What you must ask before buying a home.

Buying a new house is one of the biggest steps in one’s life. As the excitement of moving into a new place can be enchanting, there are some things to keep in mind before finalizing. We cover some important questions in this article to help you take a more objective and practical decision. This guide to buying a new house will help you make the right decision as we cover the whole buying process and the problems you will have to tackle.

Let’s start with,

• Understanding and calculation of the budget: 

It would help if you had an idea of the price you can afford while buying a new house as you will have to keep the other day-to-day expenses in your mind and the rest of the fees that a mortgage doesn’t cover.

Having a clear idea about this will help you maintain the balance of your expenses and clear the mortgage without facing any dues and its negative effects on your credit score. 

You can calculate this by using 40-50 percent of your income for expenses and savings. Then, dedicating the rest for the monthly installments of the mortgage. This will help you find the price you can afford to buy a house.  

• Geography of the location:

It’s Important to analyze the location from the geography perspective. This will force you to ask important questions like the home in a flood zone area, earthquake area, or red zone area. 

The red zone area is generally dedicated to industrial developments or government project reservations. You don’t want to get into trouble later by being blind to these aspects while purchasing a property. 

It would help if you also analyzed the availability of the schools, hospitals, supermarkets, and restaurants nearby to enjoy some benefits of buying a new house. This will solve your commute problems and save you a lot of time wasted in traffic. In addition, parks and playgrounds will be a plus. 

You can also get acquainted with neighbors and get to know if there are any hostile, violent members in your area that can impact the peaceful atmosphere of your house.

•  Cost of renovations:

This cost generally awaits the people who are buying an old property. The renovation cost can include major repairs like waterproofing, changing a floor, painting the house, replacing or fixing the old windows and doors, etc.

Fixing the leaking pipes and removing the things that are not working effectively, for example, old heaters or Air conditioners and replacing them with new ones, also come under the cost of renovation. You don’t want to go and live in a house that will need some repairs now and then. That’s why you must address all this and take care of it before moving into your new house.

A thorough home inspection will save you a lot of time and keep unwanted problems at bay. 

There’s a very negligible cost of renovation in the newly constructed houses which can occur if you want to make some changes that suit your needs. 

• Other expenses:

You need to take care of several expenses, which probably the mortgage doesn’t cover. This includes the following

Property tax: When you buy a property, you must get it registered under your name. When you start the process, you have to pay a certain amount of stamp duty to the office that handles the paperwork of property transfer and maintains the record of it. 

There’s also a property tax that has to be up-to-date otherwise can cause problems in Mortgage.

Loan processing fees: you have to pay a certain amount of fees to start your loan process. This fee covers the legalities, technicalities, and the valuation of the house you will buy. In addition, it qualifies the property to see whether it can be mortgaged according to all the laws and regulations of the government associated with the property and mortgage act.

• Negotiation:

You can negotiate well if you know how long the property has been on the market for sale. If it’s a longer duration, you can use it to your advantage and brush up your negotiation skills to get a better deal.

• Insurance:

Make sure you buy property insurance that aligns with everything that should be covered in the case of an emergency or major repairs such as changing the roof. You can also get an idea of this by going through the documents of previous claims. This will help you get a clear idea of the repairs that will come up in the future and help you select the right premium amount for the insurance.