While combing through the 450+ posts I have on this site, I noticed that I've forgotten one of the most basic steps of all: A basic walkthrough of how to get prepared for buying a home. I meet most clients after they have already done some or all of these steps, so I don't typically get a lot of questions on it, but it's a good post.

 

How do I get Ready to Buy a House?

We'll cover the following topics here.

  • Big Purchases Need Money: Get your Financial House in Order
  • Picking Towns: The Commute: #1 Concern for Most Buyers
  • Picking Towns: Researching School Districts
  • Picking Towns: Living Space and Age of Property
  • Picking Houses: What features do you need? Which Features do you want?

 

Big Purchases Need Money: Get your Financial House in Order

 

Unless you're paying cash for a house, you are going to need to borrow money. If you're going to borrow money, you need to know what it will cost you, and how much you can and/or should borrow.  For most people, contacting a mortgage person makes sense. You'll need to review your credit, and clear up any errors that are getting in the way of the best rates, and review your income and debt levels in order to figure out how much a typical lender would be willing to give you, and what that translate to as far as a monthly payment. Why do this first? The same reason we all don't go the Ferrari dealership first when we're looking for a car. It's not that we don't want a Ferrari, (what, you don't want a Ferrari?), it's that buying one might crimp our style because the cost is so outrageous. Understanding what you're comfortable borrowing - and paying back - is critical to you long-term financial health and your personal happiness. Borrowing effectively, at the lowest-rates you can get, will help you pay more of that mortgage to yourself, and get you started on the path to financial security. In Massachusetts, housing is expensive enough that a mortgage ends up being a kind of "forced savings" in the asset class known as housing, and that's not all bad. After all, it's a

hedge against inflation, and has tax benefits (for now at least). If you're interested in retiring some day, owning a house can be one way to help prepare - if you understand how it works.

 

Picking Towns: The Commute: #1 Concern for Most Buyers

OK, now we know what we can spend. Where should we look? Well, since you likely need to work to pay all that money back, we should probably pick towns that are close to our work environment. This is, in fact, what most people do, even though it might be argued that we'll be in our houses longer than we'll be in our jobs. Commutes are about distance and traffic, and mapping sites and GPS are better at figuring out those things than me, so I'll let you to it. But I do encourage you to look for towns that aren't right on the highway or the commuter rails - you're likely to find better values in towns next to those. I'm not saying you should choose those towns, but they make good comparisons, because there can be substantial differences. They are options, but often get overlooked. Smaller towns like Upton, Mendon, Millis, even Medway are great communities that have good values when buyers are focusing elsewhere.

 

Picking Towns: Researching School Districts

For many, the choice of a community revolves around kids and schools. MCAS scores are a place to start, and are often used by buyers to "rank" school systems, and the towns that run them. They are not the whole story though, and putting too much emphasis on the MCAS scores themselves is not a great idea. Where possible, ask friends and neighbors about their experiences in certain districts, but beware that most people are very biased about the education that they get, in one direction or another, and there are widely different personal philosophies held by people as to what makes a "great school system." One person might view the availability of kindergarten to be important, another might value how nice/new the buildings were, another might have had a run-in with a school committee member and be down on everything. Getting a true evaluation is very difficult, but you can figure out what a school systems reputation is in terms of what people pay for housing in that town. More expensive towns generally have stronger school system reputations, and is at the least an indicator that town members are "school focused".

 

Picking Towns: Living Space and Age of Property

Once we've picked some towns, we need to research what's available for our desired towns in our budget. If we want to live in town A, but in our price range we only see antiques that need a lot of work, and we want younger colonials, than you'll need go back to steps one and two and re-evaluate. Prices vary widely in most areas, and with some basic decisions about what you want, and how much space you need, you'll be able to identify "target" communities that ultimately mark the beginning of your search. Zillow and Trulia are both helpful in this regard, as they offer preliminary statistics on housing affordability and lots of pictures of what is For Sale to give you an idea.

 

Picking Houses: What features do you need? Which Features do you want?

Once you've narrowed down the communities, and gotten an idea about affordability, it's time to do some up close looking. Don't get too discouraged if what is out there isn't wonderful - that's usually the case. The best stuff goes quickly, and is often not as easy to find as the homes that have one issue or another. I'm fond of saying that there are "no bad houses, only bad prices", and I just mean to say that almost all houses provide good function, value, at the right price. Houses with a lot of highway noise aren't "bad houses", but they can be hard to sell, and aren't for everyone. They can however, be great values because of this, allowing home owners to enjoy a home in a community they otherwise couldn't afford. It all depends on your point of view and needs!

 

This one paragraph, of course, is the entry way to the other 450 posts on this blog, about which much is said about how to value housing, improve housing, and manage your money while buying and owning housing. It's far more complex than these basic steps, and if you don't want to be looking for a year (or more), or not understanding what your home is worth, I recommend getting

an expert to help you get educated on the market, and find the right set of trade offs for you.

An Educated Home Buyer is a Happy Home Owner. Read On!

About Matt Heisler

Matt Heisler is a real-estate professional and owner of this website. He has been selling homes in MA for buyers and sellers for over 20 years. He is an expert in foreclosure purchases, short-sale purchases, short-sale sales, buy and hold investing, fix and flip investing, and of course traditional residential home sales. He is happy to take questions as they pertain to real estate on Title V, Radon, Termites, Sump Pumps, Roofs, Foundations, Wells, Septic Systems, Cash-Flow, Staging, and a host of other housing issues. As a Vanderbilt University alumnus, he is proud to serve his local community.

*All information is posted in good faith and is assumed to be reliable, but may rely on third party information sources.