Purchasing a home in Philadelphia is a fun adventure. But it can become overwhelming without knowledge and preparation. Finding your next home can easily turn from exciting and anticipatory to overwhelming, stressful, and frustrating because the process is much larger than realized.
Homebuyers who are properly prepared for the procedure of finding their next home can reduce the amount of stress and frustration while house hunting. They are also able to more quickly find a home that they truly love instead of one that just works.
What House Hunting Steps Can You Take to Find the Ideal Philadelphia Home?
Take Some Time to Define Your Ideal Home
The first step to move toward finding your ideal Philadelphia home is to know what type of home you want and need. This instantly narrows the search and helps to avoid frustration and wasted time looking at homes you won’t even like. What do you need in your next home? What do you want in your next home? What style do you prefer for a home? What is your ideal neighborhood for your preferred daily lifestyle?
All of these things help narrow the search for the home in your mind that you want. It can also help you to determine what you really need in a home and what attributes about a home can be more loosely held and up for reconsideration.
Discover Your Truly Affordable Budget
The next step is to look at your finances with the highest scrutiny possible to determine what a factual, affordable home budget is for you. One thing many buyers are not aware of is that banks often approve an amount above what would really be comfortably affordable for everyday life operations. Lenders calculate how much income a buyer has, but don’t factor in a buyer not wanting to spend all of their free money on their home payment.
They leave how much of your available income you want to spend on your mortgage to you. It is always best to stick to only spending between one quarter and one third of your take-home income on your mortgage payment. This leaves adequate income for paying for other living necessities, bills, and allows you to have money to put into savings as well as spend on something fun. No one wants to live where all they can afford is to pay their bills and stress about paying for other things.
Ask Yourself If You Are Open to Work
When you discover your affordable budget, it will help you to determine how much home you can afford and how that fits into the type of house you are looking for. You can then tweak your considerations for purchasing a home. If you are hoping to find a home just above your budget, you might consider a home with the characteristics you are looking for, but it needs some cosmetic work to make it a dream home. Or maybe a home that has renovation potential to add attributes you want in your dream home. This allows a homebuyer to purchase a home at a lower price.
Know Your General Life Plans for the Next Few Years
Beyond considering what you want and need from your next Philadelphia home right now, make sure to include your life plans for the next five years. Ask yourself where you see yourself and anyone else who would be living in the home over the next five years. How will this change your home needs? How would it change your location needs? It is a great thing to consider because purchasing a home is a long-term investment.
When searching for a home in Philadelphia, you don’t want to do it alone or rely on the help of technology alone. You want a real estate professional who knows all of the fine details of Philadelphia real estate and can help you find what you are looking for in this large and amazing city.
Contact the team at Victory Real Estate to find your ideal Philadelphia home.
“Liron is very helpful with answering my questions and is very patient with addressing my concerns. It was nice to have someone who cares very much of his customers.“—review on Victory Real Estate