Are You Ready to Buy a Home?

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I would say that home ownership is one of the most important and satisfying things in our adult life.  No landlord, freedom to do what we want, when we want, and how we want.  It offers a stability and a real feeling of home.  I never really felt like I had a real home until I bought my first house.  It is the feeling of something being yours, and that is home.

There are things that you need to prepare for in order to buy a home.  Are your finances and credit in good standing?  I believe this is step number one.  When you are considering purchasing a home in the near future, get the facts down before you start looking.  Get a recent copy of your credit report.  You can do this a couple different ways.  You can either contact Equifax online or go to one of their offices and get a copy of your report.  Or you can contact a mortgage broker that you will be working with and have them pull your report.  It is essential that you know where you stand with your credit.  You have to fix any blunders there may be on your credit report before applying for financing.  This will increase your ability to obtain the best financing possible.

Now that you understand where you stand with your credit, its time to check  your finances.  Do you have money for a down payment?  If you do, calculate the price of a home you can afford.  Down payment is minimum 5% of the sales price.  Do you have enough money for closing costs (land transfer taxes and lawyers)?  To figure out how much money you will need to complete the purchase of your home, you need to look at where you want to buy and how much homes in that area usually cost.  To find out this information, you can do your own research of mls.ca or to get better details and more accurate information, you can contact your realtor.  They will be able to give you all of that information plus more (including average square footage, home styles, etc.).

Now that your credit and financing are ready...Lets start shopping!  This is the fun part. You get to go on community house tours and inspect all the homes in the area that fir your specifications until you find one that you love and is the perfect place to call home....Lets get house shopping!