Five Important Numbers to Know Before Purchasing a Home

You're decision to purchase a home is probably oneaway?
of the most important that you'll make over theAll homeowners need to pay homeowner's insurance,
course of your life. It's a great idea to do somebut make sure no special insurances are needed on
research before you make an offer. Although thethe home that you plan to purchase. If the home is
purchase price is very important, there are otherin a flood or hurricane zone, the mortgage company
numbers that should also be analyzed. Many of thesemay require you to purchase additional coverage.
items are skipped over or ignored by impatient orBuying a house outside of a flood zone can make a
excited home buyers. Many of these can really makehuge difference in your premium. Flood insurance is
a huge difference in cost of the ownership of theexpensive.
home.Closing Costs are another thing that deserves
Interest Rate is used to determine how much youattention during the home buying process. Many
will pay the lender in order to borrow the money fordifferent mortgage companies will have different
the home. It is always best to shop around for thefees and some will even call the same fees)
best interest rate. On a $500,000 home a differencesomething different. The best way to do this is to
in 1 percentage point can make a $336 difference inget a good faith estimate from all possible candidate
monthly payment. This is a considerable amount. Formortgage companies. Based up these estimates you
some people, $336 per month can buy a car. Makecould see which company is giving you the best deal
sure you research interest rates really well beforeon fees.
making an offer to buy a home. Having a good creditIf you're working with an agent, he/she should be
rating will help you with getting the best rate possible.able to give you comps. Which are actual values of
Property taxes is a huge one that many buyerssimilar homes that have sold. You don't want to
overlook. You can sometimes save thousands inmake an offer on a house without reviewing these
property taxes by purchasing in a neighboring town.numbers. This will really give you a good idea of how
If two houses have the same purchase price, amuch to offer for a property.
$1200 per year difference in property tax is $100 perWhen making an offer on a home, this article is not
month. This could be significant as the differencean absolute list of items to take into consideration.
gets larger. Wouldn't it be nice to put that extra $100There are many other things that need to be
per month towards the purchase price and now youanalyzed. The intent of this article was just to touch
could afford a more expensive home just one townbase on some of the more prominent ones.