Since early 90's, single women have overtaken the normal single men as a new-home buyer. According to National Association of Realtors, by 2010, single women have taken the place in every five out of ten new home buyers. It is approximately twice the level of single men.
Single women would buy new home because of the 3 following reasons :
A. Desperate desire to be an owner of a new home.
B. More space requirement or want budget friendly small home..
C. Relocate near school location, work-place or Family.
Buying a home is the biggest financial challenge for any woman in her entire lifetime. A sudden wrong decision will spoil the milk, but the right move can pronounce you as a proud homeowner.
Be financially strong :
Save money for putting large down payment – Several financial experts would recommend that paying a large down payment ( at least 20%) at the time of buying a house would be a wise move. It will not only give you the authority to sell it in future, but you can also sell it even the prices fall. The less amount you put down as down payment, the higher the possibility of being underwater (i.e. you are payable more than the value of the house) at some point.
Save for your future - Before buying a huge house, it is advisable to you that you must contribute enough money to your retirement fund. Apart from that gather living expenses at least for 6 month's along with a disability insurance. It is great thinking to save for your future before deploying assets to purchase a property.
Gather knowledge - Take a good market survey & find out renowned financial advisors including a real-estate agent and lender. Theses people will answer to your queries & provide you adequate knowledge. Make sure to study all mortgage related documents. Educate yourself on home repair, garden & roof care and also in home heating - cooling systems.
Wait for a perfect time :
Make a plan to stay minimum 5 to 7 years – While buying a new house you might have to take a mortgage. When ever you opt for a mortgage, you will commence several non-recoverable costs like closing cost, agents commission, court charges, PMI & others. You need to be sure that the locality, surroundings along with the house itself will suit your needs long enough to make it worthwhile.
Decide where to expand yourself while having new long-time relationship - Evaluate the property for your new partner also. The house will be a place where you'd love to expand & grow your children. Make sure whether the property have enough space to accommodate two partners, or more.
Look after your employment & local economy - We all know about the severe condition of housing market in US. During the Great Recession, there were many foreclosure incidents followed by the huge no. of unemployment. So, Be very careful before buying a home if either your employer or the community is on shaky ground.
Determine the cost of Home-buying :
Choose between renting & owning - There is no point for you to choose mortgage payments necessarily where the income is limited. Excluding those payments. there are utility bills, homeowners' insurance, taxes, maintenance costs & many more will be levied to you. So, you can ask previous owner about other costs such as electricity, gas,, water, sewer, garbage, postal and maintenance, neighborhood association subscription etc. if you can cope up with these non-refundable expenses easily, then opt for mortgage. But if you think the costs are way higher than you can afford, do not take the risk & go for renting.
Don't ignore moving costs - You'll need to move your supplies & packages & for that you'll require money. After complete shifting to the new house, you may want to spent some more bucks to fix up and furnish your new home.
Check out for the long-term repairs - Know everything about the major systems of the house which needs regular maintenance & periodical repairs. Ask the home inspector about the immediate repair works which needs to be done. Make your ultimate to-do list for the coming decade.
Few quick saving tips for you :
Gathering 20% of your mortgage as down-payment is quite difficult sometimes. Why not you check these below given tips to make it easier -
- Transfer some of your checking account balance to your savings account. The less you can see, the more you can save.
- Avoid frequent shopping & eating outdoors. If you can't, try to reduce the habit at least.
- Switch to frugal living. Try out free coupons while buying grocery or clothes. Avoid costly gym & exercise at home or go for cycling.
- Sell old clothes, books, dvd's, music cd's and other goodies which you no longer use. Sell these things in a garage sale or through online e-commerce sites.
- Ask for better options regarding insurance, phone bills & others.
- Apply for a part time job or form a side-business. You can also provide private coaching to kids or any apply in any junior school. No matter what you do, all of your extra earnings will can go into your house fund.