Let’s Buy A House… Great… Now What?
So you think you might like to buy a house. Congratulations, now where do you start? If you don’t know the answer to this, you’re not alone, trust me, and all the questions of location, size, style, price and quality only scratch the surface of it all. That said, step one is, always has been, and always will be discovering the motivation behind what put the thought of moving into your head. It seems silly to state what otherwise would sound obvious, but if you take a second to pause and ask yourself what matters to you and why you wanted to move from renting to owning, or trading up an existing house, you might just find the process smoothes out a bit and clarity quickly follows.
$$$… Know, Don’t Guess!
After finding your motivation, the next step is to find out what you’re capable of. To some it may be a tough conversation about finances and savings, but either way it’s good to remember that it’s simply a way to gauge your buying power, and this knowledge comes without a price. Lenders work everyday with people free of charge to get them pre-approved, a process that takes less than 24 hours and lets a buyer know what they will be paying monthly for their future purchase and how much the bottom line price of the house can be. This means you won’t have to guess if your range is 2-3, 3-4, 5-6 or 1 million, and then you can shop with confidence!
Live There Before You Live There…
Let’s imagine for a second that you are considering moving to my beloved H St NE, a place of immense culinary variety, rich history, and the future site of luxury apartments, retail, and the much anticipated trolley! I live there, work there, and play there, and the next part of the conversation between you and me would revolve around a 20 questions format in which I proceeded to list and elaborate on all my favorite spots to eat, catch out of the box burlesque shows, and even play mini golf without ever putting down my favorite cocktail. Do you see where I’m going with this? Get out there and enjoy yourself, get lost, ride the metro, and sample the variety of life the area you are thinking about living has to offer. Find an open house, and when you walk out the door, practice turning left and right and seeing where you end up! The point is that you can learn a lot simply by being on foot for a while and exploring, so give it a shot and you might just see me walking around too!
I’ll save the next step for when you’re done with these, slightly over stuffed from local cuisine, and ready to relax from all the exploring! So have fun with it and I’ll see you around!
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October 19th, 2011 at 10:12 am
I think “living there before you live there” is a great outlook Kyle. My aunt just moved by to the US from Singapore and she’s actually renting a house in Arizona in the town she’s thinking of moving to just to get a bit of a “feel”.
Sure, we fall in love with our house and what’s the the left and right of what’s inside our front door is essential, but it’s just as important we fall in love with what’s to the left and right outside of our door.
And hey, if both are a good match then something tells me you’re right where you need to be