Searching for a home can be an exciting, hope-filled, stressful, and uncertain experience, all at the same time. To help alleviate some of this stress and uncertainty, it is suggested that you create a ?Wants and Needs? assessment. It may sound simple, and it is, but it can save you a great deal of time in narrowing down homes to investigate and preview. Walking through homes that have nearly everything you are looking for, except that extra bedroom, extra bathroom, full basement or other component you cannot live without, can be a frustrating experience. No need to fear! Gather your family, get comfortable, and start your assessment. Simply list items which are ?must haves? as your NEEDS, and items you would ?like to have? as your WANTS. This exercise will force you to take a more in-depth look into one of the most important purchase decisions of your life. It will also help to keep things realistic. If you have a $150,000 limit to purchase a home, but you think you need a 10,000 square foot mansion with gourmet kitchen, gym, indoor swimming pool, tennis court, and manicured gardens in Beverly Hills, you may need to reconsider your needs or play the lottery. OK, that example is extreme, but I think you get the point. Take a realistic and honest approach to what you need. Once you begin searching for homes that meet your needs, any additional ?wants? will be an added bonus, and may help you to decide on one home over another.
There would seem to be a limitless number of categories to consider for your list, but keeping to the major areas for your ?needs? side is a good starting point. Major areas to consider could be square footage, bedrooms, baths, location, age, overall condition, acreage, basement type, water supply, heating type, access, and garage. The ?wants? side might contain things such as interior and exterior decoration items, floor and wall coverings, window type, appliances, counter tops, fireplace, deck, Jacuzzi, and pool. Notice that the wanted categories contain things that can be added or changed relatively easily, while the needed areas would require a significant commitment of time and resource to remedy. Of course, the age and location of the home cannot be changed at all. Only you and your family can determine which items are important enough to be included on your assessment, but keep in mind that the more extensive your list of needs, the smaller the number of homes that will meet your criteria. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending upon the housing supply in your target area. Your real estate agent should be able to assess your list and determine if it's reasonable in the area you are looking and for what you plan to spend.
You may find that your list will change during your home search. This is perfectly normal as you put more thought into your requirements and adapt your list to the current market of available homes for sale within your price range. Stay true to your core needs and you will find the home you want. Why? Because you made the list and know that you ?Want What You Need?. Happy House Hunting!
The most expensive thing most people will buy in their lifetime is the house in which they live. In addition to being expensive and taking decades to pay for, the purchase of a house also represents one of the more complicated legal transactions most people will ever encounter. Despite the need for contracts involving bankers, city, state and county tax assessors and other legal entities involved in the sale of land, most people never even consider hiring an attorney to assist them with the purchase of a home. That's unfortunate, as the relatively small amount of money saved by hiring an attorney now could possibly save thousands of dollars later.
How can an attorney save you money? By double-checking all of the terms and documents of the transaction to make sure everything is legal and proper. Most people who buy homes don't bother to check zoning ordinances or whether or not the home or fence on their property encroaches on that of a neighbor. An attorney can check these things along with tax issues and any one of a number of minor things that most buyers never even know to think about.
Right now in Texas, a number of homeowners who lost their homes to foreclosure are engaged in lawsuits against the company that sold them their houses. Among the allegations in the case are suggestions that the company that sold the property did such things as:
Tell buyers with bad credit and even previous bankruptcies that they qualified for unusually large home loans. Some of these loans had monthly payments that exceeded 50% of the buyers' monthly income. In short, they agreed to lend buyers money that they knew the buyers could not afford to repay.
Provide buyers with mortgage documents that stated that the property wasn't being resold but was rather being refinanced by existing owners.
Offer loan documents that contained a number of blanks which the sellers filled in sometime after closing. Buyers were later shocked to discover that their monthly mortgage payments were much higher than they had been promised.
Showed the buyers fraudulent appraisals that suggested that the property in question was worth 2-3 times its actual value.
A lawyer would have caught any one of these problems, had even one of the displaced homeowners bothered to hire one ahead of time. And yet hundreds of buyers appear to have been victims of mortgage fraud because they weren't willing to spend a few hundred dollars to have an attorney look over the documents before they signed them.
Buying a house is agreeing to an obligation that can tie up your finances for decades. It only seems reasonable that if you are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on a place to live, you might want to consider spending hundreds of dollars to make sure that the terms of your purchase are legal and reasonable. A little money spent now could save you a lot of money later.
Both James Obrien & Charles Essmeier are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
James Obrien has sinced written about articles on various topics from Real Estate, Finances and Home Management. The author is a contributing mortgage consultant with the popular . Visit today for free information and tools provided to help you learn about mor. James Obrien's top article generates over 368000 views. to your Favourites.