Tips & Tricks That Will Benefit Any First Time Home Buyers

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The decision to buy a home has likely gotten much more important since the pandemic of 2020. The uncertainty and limitations on where you could go has made many of us extremely mindful of what we need to be able to do inside our homes. When you're interested in buying your first home, the hardest part may be to stop, think and proceed very slowly.

Get Pre-Approved

As your spending drops, you'll have more to save. You may also be able to pay down some high-interest debt. As your credit rating improves, one of the best tips for home buyers is to get pre-approved. Most of the time, the pre-approval process is what's known as a hard pull on your credit rating. This data will be extremely helpful. You'll know

• what debts are currently in your way

• how much house you can currently afford

• what you'll need in savings to make a decent down payment

Finally, when you're pre-approved and know how much you can borrow, you'll know how large a monthly payment you're approved for. If the amount you're pre approved for is much larger than what you're currently paying, you may need to reconfigure your budget.

Under-Buy and Over-Pay

As possible, try to buy less house than you're pre approved for. Even if you can make it work in your budget, being house-poor is frustrating and can be hard on your relationships. If you have the space in your budget to make additional payments on your principal, consider making arrangements with your bank to send a second payment with each main payment.

Get Radical About Saving

You'll never be disappointed that you have too much money in your savings account. If you're a natural saver, this process may not be difficult. However, many of us have gotten in the unfortunate habit of living from paycheck to paycheck. To break that habit, you may have luck doing a no-spend.

To start, schedule a free-kend. To start, sit down on Wednesday evening with your household and figure out how to go from Friday evening to Monday evening while spending no money. This will give you Thursday evening to stock up on any basic groceries if you're low. For your free-kend, you can schedule

• one movie night

• one game night

• one craft night

• a DIY pizzas on English Muffins night

• try a new recipe together

• a lunch picnic at a local park

and any number of activities. Free-kends are a wonderful way to beat the habit of shopping as entertainment. Once you get the free-kend process down, schedule a 10 day no-spend, a pantry cleanout or a restaurant-free month.

Guard Your Credit

Once you're pre approved it may be tempting to do some shopping to fill up your potential new home. Once you have a contract on a house, that temptation will get even more intense. Do NOT give in to that temptation until you have a contract and your keys. Every new account that you open will put your credit rating at risk. The time leading up to your purchase is your time to either save that money or tackle the highest interest debt. If you can wipe out individual debts, such as credit or store cards with a low balance, pay off the balance and keep the account open to enjoy good credit "dings" with each pay-off.

Improve Slowly

Once you're in your home, avoid making big improvements unless you must. If the carpet is worn, replace it. If it's ugly, live with it. If you have a baby on the way and must turn a big bedroom into two, consider using temporary screens or even a room dividing curtain until you know what absolutely isn't working in the space. Making big cosmetic changes or renovating to make changes in the footprint of your home is not a good idea; you will likely find other changes that will be a better use of your money.

Final Thoughts

After a year or so, you will know what part of your house is quite manageable and what makes you completely crazy. The mess and expense of renovating and rehabbing will be much more worth it when you are fixing a problem that you really don't like.