Buying a House in 2023: Taking the Right Steps

This can be broken down into asking two crucial questions to yourself to be qualified to buy a house. One is about your savings. The second is, how much debt do you have?

This is because the bank considers the following two factors for lending you money to buy a house. Those two factors are: What do you owe? And Whom do you owe?

So, the idea here is to come up with a figure. Let’s say you make $125,000 and your spouse makes $75,000, then you have $200,000 in total. Anyhow, you have to deduct the taxes, any student loans (if you have any), car loans, and credit card loans from this figure.

Furthermore, factors like late bill payments are also involved in getting a loan from the bank. You’ll pay the bank the loan in installments or whatever the deal you made.

Besides, considering the above-mentioned factors, the bank figures out if it wants to loan you a big amount of money or not to see if you can or can’t afford that house and if you are able to pay back the loan.

The aforementioned things highlight the importance of getting a local lender involved instead of just relying on such online available services because this really makes a difference.

After figuring this out, meet the lender, who will assess your debt situation on certain things like credit cards, student loans, etc.

After that, he/she may come up with a suggestion to pay some of your pending bills before applying for a loan in the bank.

This may lead you to get a certain amount of loan from the bank and may also help in getting your house at an affordable price that too in lesser time.

This means, paying off your pending bills can also reduce your timeline. For example, if you have set your timeline to buy a house in 6 months, this can be done within 3 months by following the suggestions of the local lender.

This is where the next step comes, that is, start looking for a house in the real estate market as now you have an exact target about your price point, your timeline, and what to look for.

For this, you can ask yourself some questions about what you want or need in your house to make it perfect before stepping into the Bakersfield real estate market.

Maybe you need a garage, a garage with a personal workspace or maybe solar panels, maybe you need 3 bedrooms or maybe 4, maybe you need more bedrooms or maybe an office with your room. Maybe you are looking for luxuries like a pool, etc. Answering these questions will lead you to be on budget while fulfilling your requirements.

Once you know about your wants and needs.

Then put all the data into the MLS (Multiple Listing Service).

You can see pictures of houses with descriptions by using this service and can request virtual tours of the house as well.

Their website contains updated information about which houses are going live for sale and doesn’t contain any information that may waste your time, that’s why this is the right place to go.

All the things on your list of wants and needs will not be covered but the house will be yours.

There may not be 4 bedrooms, there may not be solar panels, and there may not be a pool that you want, but still, there will be a home.

It is a fact, that your first home can not necessarily be your home forever because the average staying time for first-home buyers in a house is 3 to 5 years. Hence, it’s ok to compromise a little, on your wants and needs.

In the end, your assignment is to save money as much as possible to be able to be a first-time home buyer.

Whether you need to save money or be able to be a first-time homeowner loan applicant.

You need money to relocate into a new house, because buying a house is a big step, and there is no other way around it, except money.

Hopefully, a bank loan will cover the money part for your house, but you still need to pay for some other things during the process, and there is no amount saved that you can say is enough. Remember, the more you save, the better for you!