Prioritizing Needs And Wants

-Before Beginning Your Home Search –

Before you begin working with a Realtor® to find a home, it is important to prioritize the features you want and need in a home.

- New home or existing home                  - Number of bedrooms

- Suburbs or city                                   - Number of bathrooms

- Short or long commute                         - Number of living areas/closet space

- Big yard or low maintenance property      - Two or three car garage

Only a home built from the ground up to your specifications could really meet all of your expectations.

To be realistic in looking for a home, you must learn to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of each property you consider.  Your Realtor® will narrow your search by price range, neighborhood, number of bedrooms or any other features you specify through the computerized Multiple Listing Service.  When shopping with your Realtor®, discuss what you like and don’t like about the houses you visit.  This will help your Realtor ® pre-screen properties and increase your success in finding the right home.

From there, your goal should be to choose the home that most closely matches your criteria.

Ultimately, your home is what you make it through creativity, vision and adaptation. Compromise, when it comes to small shortcomings in a home that meets the majority of your criteria, is essential.

A word about location:  Location refers to more than a home’s physical position.  It includes the atmosphere and lifestyle of a particular neighborhood.  It includes everything from recreational facilities, such as community swimming pools and tennis courts, to schools, shopping, property tax rates and property values.  It also includes proposed changes in land use, such as construction of new roads or shopping centers, potential hazards, such as flooding, and noise from nearby establishments or highways.  All of these factors should be considered when you are making a choice about where to live.

For many buyers, one of the most important factors in finding the right place to live is the quality of the local schools.  Check with the school’s counselor or principal and ask about:

    - Percentage of students who attend college and which colleges or 
        universities they attend;

    - Test scores compared with other schools in the county and state;

    - Student/teacher ratio;

    - Facilities and equipment available for students;

    - Availability of extracurricular and athletic programs.

Checklist for Mortgage Application

• Home address for the past two years. 
• All past and present employments for the past two years, as well as mailing addresses for each.
• Social Security numbers.
• Base pay with proof of earnings.  Include other sources of income, such as Social Security or Veterans Administration benefits.  Copies of check stubs or official authorization by the company will be needed for these. 
• Child support and/or alimony paid or received will need to be verified by a copy of divorce decree and canceled checks.
• Copies of W-2 forms and income tax returns for the past two years will be needed.  Please make sure returns are signed. 
• A list of job related expenses such as insurance (paid through the company or individually), union dues, child care and/or gas expense.
• A list of account numbers for checking, savings and credit union, plus current balances for each. 
• If you have less than three credit liabilities, list any paid out accounts, amount of credit and when paid.
• Monthly premium amounts for automobile, life and hospital insurance.  Total value of life insurance and cash value of policy will be needed. 
• Any information concerning any mortgage you have had in the past, including name and address of mortgage company, account number, type of loan and assumption, if assumed.
• All retirement fund information, savings bonds, stock certificates, and similar assets.