4 Tips to Reduce Buyer Stress

Here are the top 4 tips that buyers can do to take the stress out of their next home purchase.

 

#1 – Plan Ahead

 

Even if you’re a first time home buyer, or you’re buying your second or third home, planning ahead is a great idea. You’re going to want to know if you’ve got any credit issues that were possibly unknown. Also going to want to know, what down payment do I need? What are my closing costs? What is my payment? Planning ahead is going to answer all of those questions for you, and take the stress out of it because now you’ll know what to expect.

 

#2 – Get Underwritten

 

It’s been 6 months, you’ve put in that plan, you’ve saved your money and you’re ready to start looking, ask your Lender to get you underwritten. Not pre-qualified, not pre-approved, underwritten. That means the underwriter has signed off on your income, signed off on your assets, signed off on your credit, and if they have any questions you’re going to know before you start looking at homes and before you go into contract. It takes a lot of stress off of you through that process.

 

Does that help, being underwritten, for the contract for a REALTOR’s process? Completely! When you are completely underwritten and you submit that along with the purchase contract, it is a much stronger offer. And also, when you’re underwritten ahead of time, it makes the escrow process so much smoother. It alleviates a lot of stress for everybody.

 

#3 – Make a List of Your Have-to-Haves vs Your Nice-to-Haves

 

Make a list of the things that you absolutely have to have for your next home, whether it’s number of bedrooms, neighborhood, square footage… whatever that is, make sure that you have that list. That makes your home search so much easier where you can really hone in on the homes that meet your criteria and you’re not wasting your time on other homes. Also, have a second column for the nice-to-haves. What are the things that are not deal breakers but that you’d like to have if you could afford it? Make sure you know that, it makes the search so much easier.

 

#4 – Understand the Residential Purchase Agreement

 

It’s a thick contract with lots of legalese all the way through it, but it’s important for you to sit down with your REALTOR, understand what is expected of you, and what all the criteria is during escrow so that you understand what it is you’re signing prior to going into contract. It cuts down the stress completely. After all, it’s your money, and you should understand what your money is going towards.