Buy a House

Quick Checklist Before You Buy: Plan, Save and Be Prepared

Even if you're not looking at buying a house for a few months or perhaps a year there are a few areas of preparation -- Set up a financial plan for the price and area of the house you want to buy. Improve your credit rating and prepare for a home loan.

The topics below cover Realtors, Lawyers and Loans. If you are looking for any of these then checkout WOW Quotes where you can get quotes from three qualified professionals in the area you are looking for, they can even help you get quotes from construction professionals, homeowners insurance firms, business services, etc. It's free, there is no obligation and it's in one place so you can get everything moving forward at once, saving you time.

Make sure your credit report is fraud-free.
We have this as the first item of the checklist before you buy a house because if there is some fraud or other errors on your credit report it may take a little while to get everything cleaned off of it and get you credit rating back to where it should be. The house that you will buy and the house that you will be able to afford can greatly depend on your credit, so let's make sure that it's clean. To check your credit record and see where your credit rating is standing you can use Experian's free credit reporting service, you'll quickly be able to see if there are any mistakes or fraudulent items that may turn into house buying difficulties down the road. If you see errors on your credit report there are a few ways to take action. The cheaper do-it-yourself method is to use Nolo Law's pre-made forms that will walk you through the steps of challenging an incorrect credit report and for five dollars it's not at all a bad deal. If you'd like professional help on this Veracity specializes in helping you to optimize your credit rating to get the best mortgage loan and loan rates (of course it's a bit more expensive at $70, but might be worth it for you).

What can you afford to buy?
Two things to look at here, the amount you will have up front, whether that be savings or from selling your current house, and what the monthly cost for the new house you buy will be. There is a figure that has been around for a while that says to keep the mortgage payments for your house under forty percent of your net income (that's the amount of money you make per month after taxes are taken out).

If you want to try and get more house for your money then you've possibly already looked at some of your options for foreclosure and bank seized properties in your area, the big players in this game are the two that offer 7-day trials and then both cost around $40 per month (RealtyTrac and Forclosures.com)and the one without the free trial, but that only costs $40 per year Goverment Auctions.

When you are about to being your hunt for your new house and you know the price range you will be looking at, it is a good idea to pre-qualify for a loan of that amount. This way you won't waste any time looking at something that may not be possible and you give the seller extra confidence in your ability to buy the house. You can go to E-Loan's website to get pre-qualified in as little as 4 minutes. Being pre-qualified will help you to keep focused in the price range of houses you had originally decided to look to buy.

Get your Realtor to give you part of the commission.
As a buyer getting a Realtor is a pretty painless thing, since you don't have to pay them any money, but don't just settle for that. There are Realtors out there that (where they are allowed to) will refund a part of the commission back to you, helping you to have a jump start for your new life in your newly bought home. The best way to find a Realtor that will refund a portion of their commission to you after you buy the house is through Hungry Agents where you submit your request and Realtors in your area will send commission refund bids to you through the Hungry Agent interface, keeping you anonymous, but allowing you to receive the best commission refund.

Best of luck to you in preparing to buy a new house, in finding the perfect home, and in doing it in a way that saves you time and money.