If you are thinking of buying a home, these 8 recommendations can help you make the best decision:
1. Make yourself a financial self-assessment. Before buying, it is important to analyze your financial situation. The most important thing is to determine our income and the capital that we have available as downpayment. Although loan interest rates are currently low, obtaining a mortgage is difficult. Banks are increasingly demanding in the verification of their income and credit history.
2. Set realistic expectations. If you are buying your first home it is important that your expectations are realistic regarding the increase in the value of the property. The average valuation of a house in the United States is 3.6% per year, according to the Case-Shiller index, one of the main indicators of housing prices of Standard & Poor. This indicates that it is no longer feasible to buy and try to sell after a few months or a year.
3. Think like an investor. Think about the expected return on your investment, the risk, and the term. The profitability if you buy to lease the property will be what you get from the rental income, less the maintenance costs and taxes. Together with the annual valuation of the property, this becomes its profitability.
If you buy a property to live in, one of your goals will also be to make the best possible investment. The best way to achieve this is by looking for the areas with the best schools because those areas tend to be poles of attraction for families.
4. Consider continuing to pay rent. Compare the costs of buying and maintaining a house with the cost of renting it. A study has been done on this buy versus rent analysis for nearly 200 metropolitan areas and 7,500 cities in the United States. The study concludes that in 75% of the areas analyzed, buying is better than renting.
5. Location, Location, Location. A house gains in value if it is located in an area with high quality schools and with good communication and transportation routes to the main urban centers.
6. Become an expert. Gather information about the area you chose and the properties that interest you. It is important to know at what price homes similar to the ones you want were recently sold. You can obtain this information through a site like we buy houses riverside. You only need to enter the address to know what properties are for sale and rent, as well as those recently sold.
7. Consider the improvements. Calculate the cost of the additional investment required by the home. No property is perfect and even the new ones require changes and modifications. It is key that the changes made are aimed at increasing their value.
8. Think long term. The purchase of a home is a long-term investment. It is recommended to buy with the prospect of keeping it for five years or more. This time allows you to obtain greater benefits from having a property if you live in it or if it was purchased as an investment to rent.
