School is coming to a close and you’ve decided that this is a great time to make a huge change and buy a house since mortgage interest is still below 3%. Since many markets across the nation are experiencing a hot seller’s market, you could sell your home for a nice profit, providing you have equity.
3 Things To Do Before Buying a House
Since it is a seller’s market, you need to be prepared for a competitive market. Buyers are coming out of the woodwork and they’re pulling out all of the stops in order to get their offers accepted. You can help improve the chances of finding (and buying) the house of your dreams if you heed these three tips.
1Find the right neighborhood for your family
We know not everyone is going to want to relocate far away from their current community, there’s a strong possibility that remote work could become a permanent policy and people would consider going somewhere completely new. If you’re thinking about moving to a new neighborhood, make sure you do your due diligence to ensure the neighborhood has the amenities that are important to your family.
Some of the things you’ll want to look into include:
- Job opportunities
- School district
- Public transportation
- Crime rate
- Property taxes
- Cost of living
2Hire a well-qualified real estate agent
It doesn’t matter if you’re going to buy a house or sell your current home, you don’t want to overlook the value of working with a well-qualified, top-selling real estate agent for that area. Your real estate agent should know the local market like the back of their hand and should be able to answer any questions you may have regarding the market and the neighborhood.
You can find the right agent by looking online and reading reviews or you could ask people in your social circle who recently purchased homes. If you’re moving to a new area, you can join community groups online and ask for recommendations.
When you’re contacting an agent, don’t be afraid to treat the first meeting as a mini-interview. You’ll want to ask the agent a variety of questions regarding their familiarity of the market, what kind of homes do they have the most experience with (single family homes, condos, townhomes, or new construction), and how long they’ve been in the industry.
3Have that pre-approval letter in your hand
One of the very first things you should do when looking for a house is to have a pre-approval letter from a lender. Your pre-approval letter will let you and your agent know exactly how much house you can buy, but when you submit an offer, it’ll let the seller know that you can get the funds without any problems.
Buying a house in summer 2021 requires careful planning
Housing prices have risen by 19.1% as of May 2021 and according to Homelight’s 2021 Spring survey, 93% of agents say it’ll continue to rise. This may be great news if you have a lot of equity, but it also means that you’re probably going to be paying more for a house than you would prior to the pandemic.
You shouldn’t worry about this though because when you take the steps mentioned here and the advice of a top-selling real estate agent, you’re in a good position to buy. Closing on a house in this market isn’t going to take nearly as long as you’d think and if everything goes well, you could be enrolling your children in a new district before schools are back in session! Houses with a temperature controller are very preferable by families nowadays.
