Do your New Year’s resolutions involve no more cramped closets, the kiddos each having their own room, and a ban on working at the dining room table? It sounds like you need a new home. Let’s get started with these home buying tips!
Home Buying Tips:
First Step: A Financial Overview
Before you start searching for a home, you must know how much home you can afford. And to do that, you need to take an honest look at your expenses — fixed and fluid. Pull out your bank statements, credit card statements and any other documents to see where you’ve spent money over the past 12 months. A general rule of thumb is that no more than 28 percent of your gross income should go toward your mortgage. After you’ve pinpointed your expenses, you’ll be able to do the math on how much mortgage you can afford.
While you have all your statements out, you may want to apply for a pre-approval. Here’s what you’ll need:
- Employment and income verification (check stubs and/or tax returns)
- Asset statements
- Debt information
- Credit history
- Identification
If your credit score isn’t where you’d like it to be (credit scores over 750 typically result in the lowest possible mortgage rate), hold off on the pre-approval letter and work on increasing your credit score during your home search. Some ways to do that include paying down debt, making on-time payments and limiting inquiries of your credit report.
Second Step: Searching For Your Dream Home
Before you start your home search, you’ll need to do a little soul-searching. Communities like Candela have a wide assortment of available floor plans — we have more than 110 — so you’ll want to create a list of non-negotiable features such as the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, one or two stories, large backyard, etc. Then create a second list of features that would be nice to have, maybe two dining areas, an upstairs game room, a butler’s pantry, etc.
Now that you know how much home you can afford, the features you need in a new home, and those that you’d like to have, it’s time to begin your home search. Begin online either on a builder website which will show you all the communities in which they build or — if you know the community or area you’d like to live — on a community website. There you’ll see all the builders who offer homes in that community. On our website, you can conveniently see all the floor plans each builder offers without going to each builder’s site. You can search by number of bedrooms and bathrooms, home size, and specific builder. In addition to floor plans, you can also see available homes for sale in Richmond TX, just in case you’re ready to make the move immediately.
When you’re searching online, look at more than homes — you’re not just buying a house, you’re buying into a community. Look at amenities, schools, and location to make sure it checks all the boxes. Visit the blog (if the website has one) to get a feel for the community and its general area. You can pick up some handy home buying tips, too, such as how to start your home search.
Third Step: Visit Builder's Model Homes
Once you’ve narrowed your search to a few floor plans and/or homes, it’s time to visit builder model homes. Speak to the builder representatives about the construction process and timelines, materials used, standard features versus upgrades, and warranties. Tour the model to determine construction quality. Ask to tour the home you’re considering or — if building from the ground up — another home with the same floor plan. Make sure to also ask about current incentives which can be a deciding factor if you can’t decide between two homes.
After you’ve done all the due diligence, it’s time for your decision to make the move to your new dream home! Want to get an idea of what you might find in Candela? Take a look at our available homes.
