Buying a Home: The Dos and Don’ts
Buying real estate is a unique and singular experience. You trust a house with the essential task of containing everything you hold dear…from your physical belongings to the people you love to your intangible experiences and everything in between. It’s difficult to look at your home like a material possession; it honestly has more in common with commitments like getting married or having children. And like both of these institutions, there are all kinds of implications wrapped up in buying a home. While we can’t claim to be marriage counselors or child psychologists, we do know a bit about Charlottesville Va real estate, so we’d like to present our list of dos and don’ts on the subject of buying a home.
Do scope out the neighborhood. If you’re interested in, say a cattle or horse farm in central Virginia, chances are you’ll be sitting on a fair amount of acres…but neighbors aren’t the only consideration. Try doing your daily commute. If you’re looking at farms in Madison County and you have to be in Charlottesville a few times a week, see how far your potential property is down Rt. 29. After all, once you get the house, you’ll be making the drive regularly. Got kids? How far is the nearest school? What about things like soccer practice or piano lessons? How far is the nearest grocery store, hospital, Tastee Freeze, etc? The schools matter whether or not you have children…good schools are good for property values. Things like rankings and surrounding attractions are also worth attention. Both Charlottesville and Virginia have received accolades, contending that they are among the best places to live. So for someone looking at homes in Albemarle County or any property in the Greater Charlottesville area, this is a very good thing to know.
Don’t make any big financial moves when you’re looking into buying a place. Honestly, for the first six months before and after you buy your new place, we recommend keeping your assets as liquid as possible. Beforehand, you don’t want anything to interfere with your credit profile should you be obtaining a mortgage. The lenders want to see that you’re reliable, rock-steady. They want to see your paper trail. This makes it easier to get a loan. As far as after you buy the home…you never know what kind of unexpected expenses will crop up and how big a dent they’ll make in your budget. Sleeper costs are difficult to plan for; when we buy a home we tend to focus on the mortgage. But we’re talking about things like property taxes, utilities, homeowner association dues, repairs, maintenance, etc. You may eventually see the need for more permanent repairs, especially if you’re trying to get some use out of your property. Landscaping is not cheap, and once you get to know the land, you’ll better understand what it needs. Until then, try and keep your money where it is.
Do get pre-approved for your home loan if you’re planning to obtain one. This is much more involved than simply getting pre-qualified. Pre-qualification comes after you give a bank or lender your financial information. They’ll give you a rough idea of what you can expect out of the housing market based on your assets, income, debt, etc. It’s a quick procedure, often done over the phone or online, and that should be an indication of how much (or how little) weight it carries. Getting pre-approved is far more involved. It requires an extensive application (and an application fee) and a thorough financial background check. After this, a lender can give you the specific mortgage amount for which you qualify. After pre-approval, you get a conditional commitment amount which allows you to shop for a house at or below that price point. It’s good for you and for prospective sellers; you don’t have to waste your time looking at homes beyond your means, and they don’t have to waste time waiting for you to actually obtain financial backing. It simply gives you a leg up over other potential buyers who have to go to a bank/lender after they find the house of their dreams.
Don’t try to time the market. We get it…if you’re on this website, it obviously means you’re looking at Charlottesville Va real estate, but it also means you’re are doing your homework. But even for us professionals, it’s pretty difficult to predict market flux, especially within a year’s time. But some things never change. You know what you want out of a house and you know when it feels right. If it’s in your price range, just go for it. Holding out for a better deal or more favorable market conditions may work out for you, but it could also backfire if something unexpected happens. Either way you could drive yourself crazy trying to find the perfect time to buy. A hint: the perfect time is as soon you have your ducks in a row and you’ve found a house that perfectly matches your personality, financial situation, and needs. It just feels right. Act now.
Do get a survey done on the land, before you buy. You want to know exactly where the property lines are, and you want to be able to point to them on a map. This is important for several reasons. If you’re looking at say, a home in Albemarle County, chances are your neighbors have been there a while. You want to stay cordial with them and make sure both parties have a good grasp of boundaries and are aware of any easements. Also, quite often title insurance companies will require a current survey in order to insure the property lines.
Don’t become attached to a house for the wrong reasons. Don’t go for the biggest house on the block or the farmland with the most acres (unless you’re going to use ‘em!). These mega-properties only appeal to a limited number of potential buyers, and you don’t want to limit your pool of applicants come resale time. If you’ve paid one and a half million for your property, and the surrounding landowners have paid $750,000, the potential appreciation on your own property is limited. This next part may go without saying, but you want to make sure every step in your decision-making process is grounded in reason and logic. You want to think critically about everything and resist the urge to act on emotion. We’re not saying you should ignore your instincts; those are probably what put you in the enviable position of potential homeownership in the first place. Instincts are important, but if we can attempt to separate the idea of instinct from the idea of impulse, we’ll have come a long way. Don’t fall in love with a coat of paint or the way a landscaping job looks. These items are not really unique to the property, it just happens to be presented in the right way. You can apply that coat of paint to that other house you were looking at…you know, the home in Albemarle County just minutes away from the place where you go horseback riding four times a week. The one that’s a third of the price. Okay, that place doesn’t have a hanging row of begonias lining the facade, or the awesome man cave that you fell in love with. But with the money you save, it sure could.