“You’re buying a house! Oh, how lovely!” –Actually, buying real estate isn’t that nice and lovely at all if you’re not well-prepared for everything that may come your way. After all, figures speak volumes. Over half of home buyers become ill during the stressful period. 46% admit their personal relationships are suffering, and 48% experience a total failure in what was supposed to be a safe and guaranteed purchase.
However, fear not! We’ve prepared a list of tips on how to survive this house buying period with the least amount of stress possible.
Share your thoughts
Find the person who can truly understand what you are going through, and probably give some useful advice from their own experience. Of course, that can only be someone who is/was in the same situation as you. Others simply don’t have a clue, so don’t expect them to understand the stress of collecting paperwork or waiting for your pre-approval. It will save you some nerves.
Also, if you are going shopping with your partner, it’s crucial that you are always on the same page. You need to divide the responsibilities and know exactly who is taking care of what, without interfering. When you complete the tasks, discuss your progress and make decisions together, so as not to become part of the statistic mentioned above.
image source: enggarciagrant.com
Mind the kids
Even though you’re buying a new home for your family, that doesn’t mean every family member can join in the conversation with the agent or the seller. If you have your children with you when you are looking at houses, it’s good to have someone (a relative, a babysitter) to look after the youngsters so that you don’t get distracted. It’s only too easy to happen with your little angels around, isn’t it?
Make a list
Write down all the features you wish for your new home to have! Proximity to schools, neighbourhood facilities, a pool, the number of bedrooms, a big garden, or whatever you have in mind. Next, rank them according to how essential you consider these to be. What if you had to choose between two? This will cut down the time you would spend looking at wrong homes, and make it easier to decide on the perfect fit.
Get a good lender
Instead of roaming the town looking for the best offers by the banks and wasting your valuable time comparing and contrasting, you could instead compare home loans online. These free services are available in different countries (Australia, UK and the USA for example) and will help you find the best deals for you, taking into account all your assets, so you needn’t get anxious about whether you’ve visited every single bank in the city and calculated everything properly.
image source: dianamacfarlane.com
Get pre-approved
This isn’t complicated at all, and it will also take a load off your back, especially since you’ll have the feeling you’ve already been approved a loan. It’s not exactly that, but it sounds the same to your brain, and the seller, too. It’s not mandatory, but should you get pre-approved for a loan, you will immediately stand out from the competition and obtain your new home sooner.
Take notes of everything
Remembering a ton of data can be quite stressful, and you are bound to overlook something unless you get a notepad, or a folder where you can record everything that is happening or is going to happen.
You’ll see once you get involved there are going to be lots of meetings, papers, agreements, delays, or calls, in which it’s too easy to get lost. In addition, go through your emails daily and organize them. Only too often do we open something and completely forget we have read it at all (even if it is important).
Take a deep breath and negotiate
Get ready to master the skill of haggling. Maybe that’s not really your thing, but accepting the fact that not everything will go smoothly and you’ll have to compromise is a job half done. Don’t fight it; just go with the flow and play the game.
Saying that buying a home can be completely stress-free would be a big fat lie. However, if you try to implement these, you’ll feel both healthier and happier, and quite possibly finish the whole process much sooner.
