How to find suitable homes you can afford

Buying a home can be overwhelming. Refine your wants, needs, and what you can live without before you actually start looking.

Video Transcript

When you make the decision to buy a home, factors such as price, location, and layout can appear overwhelming and cause you to overlook red flags. This is why it's a good idea to refine your wants and needs before you actually start looking. You'll need some degree of compromise when looking at homes. While it's fine to reject a house with outdated appliances or obvious water damage, writing off a house just because it doesn't have a balcony or pre-installed curtain rods is excessive. You likely won't find a place that has everything exactly as you want it. So instead, focus on necessities and potential foremost.

Don't neglect the type of neighborhood you're looking for. If you have a young family and end up in a subdivision with older folks, your neighbors might be less than tolerant of your family's youthful antics. Also, consider how long of a commute you're willing to put up with and how convenient grocery stores, schools, gyms, and parks are to the home.

If you're working with a realtor, you're paying them to find you suitable homes. The more specific you are in articulating your wants, needs, and overall lifestyle, the better the job the realtor can do in matching you to the appropriate house. However, be mindful that realtors have a tendency to upsell you into a house that you may love but can't really afford. Just remember, you'll be the one paying the mortgage and the bills. Stay financially fit, friends.

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