Author: Andrea T. Fowler

Ready to purchase your first home? Here’s one of my most important rules: Take your emotion out of it.  You have to take your emotion out of the home buying process. If you make it all emotional, you’ll make decisions that may not always be best.

The thing to being successful in the home buying process is to realize that it is a financial investment. Home buying in a tough market such as DFW doesn’t equal getting exactly what you want. It can but do understand that it will come with a hefty price tag.

There are plenty of decisions to make during the process and in DFW, you have to be decisive. In most situations, there won’t be time to think about it overnight. I always ask my clients for their top 5 must-haves. Must haves are basic requirements to a home such as:

• Do you need to move by a certain date?
• Desire a certain school district?
• Have space requirements? What would the space be used for?
• Do you want a backyard? What would you want to do in your backyard?
• How big of a kitchen (or closet for my ladies) are you looking for? Why is that so?

See how in that equation that a kitchen island or granite countertops weren’t mentioned? That’s because those are things that are nice to have but shouldn’t be must-haves. Why? You can easily add those things to your home as time progresses.

Know your must-haves. Know how much you can afford. Know how long you plan to live in the home. The goal is to maximize your investment return for the home as you live there. It’s a financial/business decision first and emotional tie dead last.

For my clients, I keep the list to those 5 and often remind you of it when you want to see an 1100 square foot home when you said the home has to be 1400 square foot or more.  When you know what is absolutely needed in your home, stay on track of that list. That will help narrow your choices down and help keep the emotion out of it. The focus should be functionality and practicality.

If you are decisive, you’ll save a lot of time and emotions. You’ll have a nice home that is affordable, provides a great return on the investment, and provides the sense of home that your family needs.

To begin your home journey in North Texas visit NewAvenueRealty.com.

If you have noticed by Instagram or Facebook posts, then I am here to reassure you that the American Dream of homeownership is alive and well. The personal reasons to own a home differ for each buyer, but there are many basic similarities.

Eric Belsky is the Managing Director of the Joint Center of Housing Studies (JCHS) at Harvard University. He authored a paper on homeownership titled – The Dream Lives On: The Future of Homeownership in America. In his paper, Belsky reveals five financial reasons why people should consider buying a home.

Here are the five reasons, each followed by an excerpt from the study: 

1) Housing is typically the one leveraged investment available.

“Few households are interested in borrowing money to buy stocks and bonds and few lenders are willing to lend them the money. As a result, homeownership allows households to amplify any appreciation on the value of their homes by a leverage factor. Even a hefty 20 percent down payment results in a leverage factor of five so that every percentage point rise in the value of the home is a 5 percent return on their equity. With many buyers putting 10 percent or less down, their leverage factor is 10 or more.”

2) You’re paying for housing whether you own or rent.

“Homeowners pay debt service to pay down their own principal while households that rent pay down the principal of a landlord.” 

3) Owning is usually a form of “forced savings.”

“Since many people have trouble saving and have to make a housing payment one way or the other, owning a home can overcome people’s tendency to defer savings to another day.”

4) There are substantial tax benefits to owning.

“Homeowners are able to deduct mortgage interest and property taxes from income…On top of all this, capital gains up to $250,000 are excluded from income for single filers and up to $500,000 for married couples if they sell their homes for a gain.”

5) Owning is a hedge against inflation.

“Housing costs and rents have tended over most time periods to go up at or higher than the rate of inflation, making owning an attractive proposition. 

Bottom Line

Homeownership makes sense for many Americans for an assortment of social and family reasons. It also makes sense financially. If you are considering a purchase this year, contact me so we can evaluate your ability to do so.