Buying A Home
JaydenUSR
member
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Tips for first-time homebuyers
For first time buyers, here are the tips that you can make as a guide in buying a house.
- Don't buy if you can't stay put. If you can't commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet.
- Start by shoring up your credit. Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, get copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you discover.
- Aim for a home you can really afford. The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. If you can't put down the usual 20 percent, you may still qualify for a loan. There are a variety of public and private lenders who, if you qualify, offer low-interest mortgages that require a small down payment.
- Buy in a district with good schools.
- Get professional help.
- Choose carefully between points and rate. When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points -- a portion of the interest that you pay at closing -- in exchange for a lower interest rate.
- Before house hunting, get pre-approved. Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can't afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house.
- Do your homework before bidding. Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that's about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.
- Hire a home inspector.
I HOPE THIS CAN HELP.