Buying your first home is exhilarating, often listed as the most exciting purchase many people face in their lifetimes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t mean it always goes according to plan. Most first-time home buyers have no experience doing this and rely on information they’re either told or what they can find through research. Not everyone does their research.
To help you, learn and understand these 4 mistakes first time home buyers make.
1. Get more house than they need
The urge to own a giant home isn’t new. There’s a reason why all royalty lives in expansive buildings, why mansions are considered the height of wealth. People equate space with money and value: but that can be a major problem.
First-time home buyers may be caught by the urge to buy a six-bedroom home that’s on the top of their budget simply because they can afford it and they like the idea of the extra rooms. That’s a lot of added expense and extra work to maintain whether or not those rooms aren’t put to use. To avoid this, make sure you get a proper agents like The Letting Game who will help and guide you in a proper and systematic manner.
2. Buy something for aesthetics only
Victorians are the hot home of the year, with millennials turning out in droves to fulfill their Addams Family dreams, yet they don’t realize what they’re getting into. These homes are a lot of work. Buying for aesthetics, instead of utility, can leave you with a home that doesn’t cool correctly, has issues with bugs, or has several questionably leaning trees aimed towards it.
Take every part of the property into account, and consider if the home you’re looking at is a good long-term investment instead of something you find pretty and would like to be seen with. You can make any home suit your tastes, don’t put yourself into a money-hole because of the exterior. Learn the benefits of real estate investment and go accordingly.
3. Underestimate the work needed
On that topic, many first-time home buyers try to buy a house that’s a ‘project’ because they love the idea of getting to put their fingerprints on it. Unfortunately, they underestimate the amount of work that goes into updating and creating a space like this. One of the most important steps to buy a house is to budget for what you could handle in updating and repairing a home.
If you can’t afford much, or you’re tight on time or energy: don’t buy a project. It’s more than likely going to get put off for years and ruin the utility of your property.
4. Don’t plan for ten years
The biggest mistake first-time home buyers make is that they don’t plan for the future. If you’re buying a home now, consider your life through at least the next ten years. Is your career stable enough to ensure that you’ll have worked throughout that time? Do you want to have kids and see a possibility of it happening within that time?
Take the time to write out an open ten-year plan for yourself. It doesn’t have to be extremely detailed, just in-depth enough to let you know what you want. If there are large expenses headed towards you, like possibly having a child, try to factor that into how much of your monthly costs should be spent on a house. Forgetting to plan is planning for failure.
We hope that our case study and list of the top 4 mistakes to avoid during home buying is useful to you. Let us know your thoughts in the comment section, if any.