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.