Are You Ready to Buy a Home? Take This Test

Answer these basic questions to find out if you are really ready to become a home buyer

You may be financially qualified to buy a home, but are you ready for the responsibilities that come with home ownership? If you can answer yes to all of the questions below then you are most likely ready and able to go and buy a home.

Do you even know why you want to buy a home? While this may sound like a ridiculous question, there are many individuals who are just going along with the crowd and assume that they should buy a home because everyone else is buying one. While the United States is skewed toward home ownership in part due to a government policy encouraging home ownership, there are still many reasons why you might want to hold off buying. If you are a frequent traveler, for example, owning might end up having you paying for a home that you rarely spend time at and renting might be simpler and less hassle. Or, if you plan to get married and have children in the next couple years, buying that studio condo in the city might leave you saddled with extra debt if you cannot sell it and it loses value (as happened over the past few years in many areas).

Is your credit really in order? Many home buyers who have credit issues just want to get their credit in good enough shape to qualify for a mortgage to buy a home. But leaving a lot of outstanding credit issues unresolved even if you can get a mortgage without resolving them is not a good idea because it will be much harder to resolve those issues with the higher expenses of home ownership. A better plan would be to clean up all credit issues first and then go take on a mortgage. A higher credit score will help you to get lower current mortgage rates.

Do you have some extra cash on top of a down payment and closing costs? A mortgage lender will tell you how much money you need for your down payment and closing costs. They will even require that you have a little extra cash after closing to help you cover your mortgage payments if you run into any financial difficulties, but mortgage lenders do not require that you set aside funds for the inevitable extra expenses of home ownership such as repairs and maintenance. For example, if you bought a home tomorrow and used up most of your funds on your down payment and closing costs, what would you do if the next day your furnace broke and you were facing a $7,000 repair bill?

Are you ready for the responsibilities of home ownership? Home ownership responsibilities include the financial responsibility of paying all bills but also the physical responsibility of maintaining the house and the property. Renters can take off on vacation any time and just lock up and go, while home owners need to make sure their home will not have any problems while away. Renters just call their landlord to fix any problems, while home owners are essentially general contractors for their home, coordinating repairs and improvements.

Is your spouse ready as well? The support of your spouse if you have one is critical to a successful home ownership experience. He or she needs to be just as committed to the responsibilities of home ownership as you are or conflict will result. For example, you both need to be on board with the idea that replacing a roof after it has reached the end of its useful life (but before it actually leaks) is more of a priority than that extra vacation to the Cayman Islands.

If you answered yes to all of the questions above and you would like to get an exact mortgage rate quote and a free purchase mortgage pre-approval, complete a free rate quote request now!.

To see the current mortgage rates, visit our Current Mortgage Rates page.

If you have any questions that you would like to get answered by our expert mortgage brokers, please email us or call us at 1-877-868-2503.

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