languishing on the market while you’re forced to pay two mortgages and can’t make ends meet? You have to be smart about this. While the process of buying a home, whether or not it’s your first, is a major emotional financial investment, you must maintain emotional control and make practical decisions based on your budget and situation. The best approach? Pre-approval by a proven, experienced, qualified, and reputable mortgage lender with whom you have worked closely and carefully to determine the appropriate budget for a mortgage loan. We described the concept of determining your needs vs. your wants in great detail and at great length in Chapter 4, but nonetheless, this topic is the third step in the overall home-buying process and bears repeating here. Essentially, you need to determine what is most important to you in a home — the non-negotiables — vs. what you’d like to have in a home — things you might need to let go of. In other words, figure out what you need in your home (think number of bedrooms or bathrooms, yard, garage, basement, etc.) vs. what you want in your home (such as a fenced-in yard, gourmet kitchen, deck, walk-in closet). Then write these items down when you’re shopping for a home. This will eliminate a lot of wasted time and energy looking at homes that don’t meet your criteria, and your Step 3: Create a List of Needs vs. Wants
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