Purchasing a house on a budget can be difficult for even the most diligent property buyer. Lucky for you, we're here to help you create an effective homebuying budget and reduce the temptation to spend beyond your means to acquire your ideal residence.
Now, let's take a look at three tips to help you craft a property buying budget.
1. Examine Your Finances Closely
Your income, everyday expenses and other financial factors may impact your ability to buy a house. Therefore, you should analyze your finances closely to determine how much you can spend on a residence.
Once you evaluate your finances, you can establish a price range for your home search. Next, you can kick off a house search and move one step closer to acquiring your dream house.
2. Get Your Credit Score
Your credit score is a three-digit number based on your outstanding debt, length of credit history and other factors. It may have a major impact on your ability to secure home financing and establish a successful homebuying budget. As such, you should review your credit score and work to improve it before you enter the housing market.
To obtain your credit score, you can request a copy of your credit report from each of the three reporting bureaus (Equifax, Experian and TransUnion). You are eligible to receive a free copy of your credit report annually from each credit reporting bureau. Thus, you should take advantage of this complimentary perk and obtain your credit report as soon as you can.
If you identify outstanding debt on your credit report, you should work to pay this off. Or, if you find errors on your credit report, you should contact the bureau that provided the report to fix these mistakes.
3. Meet with Lenders
Banks and credit unions are happy to meet with you to discuss various home financing options. If you consult with these lenders, you may be better equipped than ever before to create a successful homebuying budget before you launch a house search.
Ultimately, lenders can help you get pre-approved for a mortgage. If you get a mortgage prior to searching for a house, you'll know exactly how much you can spend on a residence. Then, you can speed up your home search and discover your dream house faster than ever before.
As you get ready to begin your quest for your ideal residence, you may want to hire a real estate agent too. This housing market professional can put you in touch with top lenders in your area and help you secure home financing. Furthermore, a real estate agent can tailor a home search to your property buying budget. Perhaps best of all, a real estate agent will help you negotiate with a seller's agent to ensure you can get the best price on any home, at any time.
Create an effective homebuying budget – use the aforementioned tips, and you can establish a property buying budget and use it to streamline your home search.
About the Author
Judy Szablak
With over 30 years in the industry, Realtor Judy Szablak has been on national television for her real estate expertise on the HGTV Network, featured on Martha Stewart Living Radio "Morning Living” , NPR radio as an expert real estate panelist, It’s Relevant News channel, and quoted in the Wall Street Journal for her in depth knowledge of Fairfield County Connecticut real estate.
She was also on the local NPR radio station (WSHU) as a Fairfield County CT real estate expert. Judy has provided multiple online respected news sources with her real estate expertise including The Daily Easton, The Daily Weston, The Daily Fairfield, The Daily Stamford and The Daily Greenwich, as well as in print in the New York Post. She is a weekly Real Estate Columnist for WestportNow.com, another real estate column "Real Estate With Judy” is syndicated through Hearst CT Media Online and seen in The Connecticut Post, The Danbury News-Times, The Stamford Advocate, The Greenwich Time, The Hour, Fairfield Citizen, Westport News, Darien News, New Canaan News and the Wilton Villager.
Judy is also the author of the book, The Art of Buying or Selling a Home, available at all major book retailers. Additionally, Judy has been nationally recognized in a number of national real estate trade magazines, some with distribution to over 1 million members. She was featured in Real Estate Today as early as 1994 for her commitment to, and implementation of technology in real estate. Judy appeared in the Certified Residential Specialist Magazine, as she provided advice on marketing strategies and ethics in the article titled "Marketing Makeovers.”
Judy was also featured in REALTOR® Magazine, regarding image enhancement for Realtors. She was again featured in REALTOR® Magazine, in an article on "Achieving Flow” and operating at optimal peak performance. In another article in the same publication, Judy offered guidance to fellow real estate professionals as she explored the topic of implementing and maintaining personal websites. She has appeared in The Council of Residential Specialists Magazine, which featured her ideas regarding technology. Additionally, Judy authored an article on marketing and technology for the Certified Residential Specialist (CRS) Online Magazine. On two occasions, in 2015 and 2017, she appeared as a featured agent in Top Agent Magazine. I have a few other websites- www.TheCtrealtyBlog.com www.CtHomesAndRealEstate.com www.BestWestportHomes.com www.ThePetitePowerhouse.com www,SzablakConsulting.com
