The Buyer's Guide to Real Estate

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Ready To Invest In Your First Property? What To Know When You Want To Buy

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If you have been playing with the idea of moving out of your apartment and starting to invest in your future, you have come to the conclusion that it's time to buy a home.  There are a lot of ways that buying a home can be a great investment for your future, and if you buy a property the smart way, the purchase can be a great additional to your portfolio. Here are some of the things to talk with your real estate agent about these things to make this house the investment you imagine.

Updatable Homes for Sale

Homes that could be more valuable than they are now with some changes are often good purchases. If you can increase the value of the home easily with some cosmetic changes, and you aren't paying top dollar for a house because of the countertops or cabinets, this is a good investment. This way you can sit in the house and build some equity, and then make the changes to improve the house value a great deal over time.

Total Budget Listings

When you start to look at homes for sale, you want your agent to show you listings that are in your budget with all of the expenses included. This means the below listed costs were taken into consideration for the total expense of the house:

  • Purchase price
  • First year of homeowners insurance
  • Taxes added into mortgage
  • PMI if applicable
  • HOA fees

There may be some other fees associated with certain properties, and the agent should be able to take those into consideration before they show you a house.

Key Location

One of the main things about finding a good house to buy is finding a property that is in a good location. This is a location that has:

  • Good schools
  • Growth
  • Steady housing market
  • Low crime rates
  • Low unemployment rates

You don't want to buy a house just because it has a low price tag, especially if it's in a bad area. That is an investment that won't be well protected.

There are a lot of different ways that you can try to make buying a new home a great financial investment, instead of just buying something low budget, or something that is move-in ready. Talk with your real estate professional about wanting something that you can make money off of down the road, and that is easy to add value to.


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