Saturday, December 5, 2009

Check List For Would Be First Time Property Buyer

By Billy Chen

You have long been contemplating to buy a first house for the family. But before you start making your house search and shopping for lender, make sure you answer these questions first to assess your real need and possibility to own a house of your own.

1. Are you prepared to stay put for at least 3 years at your new home? If you are not ready to stay in your newly purchased property for minimum of 3years, perhaps you have to put off this idea now. The reason is the kind of investment with property purchase and the associated fees charged on both buy/sell transaction would simply makes it impossible. You will end up lose money no matter it is a rising or falling market (here you end up losing even more money as your property will have depreciated in price).

2. Do you have good credit rating? Most of us get a mortgage for our new house and those lenders would discriminate against customer who does not have a decent credit rating to show. If you have this problem, make sure you spend effort to clean up your credit report by fixing any problem that may get reflected in the report before you go shop for a house.

3. Find suitable home loan 80 percent of the purchased price is the average loan amount banks are willing to disburse, subject to qualification. But you can go to the online calculator to figure out more about the maximum loan amount the bank is willing to approve you. The calculator would require you to input information like your income, debts, and expenses to work out a loan comfortable to you, or to thee bank.

4. Are you comfortable to put up to 20 percent of the purchase price? Again most lenders would want you to be able to foot at least 20 percent of the purchased price. You can try to negotiate this amount down if you have problem over that but we would not recommend it.

5. Buy into hot location with good schools If possible find a site where there are a number of popular schools. Reason is school districts are a top consideration for buyers who have school going children. When you want to sell your property, you can ask for a premium on top of a fair evaluation price.

6. Find a good property agent If this is the first property you are going to buy, consider using a professional property agent. In fact, try to go for those exclusive buyer agents where possible as they can help the negotiation process on your behalf.

Answers all of the above truthfully and if these answers still point to a new house purchase, get ready for some intensive homework. Once you chanced upon property that you like, you would have to start gathering background information. For example the kind of prices transacted in the past months for similar housing type or neighbourhood would be helpful. This will prepare you on the likely target price the seller is willing to let go so you can negotiate effectively to win your property. - 23309

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