There are two key activities in which you have to engage when planning to buy a home. First, searching for and picking the house you want to buy. Second, securing the money to buy your dream home.
We'll begin with deciding on a home. If you haven't decided yet which city to move to, there are useful tools on the Internet that can help you make a decision. By typing the keywords "city profile" or "neighborhood profile" into a search engine, you'll be able to find a site that can give you valuable information. For example, you'll be able to learn about a city's population, the percentage of that population that are Democrats or Republicans, teacher-to-student ratios, demographic make up, median age and income, unemployment rate, median home values, information about the climate, overview of the crime in the area, air and water quality, sales and income tax for the city, and even information about religion.
It's important to know how much you can afford to pay on a home in addition to knowing where you'd like to live. You may think that this is just a personal decision, but there are critical objective factors that determine how much money you might be able to obtain. These factors include your debt, income, and credit score. Free mortgage calculators found on the Internet can help you know the maximum loan amount a lender might give you, as well as how much you could save by making extra payments, whether it's better to rent or buy, and what your monthly payment might be (an important figure to know!).
Now that you have an idea of where you want to move to and about how much you can spend on a home, you need to find houses that are both in your desired neighborhood and in the price range you want. The Internet has websites where you can type in a specific address and get an estimated value of your desired home. Alternatively, you could enter a zip code or city and see an aerial map, move the map around, zoom in, and be shown an estimated value for every home on a street. When you see a house you're curious about, you can select it and see a photo taken from the ground as well as information such as square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, when the home was built, the size of the property, what type of roof it has (shake, asphalt, etc), etc.
Searching for a home as described above may mean falling in love with a house that isn't currently for sale. If this happens, you might approach the owners and make an offer. A better method might be to search first for homes that are for sale, and once you have found one, use an Internet valuation tool to see if the home's price is close to the estimated value and in line with the value of neighboring homes. There are various websites that show homes for sale. A savvy shopper can use these sites in conjunction with a real estate agent.
If you're like most people, you'll need to obtain a mortgage loan in order to buy the home you decide on. While many loan programs are similar, lenders do differ. When choosing where to get a loan, you might consider the following questions. How quickly can this lender close your loan? What types of loan programs does the lender have, and which loan is best for you? How competitive are the lender's rates? How convenient is the lender? Will you be able to upload supporting documents over the lender's secure system or will you have to spend money to mail the documents? Will you have to drive somewhere to sign the final documents, or will the lender send the notary to your home or office?
Taking advantage of the Internet will allow you to research cities, find homes for sale, learn home values, calculate how much you can afford, and find the best mortgage lender. May you have much success in your move!
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