Category: Buy a House

One of the first questions to ask yourself when starting your home buying journey is, how much house can I afford? Just because you get pre-approved for a loan doesn’t necessarily mean you can afford to make the monthly payments, and still do everything else you want. This is where budgeting, personal finances, staying on top of your credit, and other financial responsibilities come in to play. It also helps to have a home affordability calculator to determine how much you can afford to pay each month on a home mortgage and still do everything else you want to do.

Read More “How Much House Can I Afford? | Home Affordability Calculator”

When it comes to buying a house, it helps to understand exactly what you can afford – and that starts by understanding the costs of buying a house. Your mortgage payment will be the biggest recurring payment on your home. But, there are four other primary costs of buying a house that you need to know about. Here’s a breakdown of the four other costs and how working with Homes for Heroes to buy a home can help with costs.

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It is good to know what home closing costs you may need to pay, as you prepare for your home purchase and the closing process, so we assembled this list of potential home closing costs. It’s not likely your loan will include all of these costs and some may not apply to your particular circumstance due to your location, your service providers, and the type of loan you choose.

If you are not currently working with a mortgage lender, and would like cost estimates for your situation, we recommend you speak with a mortgage professional. Sign up with Homes for Heroes and we will connect you with our local specialists who can provide you with more accurate information because they serve within your community, and they will save you money.

If you’re not ready to speak with someone, we get it. Here’s the list of potential home closing costs to reference:

Read More “26 Potential Home Closing Costs – How to Save Closing Fees”

Location, location, location. It’s the first rule of real estate and it’s usually the first thing people consider when looking to buy a home. Next might come the square footage, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms and so on. While these are all important factors, they don’t tell the whole story of your potential new home. Even homes in the best neighborhoods can come with tons of hidden – and often costly – maintenance issues. Yes, you’ll have a home inspection to help catch anything that doesn’t meet standards, but that comes at the end of the home buying process. Here is what to look for when buying a home.

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Homeowners understand owning and maintaining a home takes work. We all want to provide a protective, safe and friendly home for ourselves , our family, and all of our guests. When you’re busy working your job(s), caring for your family, and maintaining a home, things can occasionally get missed. Because there’s so much to do around the house this time of year, we compiled the most complete fall home maintenance checklist for our heroes to tackle their fall home maintenance to-dos, and also created a convenient single one-sheet checklist you can download to reference every year to assure nothing is missed. If you’re a first-time homebuyer, this post provides essential information and the free fall home maintenance checklist download is a great tool to keep you ahead of the game.

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Many home buyers want to know, “What is earnest money?” If you are in the market to buy a home it is important to understand the function of earnest money; especially in a highly competitive housing market. It’s common to experience multiple bids on a property. Unfortunately, home buyers can find themselves losing out on potential homes unless they make their offer more competitive than everybody else who wants that home. The key to successful house hunting in a sizzling market is crafting a stellar purchase offer. Earnest money can play a key role. Here you can learn how you to use earnest money as a competitive advantage when submitting a purchase offer on a home. 

Read More “What is Earnest Money? | Why it is Important for Purchase Offers”