Deborah Schindel REALTOR® RENE, SRS, SRES, ABR - THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO BUYING A HOME

required when a buyer has less than 20% as a down payment and that 'not insignificant' fee will be added to your mortgage. Research has shown that most people spend more time shopping for cars than they spend thinking about mortgages. As a result, many people seeking to buy homes end up paying more in closing costs, or a higher interest rate than they might have because they didn’t bother doing enough research or they didn’t adequately shop the mortgage market. The real estate mortgage interest rates can move up and down quickly, due to various financial and market factors. The ever-changing rates can confuse almost anyone, and timing is important. For instance, one day, the rate might be 5% and the following day it could rise to 5.5%. Many people overlook the shopping aspect and tend to approach a single lender. As a result, these people will probably get their 'dream' home, but it may come with a substantially higher monthly mortgage payment than if appropriate and adequate research had been done. Now that your mortgage advisor has you pre-approved and you know what you can afford, it's time to do some research on the houses within your budget. Best idea is NOT to look beyond your budget or you may never be happy with a house you can actually afford. This is where your REALTOR® can really start to help get you focused and search for you and set up searches to help the find the right house. Then you are finally ready to head out house shopping! Once you are a homeowner you also acquire the obligation to pay property taxes. The usual method of paying property taxes is to include the amount of annual taxes within the mortgage payment and the mortgage provider will pay the taxes as they are due. You can also generally make monthly payments directly to your

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