Do Your Own Due Diligence & Don’t Shy Away from Down Payments or Continued Negotiations

Don’t be afraid of putting money down on your first home. Take the time and trouble to crunch the numbers and figure out which numbers work best for your plans. I am not advising you to become house poor. I am saying play with the numbers. Find out what the payments will be with different down payments. If your monthly payment is X with a 15% downpayment, what is it with a Y downpayment.  If you plan on staying in the home for life then the lower payment may be best, however if you plan on moving in 7 through 10 years do the math, maybe it is more advantageous for you to put a little less down so you can explore your other avenues for your capital investments. It is wise to have a nest egg for those rainy days most of us are forced to endure.

Talk with the cities or county’s planners to see if there are projects which may affect the value of the property in the area you are considering purchasing. Knowing what is happening in the neighborhood before you purchase the property allows you to take advantage of future improvements and avoid future catastrophes. If there are questions about the lots size, a surveyor can help you avoid any surprises. Whether or not you have children, the local schools will affect your property value. Good schools’ system increases the value of homes nearby and substandard schools decrease them.  Take the time to research the property and the things you cannot control which may or do affect the properties value. Pay for a professional home inspection and have them dig deep. After you have the report continue to negotiate based on the report. It may be advantageous to never stop negotiating. A good home inspection will give you advance notice of what future improvement may need to be considered. If the other party has a recent home inspection report ask for a copy of it.

Know the answers to such questions before falling in love with the property. It is not practical to go through a deflated dream process needlessly. In fact, if you keep missing out due to your lack of preparation it may cause you to act emotionally during your next bidding process instead of logically.

Note: Images on this blog site are from a free source or taken by the author. No image or group of photos is intended to represent the people the author serves. The author does not care about Race (that is a politically correct term that he does not like because we are all of the same Race, the Human Race. He prefers the term ethnicity, color, religion, sex, gender, marital status, disability, genetic information, national origin, source of income, Veteran or military status, ancestry, citizenship, primary language or immigration status.) He is a service provider for all people. We will all rise together when we band together and help one another. Joseph Erwin is a Real Estate Broker, DRE # O2131799, and a CA general contractor # B 696662. He’s a member of the CRMLS and The East Valley Association of Realtors located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California.