1st Choice Home Centers > Home Center Blog > Preparing to Purchase a New Home

When you want to prepare to purchase a new home

Are you dreaming of homeownership? Do you want to use your money towards a home of your own rather than rent? When you want to prepare to purchase a new home, you’ll need to put in some work before you go out and start looking at homes you like!

One of the first things you’ll need to do before purchasing a new home is determining how much home you can reasonably afford. Experts recommend that your home payment, taxes, and insurance shouldn’t take up more than 25-35% of your take-home pay. If you stretch your budget beyond that, you run the risk of major financial issues should an emergency come up.

The next thing you’ll need to look at when looking at the purchase of a new home is the size of home. You’ll need to determine if close commute time or space is more important to your home purchase. Additionally, if you are planning to add children to your family, you’ll want to look for a home that has a little room to grow in terms of bedrooms or school districts.

Finally, you’ll want to set up a fund for your down payment on a new home. While the standard has been 20% of the purchase price of the home, most mortgage companies will be amicable to 10-15% of the purchase price.

Once you feel you are prepared to start looking for your new home, please let us know here at 1st Choice Home Centers! We would love to help you find a home you’ll enjoy for years to come.