First-Time Home Financing Tips

As a potential home buyer, you want to preview a variety of Raleigh NC homes for sale as you search for just the right property for you and your family. Whether it’s a house centrally located in Raleigh or one of its beautiful surrounding communities such as Cary, Apex, Holly Springs, Wake Forest, and Clayton the Raleigh real estate market has homes in price ranges that are affordable.

When you find the home that you know you want to purchase, a Raleigh real estate agent can make an offer on your behalf. That’s the first step to formally buying the house, but most new home buyers need to know more about what this entails. This post is part of a series that will you learn the basics you need to know when you feel ready to make an official real estate offer on a home.

How Do You Know if You Are Ready to Purchase a Home?

First-time home buyers are often wonder what they need to do in order to buy a home. Home ownership is a great goal that many of us hope to achieve! Because owning your first home or upgrading to a new home has many rewards, as well as several responsibilities, it is important that home buyers do the right research and partner with the right agent to ensure they are ready to buy a home in North Carolina.

If you are a first-time home buyer who has saved enough money to buy real estate on a cash basis, you are one of the lucky few and buying a home is quickly within your reach. Many professionals may work in military or professional settings that require regular relocation. Quite a few people in this situation have routinely saved and accumulated enough capital to purchase a home on a cash basis.

But most first-time home buyers typically need to finance a portion if not all of the cost of buying a home.  In order to apply for a mortgage and know if you are ready to buy a home, first-time home buyers must answer several questions:

• Do you have a regular income from a company or other source, such as your own small business, pensions, annuities or investments?
• How reliable is your income? Would your employer or a representative of other sources of income be willing to write letters regarding your status as an employee and your compensation?
• Do you have a good credit score and record of timely payment of debt and utility bills?
• What amount debt do you currently have? How much money do you spend every month servicing it? What is its annual percentage rate (APR?).
• Do you have car payments? How much do you owe on your car in regard to how much it is worth? How long will your car perform the service you require?
• Do you have money for a down payment? Though there are mortgages that offer no down payment, typically, a down payment of a minimum of 10 % is required to secure a home, along with being a position to together with make mortgage payments. Purchasing a home may require the use of other professionals, for example, home inspectors and lawyers, which increases down payment costs.
• How will you have the chance to afford the mortgage, tax and upkeep expenditures associated owning and financing a home?

Ask yourself those questions and speak with a Mortgage Broker to learn if you qualify for a new home purchase. Michele Langley can recommend a lender to you that will proactively help you on your home buying experience. Starting there will allow you to take the necessary steps to purchase a new home. Lenders often have programs based on area, credit score that could enable you to buy a home quickly.

If you are ready to purchase your first home or move to a new home, Michele Langley is a Raleigh Realtor that can quickly and professionally guide you on your first home purchase. Feel free to look at new homes for sale and resale homes on our website to see what type of home you can buy based on home purchase price, square footage, number of bedrooms and location. We will customize a home search for you that meets your price range and price point.