Buying a home is a huge and stressful purchase, but it is also can be one of the best purchases you ever make. To ensure that you get the home that truly suits your needs, consider the following home buying tips and secrets. These tips can make the process easier, faster and help you find the home of your dreams.

Before you shop, get pre-approved for a loan. This is essential, because it means you’ve sat down with a loan officer and truly figured out exactly how much you can afford comfortably. To make pre-approval easier, adjust your spending habits in the months leading up to buying a home. Don’t buy any big-ticket items, as these big purchases show up on your credit score. Be conservative and lenders will see that you manage your finances well.

Being realistic in finding a house to buy is a must and to do this, the location of the houses to buy has to be inspected. This is important because you may find the house on a very busy street or busy intersections or the neighborhood houses are smaller or just not the ideal neighborhood. Visit the location at different times so that you will have a realistic idea and also to check if the place is noisy. Check if the neighborhood is quiet when people are at work or in school and also in the afternoons and evenings.

You need also to check if the place is near to local schools. The location of schools near the house for sale will have an effect on the real estate value of the place and if you want to sell the house later, this will be easy because of schools around. This can be still important even if you don’t have kids or do not have plans to have these.

Do not fall in love with a house or one you like so much that you are not willing to part from it. This can mean that if the price is just not right or there are other issues regarding the house, you can move on easily and find another. An example is you will need to spend much for roof replacement or other issues that will incur huge expenses and later you will find other houses that will not need these huge expenses spent. If you are not giving commitment right away and very willing to walk away to find others, this can improve negotiating power.

When it’s time to begin your home search, give the real estate experts at 1stInSite a call. They can help you look for Lafayette real estate, Orinda real estate, Walnut Creek real estate, Danville real estate or homes anywhere throughout Alameda County, Contra Costa County and the entire East Bay region.

Madeleine Glazier loves blogging about the real estate industry. If you are looking for licensed Lafayette real estate agents, or to find San Ramon CA homes for sale, please check out the 1stInsite website now.