Your best friend is the person who will speak the truth to you (hopefully in a nice way), whether it is what you want to hear or not. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to you that I would write about home purchase problems if I’m a fellow who is looking for those whom I can help to purchase a home. However, honesty is the best policy; and even though home ownership has been a wonderful experience for me and countless others, it isn’t for everyone, and it can come with challenges at times.
So let’s consider three basic problems or issues that might arise in the very beginning, in the purchase of a home.
First, financing. How are you going to pay for the house you are going to buy?
If you have cash to purchase the house and you want to do it this way, then you have fewer hurdles to overcome; but for most of us, we purchase a home by borrowing money, obtaining a mortgage. To do that, we must be a good risk for the lender; so it may require certain information from us to prove this and a look at our credit score, etc. We may need to have some funds for other things like a down payment, closing costs, etc. Sometimes in this process, a buyer discovers an old debt that hasn’t been erased or maybe decides she wants to wait until she has saved more cash to be more comfortable in the purchase and assuming the house debt. Whatever the situation, we begin by counting the cost to see if and how we want to proceed in the purchase of a home.
Second, expectations. You need realistic expectations as to what you can buy and what is available for the price you want to pay.
Sometimes buyers will describe a property to me that they would like to buy, and it doesn’t exist where they want to live; and even if it did, it would cost more than what they want to pay. Someone might want two acres, waterfront, no flood insurance, four bedrooms, 2½ baths, house updated and in great shape with no need of repairs, and close to where it’s convenient to all services, but what that would cost might be twice as much as what they can afford. When we go house hunting, we need to have realistic expectations or we will spend a tremendous amount of time hunting for that home that doesn’t even exist.
Third, imagination. You need to be able to see what could be, instead of what is.
Granted, all the television shows about homes that are without any flaws and seem perfect have helped our industry by creating a desire in the public for home ownership; nevertheless, they seem to have stifled the imagination of the average home buyer, so that he cannot see how to resolve issues he might have with a house. My generation didn’t have these shows; we looked at houses as to what they could be, beyond what they were. So maybe you don’t like a pink bedroom that reminds you of that liquid you drank when you had an upset stomach last weekend; but instead of rejecting the house outright, why
not imagine what a gallon or two of paint might do to solve this problem for you? Or if you only want to be a 15-minute drive from work but can’t find the house in your price range, why not consider something 20 minutes away? You are a smart person; you have creative ability to do so many things. Why not exercise that creativity in resolving a few issues that will give you a home you can really enjoy?
There may be other challenges you will face in a home purchase; however, these three considerations are very basic and realistic in the beginning, offering you as pleasant an experience as possible. Everyone my wife and I assist in the purchase of a home has a story; we try to enter into it with them to help them the best way we can so that their story is one that they appreciate and has a happy ending.
We wish you much success in your search and resolutions to any problems that may arise.
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