You enjoy being part of a community and a neighborhood.
Houses can increase in value over time, which means you increase your net worth.
As your home appreciates in value, you build equity in your home. This equity works for you if you decide to take out a home improvement loan or home equity loan. Increasing equity also increases the amount of cash you may receive if you sell your home in the future.
Real estate is an important part of a diversified financial portfolio.
The interest and property taxes you pay on your home is often tax deductible.
Homeownership offers more flexibility to make changes to your living space, such as painting your walls or putting in new carpeting.
There are added responsibilities
that come with homeownership:
You are responsible for fixing and maintaining the exterior, such as roofing, windows, and landscaping; and the interior, such as carpeting, plumbing, and painting.
You may need to purchase basic household items such as a lawn mower, garden tools, and major appliances.
Upkeep on a house can be time consuming and costly.
10 Steps to Home Ownership!
1. Are You Ready?
Knowledge and experience are the keys to successful real estate transactions. Our Web Site contains an enormous amount of valuable information, and such data -- combined with the expertise, experience and training of our staff can be the essential keys to your success.
One of the keys to making the home buying process easier and more understandable is planning. In doing so, you'll be able to anticipate requests from lenders, title companies and a host of other professionals. Furthermore, planning will help you discover valuable shortcuts in the home buying process.
Do You Know What You Want?
Whether you are a first-time homebuyer or entering the marketplace as a repeat buyer, you need to ask why you want to buy. Are you planning to move to a new community due to a lifestyle change or is buying an option and not a requirement? What would you like in terms of real estate that you do not now have? Do you have a purchasing timeframe?
Whatever your answers, the more you know about the real estate marketplace, the more likely you are to effectively define your goals. As an interesting exercise, it can be worthwhile to look at the questions above and to then discuss them in detail when meeting with us.
Do You Have The Money?
Homes and financing are closely intertwined. (Financing is the difference between the purchase price and the down payment, commonly referred to as debt or the mortgage.) The good news is that over the years new and innovative loan programs have evolved which require a 5 percent down payment or less. In fact, a number of programs now allow purchasers to buy real estate with zero, zip, nada, nothing down.
In addition to a down payment, purchasers also need cash for closing costs (the final costs associated with closing the loan). Several newly emerging loan programs not only allow the purchase of a home with no money down, but also underwrite closing costs or allow sellers to pay them.
Not everyone, however, elects to purchase with little or no money down. Less money down means higher monthly mortgage payments, so most homebuyers choose to buy with some cash up front.
As to closing costs, in markets where buyers have leverage, it may be possible to negotiate an offer for a home that requires the owner to pay some or all of your settlement expenses. Speak with us about more details on this subject.
Is Your Financial House in Order?
Those great loans with little or nothing down are not available to everyone: You need good credit. For at least one year prior to purchasing a home, you should assure that every credit card bill, rent check, car payment and other debt is paid in full and on time we can help with the details.
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The source of much wealth has come from the ownership of real estate although homeownership does not fit everyone. With close to 65% of Americans that own homes today there are still about 35% of Americans that cannot or do not want to own their own home. Following are some items to consider before taking the first step to buy real estate in the Apple Valley, Hesperia and Victorville CA.