2019 Real Estate Directory: Us Directory of Real Estate Agents, Brokers, And Realtors

By Eric Bradshaw and US Directory of Real Estate

The US Directory of Real Estate Agents and Brokers ( https://USDRE.com/ ) is an independent & private company that started as a small list of trusted real estate agents. Over the years, the US DRE has grown into a national resource that connects real estate professionals with customers from all over the country. The US DRE is a free service to both agents and consumers. This 2019 Directory of US Real Estate Agents is the definitive guide to the top 1000+ real estate professionals in the USA. The list is maintained year-round and is driven by community-based reviews available live on https://usdre.com/i/

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• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543973716

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

ISBN: 9781543973716

Contents

Preparing yourself for home ownership

USDRE.com TOP REAL ESTATE AGENTS BROKERS & REALTORS

Preparing yourself for home ownership

Being a home owner should be a thing of joy and happiness and it will be these two things if the necessary preparations are made before venturing into it. A lot of people make huge sacrifices to become home owners only to lose it all a couple years down the road. If you are looking to avoid such a downturn, then, this article is for you as it is an exposition of four things you can do to prepare yourself for home ownership. You can rest assured, if you follow these steps diligently, that you will retain ownership for your home for your lifetime.

Sort out your finances: one very important thing to do when preparing to own a home is to sort out your finances. For instance, get out of debt. Pay off the debts you owe especially your credit card debt. This will be of great advantage to you in the long run as it will lead to an increase in your credit score such that you will be able to borrow quite a substantial sum of money as mortgage for your dream home. While the easy thing to do will be to leave your debts and work on paying your debts and continue with them as you have been doing, the most profitable thing would be to pay them off now. Apart from the already mentioned fact that it will be raise your credit score, it will also take some stress off you when you run into a hard spot.

The things you can do to increase your credit score are the following; Pay off your outstanding debts as they will have an effect on your credit score. Pay your utility bills as at when due. This is because utility companies report when you are late in making payments and this will adversely affect your credit score. If you do not possess a credit card, get one so that you can establish a credit history. Get the card and then pay the entire sum you use as credit each and every month. This is more or less a PR exercise that shows that you are trustworthy and that you make your payments when you are supposed to.

Apart from a credit card, you can also establish a credit history through the rental and/or student loans. These are instalment loans which you are required to pay back by a particular, previously agreed upon date. Ensure that you do not default on these payments.

Do your research and decide on how much you can afford to spend on a house: based on your credit score as well as on the amount of money you earn each year, there is only so much a mortgage company will be willing to borrow you to buy your dream home. As such, you need to do your research and find out how much you can get to buy a home. This will give you the opportunity to search for a home within your limit and plan towards such.

Consider consulting a mortgage broker to find out about this. Usually, mortgage brokers will tell advise you to go for a house that is between two and three times your gross annual income as that is what you can afford. You should, however, examine your finances, plan for future contingencies and think of other things you might need money for in the future before committing all your money to mortgage payment. This will ensure that you will have flexibility and the money to do other things in the future. It would be unwise to use the next couple years of your life doing nothing except paying mortgage. You should also remember that mortgage is only one part of home ownership; you will need to pay home owners insurance, homeowners association dues and many other such bills. So, before you commit to buying your dream home, make sure it is something that will leave you wiggle room to do other essential things.

Start saving money: before you take that step towards purchasing your dream home, have some money stacked up for down payments and closing costs. This is because to get a home, you might need to make a down payment of anywhere between 3% and 20% of its total cost. This is, however, subject to your credit score as well as to the type of loan you are securing. You should consider talking to your mortgage broker to find out the percentage you will need to