Moving to a new city and buying a new home there can be a fun and exciting adventure. Unfortunately, it can also be stressful if you don’t plan it carefully. There is a lot to think about when you buy a new home, but there are even more considerations when you are buying your home in a new city. Make sure you don’t make one of these five home-buying mistakes when you start your search for your new home.
1. Looking Outside Your Price Range
Image via Flickr by DanielSTL
It’s so tempting to look at houses just a little above your price range. Don’t do it. Once you start looking even a little above your price range, it becomes easy to go just a little higher and a little higher. Of course those homes are also going to get nicer, bigger, or have more amenities as well. It’s easy to justify anything, and soon you will find yourself believing you can afford more than you can. It’s also hard to go back to looking at homes in your price range once you have seen better ones, so save yourself the heartache and don’t even peek.
2. Forgetting About the Finances
People make a lot of mistakes when it comes to the financial side of buying a home. Before you even start looking at homes, you need to figure out what you can afford. A good way to do that is to get pre-approved for a loan. Once you have a tentative budget, you need to factor in all the hidden costs of buying a home. Those costs can include taxes, insurance, closing costs, and moving costs. There is a lot of information that is vital to creating your budget and it all needs to be considered.
3. Buying Immediately
When you move to a new city you might be anxious to hurry up and get your new home. Unfortunately, you could wind up in the wrong neighborhood, with a horrible commute, or otherwise unhappy. Although you don’t want to waste a lot of money, consider renting for a couple of months, or stay with a friend or family member to get a feel for the city before buying.
If buying right away is your only option, then make sure you thoroughly investigate the neighborhood at different times of the day, and make your work commute more than once. Neighborhoods could be great during the day or on the weekends and disappointing or even dangerous at night.
4. Not Utilizing Resources
There are so many resources now available, and you should take advantage of everything that is possibly available to you. Hire a good real estate agent that you can trust, but do your homework on the side. There are plenty of websites you can use from home.
When you’re out and about and connected to a reliable network you can use apps on your smartphone to compare listings and prices as you walk or drive through different neighborhoods. You can use the apps to help decide on an offer when you find the right home for you and your family. There might be many opportunities, and you should do all you can to make an educated choice.
5. Looking at Only One Neighborhood
It’s tempting to just look at the neighborhood closest to work, but there could be hidden gems that you are missing out on. Visit different neighborhoods at different times of the day, and keep an open mind about them. You may surprise yourself about what neighborhood has the most to offer. Also spend time talking to the residents in different areas to get their perspectives on whether each neighborhood would be a good fit.
The worst thing you can do when buying a new home, especially in a new city, is trying to go at it alone, without utilizing all the people, websites, and apps that are available to help you make the perfect choice.
