Finding Your Home: 7 Ways to Save Money and Energy

Buying a new house comes with a great cost and it can also drain down your energy. It’s really somewhat tiring finding the perfect home for you. The good thing is that, there are 7 ways that can help you save more money and energy. Here are the useful tips for you:

1. Get to know more about down payment – whenever you get a mortgage to purchase a home, lenders need that you make an upfront investment known as a down payment. Typical down payment ranges from 5% up to 20% of your purchase. For example, you find a good place and negotiate with the seller to purchase their home for about $300,000. Once the lender approves you for a loan with about 10% down, you need to pay about $30,000 and the additional closing costs.

2. How much should you save for the down payment – the amount of down payment you need to save depends on the purchase price of the home you buy as well as with the percentage needed by the lender to pay up front. If you have larger down payments, then you’ll have smaller mortgage and payments to pay monthly.

3. How much can you afford – when you start planning out to buy a home, you need to be realistic about the average home prices where you want to live.

You should search for home listings online or speak with a real estate professional within your locale. You should also start contacting several lenders and ask about the mortgage requirements they have, in order for you to know what to expect when you’re making a purchase.

You should also know how much home you could afford. It depends on factors such as the income you get, the expenses you have, your down payment, credit rating and the interest rates for your mortgages.

The rule here is that your housing expense every month must not exceed to about 25% of your gross income.

4. Get a down payment assistance – if this happened to be your first time buying a new home, or you’re one of those people earning a low income, or a veteran, it’s always possible for you to get a down payment assistance. You can ask assistance from the Federal Housing Administration, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Local Homeowner Programs Database, etc.

5. Enhance your credit score now – you must not apply for mortgages prior to checking your credit files held by Equifax, CallCredit and Experian and that they should be error-free as well.

6. Check the neighborhood – no matter how plush the pad is, location always counts. You cannot simply move into another home. So, you should consider lurking around the neighborhood on foot, and hunt down the best clues.

You should visit the parks and pubs around and see if they are well maintained. If you like local shops to be just nearby your new home, you should check them as well.

7. Use property finders – there are many property search websites that you can use for free. So, you might as well use them.

If you want to get a new home and live in it as soon as possible, taking the tips mentioned above would be best.

 

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