Trying to buy a home in today’s market is tough. COVID has motivated a lot of people to look for a home, but also deterred a lot of people from listing their home so the options are limited. Even though I look at housing trend data every day as part of my job at realtor.com and my husband and I just bought our second home, every time you buy feels a little bit like your first time, especially in such a HOT market.
This time around we learned a few things that are helpful no matter how experienced you are, such as the importance of familiarizing yourself with the home buying process beforehand. We also used some of the same strategies that we used in our first home purchase such as using the realtor.com app and saving searches so we could find out in real time as homes hit the market.
One of the more challenging parts of our home search was going toe-to-toe with other buyers in a bidding war. I’m proud to say, we beat out the other buyers and are now the owners of a beautiful three-bedroom, three-bathroom home in Porter Ranch, Calif. Here are some things to consider if you find yourself in the same situation.
Tip #1: Know how much you can afford — This is extremely important for all buyers, especially first-time home buyers who have never been locked into a mortgage payment. There’s a lot of emotion that goes into buying a home, and it’s easy to let those emotions get the best of you. Use a mortgage calculator to figure out the maximum amount of house you can afford and be prepared to walk away if a home doesn’t fit in your budget.
Tip #2: Get pre-approved — Sellers want to make sure that at the end of the day, the sale is going to go through. Pre-approval letters are necessary in today’s competitive market. You can even go one step farther and have your lender prepare a pre-approval letter that is specific to the property you are bidding on. This will help show that you have the financial wherewithal to purchase the home.