Buy
Real Estate Agent
and Financing
Purchasing a home – whether it’s your first or you’ve bought before – will be one of the biggest financial transactions of your life. Our roadmap will walk you through the basics of the process so that you’re better educated and informed as you move forward with your plans.
The first step in purchasing your new home is asking yourself questions surrounding your motivations and reasons for wanting to own:
1. Decide WHY you want to buy a home
- Are you just tired of renting?
- Do you need more space?
- Do you want a home to call your own?
- Do you want to personalize and customize your home?
There are 1,000 reasons to buy a new home and determining your motivation, needs and desires is the first step in the process. Take a moment to sit down and make a list of why you feel that you’re ready to purchase a new home and the reasons why you want to. This will help you stay focused on your main goals and overcome the natural fears that many buyers feel throughout the process.
2. Decide what you WANT in a home
If you’ve decided that purchasing a home is the right move that’s great! Now you need to determine what you want in a home, including location. If you define specific criteria upfront it will save you time and frustration but also remember: these criteria might evolve through the process.
Go ahead and make a list of everything that you want in a home. This is your wishlist, and you might not get it all, but list it out anyways. Here are a few questions to get you started:
- Do you want to be in a specific area? Close to work or certain amenities?
- Do you want a single family with more yard/maintenance? Or a townhome or condo instead?
- Do you want a finished basement? Garage? Fireplace? Granite counters?
- How many bedrooms and baths would be ideal?
Write down anything you can think of – there are no wrong or bad answers. This step will help you more clearly define exactly what you want in your new home.
3. Decide what you NEED in a home
But I thought I just answered this? Not exactly. There is a distinct difference between your wants and your needs in a new home. Your wants are your wish list for the perfect property. Your needs are the things that you must have. Unfortunately, these two things don’t always line up so this step will help us narrow down our search to properties that at least meet your minimum needs.
Once again, we’re going to make a list of everything that you absolutely need to have in your new home. Here are a few more questions to help get you going:
- Do you need that 4th bedroom? Or would a shared office/guest space work?
- Do you need a huge yard? Or does a smaller one work for Fido?
- Do I need a minimum size or square footage?
- Is a garage necessary? Or is assigned parking doable?
For every “want” you have, go back and ask yourself “ do I absolutely need this?” If not, then it will be a nice bonus if you find a home with that basement bathroom but you won’t get hung-up on the details. This will allow you to focus your time and energy on finding a home that hits all of your needs and, hopefully, most of your wants.
Going into the home buying process with realistic goals and expectations will make the process much smoother and stress-free throughout. Once you’ve completed these steps you can move on the next phase of finding your home, or you can connect with one of our buyer specialists for additional guidance.
