Buying a home is one of the biggest purchases you will ever make in your life. If you don’t want it to cripple you with stress and rob you of your other financial goals, you have to do it right. Knowing what mistakes to avoid when buying a home in Frisco TX is important to ensure that you make wise decisions throughout the home-buying process.

In this article, you will discover the common mistakes homebuyers make when buying a home in Frisco TX and how you can avoid them.

Here are 13 most common home-buying mistakes to avoid when buying a home in Frisco TX:

1. Assuming every home has a negotiable price

2. Focusing more on flashy details than the actual quality of the home

3. Making a lowball offer

4. Choosing the wrong mortgage

5. Going beyond your budget

6. Underestimating the full cost of buying a home

7. Holding out for the perfect home

8. Not doing proper research

9. Signing without confirming that your interests are protected

10. Forgoing a professional building inspection

11. Focusing too much on online listings

12. Purchasing a home you are hesitant about

13. Trying to buy a home without the help of a real estate agent.

Keep reading to learn how to avoid making these home-buying mistakes that could leave you with buyer’s remorse later.

Buying a home comes with many huge decisions. It can be as daunting as it is exciting. Since it is exciting, it is so easy to get swept up in the whirlwind of house hunting and make unwise decisions.

Whether or not it is your first time buying a home, knowledge is power. The more informed you are about the issues to avoid during the home buying process, the more successful your home purchase will likely be.

· Assuming every home has a negotiable price

One of the biggest mistakes homebuyers make is assuming that every home’s price is negotiable, when in fact it is not. Sellers use various strategies when pricing their homes for sale. There are times when they price their homes with room for negotiations, but there are also times when they price them to get multiple offers.

Nowadays, it is not uncommon for homebuyers to lose the first couple of properties they make an offer on because they underbid when the home is already priced to sell.

· Focusing more on the flashy details than the actual quality of the home

It is also important that you don’t get seduced by the flashy details when buying a home. Always focus on the quality of its construction and level of finish. Since it is very easy to make a home look pretty on the outside, it is best to focus on its substance by paying attention to the less superficial aspects of the home, including its location and proximity to schools.

· Making a lowball offer

Don’t be the kind of homebuyer who offends the seller with lowball offers. Work with your real estate agent in gauging how much to offer on a home.

· Choosing the wrong mortgage

If you want to be in the best negotiating position, it’s important to have your loan not just pre-qualified but preapproved before you begin your home search. By doing this, you will know how much house you can afford.

Take note, however, that you can’t just go to a bank’s website or use online calculators to see how much you can loan. In reality, there’s a huge difference between what the banks indicate they can lend you versus how much you can actually loan.

It is also critical to pick your finance package carefully by going to several banks—not just one bank. Talk to your agent to have access to a wide range of lenders and finance products.

· Going beyond your budget

During your home search, you know you are searching for a home that goes within your budget. However, there are times when you will find more expensive properties much more appealing than those you can afford.

While it is normal to appreciate expensive homes, purchasing a Frisco TX home that is way out of your price range will only derail your finances in the future. You may not see it now, but you will regret it later on.

Yes, it is human nature to want a little more than you can afford, but never be tempted to spend more than you can sensibly afford if you don’t want to be exposed to potential financial shocks in the long run.

· Underestimating the full cost of buying a home

Before you commit to buying a home, never fail to budget for the full cost associated with purchasing a home. Remember, it’s not just about the acquisition costs but also the stamp duties, rates, valuation costs, loan application fees, and mortgage insurance.

When it’s time to move, there are also several other unexpected expenses apart from the moving costs. If you don’t want these expenses to catch you off-guard, don’t make the mistake of underestimating the ongoing costs of owning your property. Most of the time, owning a home costs much more than renting with expenses like insurance, maintenance, and rates.

· Holding out for the perfect home

In some states, homebuyers tend to wait too long to move forward on the home that they love. This is a huge mistake. In reality, the perfect home does not exist, so if you find a property that checks at least seven of the 10 boxes you are looking for, you can already take it. If you hold out too long for the perfect home, you may lose out on the home you love and regret delaying later on.

· Not doing proper research

Doing proper research is necessary before buying a home. If you don’t want your home purchase to go wrong, find out about the quality of schools in the Frisco TX neighborhood, accessibility to public transport, and possibly upcoming zoning issues. By doing research on these details, you will be able to determine if Frisco TX is the ideal community for you.

· Signing without confirming that your interests are protected

When you don’t have the right protection clauses inserted in the contract of sale, you are depriving yourself of the protection that you need as a homebuyer. Do not sign anything unless you are certain that the contract protects your interests.

While the standard contract to buy a home usually gives you a three-day cooling-off period, you can still choose to be a smart homebuyer by requesting additional clauses to protect your interests.

Don’t be complacent to think that you can always ask for changes or an extension later, because that’s not the way it actually works. The only way you can get changes to a contract once it’s been signed is by ending the existing contract and renegotiating a new one.

· Forgoing a professional building inspection

When buying a home, it is important to get a competent professional to inspect your potential new home. This professional should be trained to find faults and look out for major issues that may trouble you in the future. The building inspector will help you decide whether to proceed in buying the property or not.

· Focusing too much on online listings

When you become too obsessed with “that one listing” you found on the internet and become adamant about only seeing that one listing, you fail to realize that there are actually several other—often better—options out there.

Most of the time, homebuyers who focus too much on a single online listing end up being disappointed when they finally see their dream listing. Instead of focusing too much on a single home you found online, consider the Frisco TX homes that meet your criteria and pick the one you and your realtor think is best. The more options you have, the better.

· Purchasing a home you are hesitant about

If you have any doubts or second guesses about a home, then it’s not the right home for you. Spending more time worrying about some aspect of the purchase than being excited about it is a telltale sign that it’s time to walk away from it. Don’t be tempted to buy a home you are not sure about because that will only make things much more difficult for you in the future.

· Buying a home without a real estate agent

Don’t try to buy a home directly without a real estate agent. No matter how good you think you are at math or how crazy your excel skills are, there will always be too many intangibles in the home buying process that you will not be able to calculate right unless you are a professional.

When you don’t let a real estate agent represent you in the transaction, you are like leaving your money on the table. Most of the time, buyers who come directly tend to overpay. You wouldn’t want to overpay, would you?

To help you make the best decision when buying a home in Frisco TX, call me, Loreena Yeo, at 214-783-2210 today. You can trust that my expertise in real estate will help you find your dream home in Frisco TX.