows what he or she thinks your house is worth. The average or median price will likely be very close to your home's true market value.

Use a REALTOR(R).

Some homeowners think that selling their own home will save money and give them an advantage over the Realtor-using majority. Before you start down this complicated path, here are a few reasons why using a real estate professional is important:

1) You will be drastically limiting your exposure to potential buyers, which means it can take between 10 and 15 times longer to sell your home. Houses that take a long time to sell usually sell for less because buyers believe there must be something wrong with them.

 2) Most buyers find negotiating with sellers extremely awkward, and therefore avoid For Sale By Owner situations.

3) Most buyers use a Realtor in their home search, and most buyers' agents will typically not work with FSBOs because they will not be paid. This means you will have to offer a selling commission to attract buyer's agents, which will cut into your expected "savings."

 4) Lack of negotiating experience can result in a lower selling price, or worse, a bungled contract and possible lawsuits. It is probably unwise to pit your negotiating skills against those of experienced professionals.

5) If you plan to use a lawyer to help you negotiate, your lawyer's fees could be considerably higher than a Realtor's commission. Unlike Realtors, lawyers do not get paid for proactively representing your best interests or mediating delicate situations.

6) You only pay a commission to your Realtor if they successfully sell your home at a price you are happy with.