In March 2022, St. Louis Fed released a report on the housing market with quite startling statistics. It stated that since the beginning of COVID-19 in the first quarter of 2020, the median price of a home in America has risen from $323,000 to $429,000. This sharp increase is extremely discouraging to millions of prospective homeowners who aspire to own a piece of real estate. In spite of this significant obstacle, you can still retire to your dream home if you abide by following four critical steps.
The first step to buying your dream home is actually deciding what you want in a house. This process requires you to be creative but still aware of the limitations you are working within. You should not think about the house you would purchase if you won the lottery today. Rather, you should work out the neighborhood you aspire to live in, the type of house that you want, the size of the residence, the styling, and the area of the compound. Drawing up this list will help you to identify features that you cannot compromise on, preparing you for the next step of buying your dream home.
The second step of this process is getting your finances in order. A house purchase is the largest purchase that an average person makes in their lifetime. Unsurprisingly, it greatly impacts your lifetime income, and financing it through a mortgage is the most feasible way of acquiring it. To qualify for a mortgage at a fair rate, you must be of good credit standing. You, thus, need to make an effort to improve your credit score. Some of the ways you can do this include settling revolving account balances, paying up past-due accounts, and making credit payments on time. After sorting out your finances, you can now move on to the next step.
The third step of the house-buying process is identifying real estate that fits your requirements and engaging the broker to sell it. Before settling on this agent, you need to establish this credibility by looking him up in the local registry. If the search yields a positive outcome, you can make your way to the location and have him take you on a house tour. You should move fast and formalize the purchase if it ticks all your boxes.
The final step of buying your dream house is engaging your bank for pre-approval. Having secure financing is a strong bargaining tool for potential home buyers because it shows the broker that you are intent on closing the deal. If he has multiple offers on the table, you get priority. If the seller agrees to your bid, you can sign a purchase agreement confirming your property ownership.
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