Smart Homeowner
Follow These 8 Steps to Successfully Purchase Your First Home
You’ve been in an apartment or renting a house with friends or maybe even living in your parent’s basement to save for a down payment on your first home. You’ve decided to take the plunge to buy a home. In today’s market, we wanted to find out what the most important steps to take to successfully purchase your first home. We sat down with one of the Twin Cities’ top realtors — Donna Vanneste, President Elite for Coldwell Banker — to find out what first-time home buyers should really be on the lookout for in a first home.
Find a Realtor with Whom You Click
Love at First Site
Be patient. ‘First-time home buyers can easily to get excited about a house and fall in love just because it’s staged with nice furniture and has a few nice updates,’ says Vanneste. ‘But when the frenzy is over, will the next buyer see the value in a normal market?’ Even if you think you are in love, watch out for DIY projects that haven’t been done correctly. Always note the age of roof, windows, siding, and mechanicals — such as furnace and air conditioner. These home maintenance projects add up in overall home cost if you have to make these repairs soon after the purchase of your new home and are a must to be considered when comparing other homes on the market. If you do move into a home with an old roof, here are a few good tips on how to fix your roof.
Photo: travis houston/Shutterstock
Location, Location, Location
One Car Garage
Rambler/Ranch House
Split-Level Home
Don’t Always Believe the Estimate of a Home Price on Zillow
Bidding War Strategy