Good advice for first-time home buyers

First-time home buyers have a lot to learn as they go through the experience of buying their first home. If you are a first time buyer, finding the right real estate agent – one who specializes in helping first time home buyers – will make all the difference in the world. The right real estate agent will help you find the right home and help you negotiate the right price.

If you are an inexperienced real estate investor, make sure you have some experience on your side. Your newly graduated cousin may be willing to work hard for you and need the business, but you need someone with real estate knowledge to help you with your first home purchase. You need someone to point out and explain all the aspects of home shopping and buying because there will undoubtedly be considerations that will not occur to you and processes that you are not familiar with.

As a first time buyer, you probably have a lot of questions, and your first might be; Do I need a buying agent to buy a home? The short answer is: yes, if you are smart!

Experienced real estate investors may not use a buyer’s agent (although many of them do because they can do so much of the groundwork, saving time and money) after they’ve been through the process multiple times. First-time buyers could miss a critical step down the road, leading to problems with financing, time, legal problems, or even problems with the chosen property. Don’t let this happen to you, seek experienced help.

Before you get serious about your first home search, you need to pre-qualify for a mortgage. Your real estate agent can advise you on this and even recommend a mortgage broker.

Considerations when looking for a home that your real estate agent can help you with include:

What will affect the resale value of the homes that interest me?

What should I look for when touring the houses for sale?

· How do I decide between the houses that I like?

How do I manage when I move from another city?

An experienced agent who specializes in helping first-time home buyers can also explain real estate terms that you may not be familiar with. You will need to understand terms such as:

· Subject to;

· Disclosure of property;

· Amortization;

Closing costs and

· Conditional offer, among many others.

Then there are those indecipherable abbreviations and acronyms that you will come across when searching real estate listings. Some of them are quite obvious, like:

· 3 rooms – three rooms;

Bsmt – basement, gold

Square feet – square feet, but what the heck is it?

· Cvac;

Egdo, gold

SUN?

Your real estate agent can explain all of this and more.

If you are buying a home for the first time, don’t go it alone. You risk making a mistake with what is probably the biggest investment of your life! An even better experienced real estate agent who specializes in helping first-time buyers can help you through the entire process, making sure nothing critical is forgotten and that your first home buying experience is a positive one.