Blog

Buying a home involves a great deal of money. Hence, making an informed choice is essential after assessing important aspects. This article summarises some essential tips for buying a new home. So, if you are planning to buy your dream house, keep reading.

1. Your Financial Health Assessment

It is necessary as you must be prepared for buying a house and other expenses related to the property. It will help you to determine whether you are ready to invest sizable capital in purchasing a home. Here are some of the ways you can check your economic status:

● Assess Your Savings

It is necessary to make upfront payments when purchasing a home, including cash down payment. Not only should you have funds saved to meet these expenditures, but also as an emergency fund. Also, you must keep your savings in an account that provides a regular return so that you can get the funds quickly whenever you need to meet any financial needs.

● Evaluate Your Spending 

Analyze your monthly expenditure, which includes costs you incur in monthly bills, utilities, entertainment, food, etc. This evaluation will help you to assess how much you can afford to repay towards the home loan.

● Check Your Credit History

You should maintain a healthy credit history & a desirable debt-to-income ratio. Banks nowadays prefer to restrict housing expenses to 30% of an individual’s total income. Exceeding this amount can be a concern for banks to sanction a loan. Though, this percentage may vary based on the local real estate market.

Based on the affordability, create a budget that fits your both financial & housing needs.

2. Location

Look at the locality and the surroundings. It is ideal to purchase a house in an area adjacent to a city’s prime location where the property value is not that high. To avoid future inconvenience, do not buy a house in an undeveloped area with inadequate infrastructure.

3. Type of House, Size, and its Features

What kind of housing property do you need – a conventional single-family house, a house with two to four units to accommodate multiple family members, or other types of houses?

Apart from it, ask yourself whether you are buying a house based on size or accommodation. When you buy a house based on size, the usable area does not expand in the same proportion.

Additionally, check online to get an idea about the costs and availability of features that are crucial for you, such as the kitchen or bathroom layout.

4. Builder’s Credentials

Always choose a reputable builder dealing with the construction and design of your new home. Do not get tempted only by the aesthetic aspects of a housing property. Instead, you must also pay attention to the construction specifications & materials to avoid problems later.

Check the past properties he had completed to get a better insight. Make your due diligence before making any negotiations.

5. Resale Value

Property buyers often ignore the resale value of a property and solely focus on its price and prime location. If you buy a property without considering its resale value, then your investment may not be worth it, as your home’s selling price will be lower than other homes in the location. Find out what the nearby houses are worth by estimating their resale value.

6. Eligibility Criteria for a Home Loan

Buying a home requires considerable capital. Hence, you may rely on external financial help through a home loan. So, before borrowing a home loan, you must check the eligibility criteria with banks lending home loans.

The eligibility criteria for a home loan usually depend on your income, repayment capability, age, and existing debt. However, eligibility parameters may differ with each bank. The loan amount you can borrow also depends on RBI regulations and different banks. By comparing all the banks, find one that offers a low-interest rate.

7. Additional Expenses

When you are planning your budget, you must consider additional expenses. Additional costs include your property’s market value and stamp duty.

You may need professional assistance to buy a house. For that, you need to bear certain charges imposed by a home loan broker, real estate agent, lender, land surveyor, home inspector, or lawyer. Besides these expenses, check the parking & maintenance charges, if any.

One must also safeguard their investment with property insurance. This will further help you in availing of financial protection against issues with property titles, legal problems, or other hassles. So, one must also keep aside some funds to buy the same.

8. Property Documentation

Another tip for home buyers is that one must carefully read & understand all clauses, implications, and penalties mentioned in the document. For eg, if there is a penalty clause for delayed EMI payments due to some circumstances, hidden charges, delivery date of the housing property, etc. Verifying all these details before signing the final agreement is essential to avoid possible hassles later.

Many people aspire to own their dream house. However, often they are clueless when it comes to making an informed purchase. If you are facing a similar dilemma, follow the above tips to buy a new home confidently.

To sum up

Buying a house requires a lot of procedural processes and due diligence. In the end, it’s just a one-time thing for middle-class people. Consequently, in order to justify the amount one invests in a property, it is essential to buy the right one with all the amenities.