Tips for Buying Denver Real Estate | The Denver Source | Aurora Real Estate-Denver Realtor-Property for sale| Information

Tips for Buying Real Estate

Things To Consider Before Even Looking At Property

1.) Check your Credit Score
There is no point in buying real estate if you don’t have the capital now, or in the foreseeable future. That is why the first errand you should run is to check your credit. This is important because you’re not likely to pay for the piece of property in cash money. The vast majority of homeowners purchase their home with some type of home loan or mortgage. The kind of home loan or mortgage you get is heavily dependent on your credit history since all prospective lenders will have a look at your credit report before offering you any home loans or mortgages.
Your entire credit history will calculate to an overall credit score, which ranges from 340 to 820, with 340 being the worse and 820 being the best score. Where you are on the spectrum will determine what kinds of offers you’ll get. If you have poor credit standing, you should expect few or less-than-stellar home loans or mortgage offers. Conversely, if you have excellent credit standing, you will receive very good offers. Be sure to get a copy of your credit report and check it out before they do. You want to scan for errors and report them if they are evident - you’d be surprised at how common mistakes are.
2.) Get your Mortgage Preapproved
Many people often bypass this step and opt to go search out real estate before getting a mortgage pre-approved. This is perfectly fine for the buyer who is just scouting out the real estate buyer, but if you’re seriously interested in buying relatively soon, then we can’t emphasize how important getting your mortgage pre-approved is. Imagine that you’re selling a home and you receive two offers. One person quotes you a lovely number. The other person quotes you a similar number and hands you a piece of paper from a lender, guaranteeing that this person actually has access to the money he or she is promising. Who will you sell your house to? Chances are, you’ll trust the written word over the spoken word. You’d be surprised how often this occurs particularly in competitive real estate markets. That’s why it’s important to get pre-approved for a mortgage.
We recommend that you investigate potential lenders after you have your credit check. The lender (banks, brokers, wholesale lenders) can check out your credit history, and give you an official letter stating how much of a mortgage you qualify for. Having this number in writing will make you more attractive to sellers since it shows that you’re serious. Also, this is a necessary procedure, so why not find out how much of a loan or mortgage you qualify for, which will undoubtedly influence the type of real estate you can afford.
3.) Identify What You Are Looking For
You already have some idea of what kind of real estate you’re interested in, but it is often a very useful and enlightening exercise to actually list down on paper what you actually want in your property. Real estate experts suggest breaking down your list into: (1) “Must-have features” – this may include the size of property you want, number of rooms, location, etc. Be as broad as possible – the point is to identify what must be on that property in order for you to be interested. (2) “Absolutely Not” – this is the opposite of your “must-have features”, and represents features that you will not tolerate. This may include blacklisting any “fixer-uppers”, some location no-no’s, etc.
Knowing what you want and what you don’t want can greatly narrow down your search when the time comes to actually go out and hunt out some real estate. Think about the property’s desirable features, and weigh it against its undesirable features. Another important consideration is resale potential, especially if you buying real estate strictly for investment purposes.
4.) Find A Trusted Real Estate Agent
Now that you’ve done your credit check, have a pre-approved mortgage, and identified what you want in your property, the next logical step is to go on the search. Although this is not always the case, the vast majority of people utilize the services of a realtor or real estate agent in their quest to buy real estate. These professionals are trained to help you with your search and have insider access to real estate listings within your price range. More importantly, they are intimately familiar with the whole real estate buying process and can advise you through the various steps.
Finding the right real estate agent or realtor can make the buying real estate easier that your thought. To do this, you should interview several agents, ask about their experience, and check out their references before making a decision. Rely on your gut instinct in your evaluation of agents – it is imperative that you can trust your agent, and at the same time, feel that the agent is honest, loyal, and have your best interests in mind.

Top Things to Know Before Making A Purchase

1. Don't buy if you can't stay put.
If you can't commit to remaining in one place for at least a few years, then owning is probably not for you, at least not yet. With the transaction costs of buying and selling a home, you may end up losing money if you sell any sooner.
2. Start by shoring up your credit.
Since you most likely will need to get a mortgage to buy a house, you must make sure your credit history is as clean as possible. A few months before you start house hunting, get copies of your credit report. Make sure the facts are correct, and fix any problems you discover.
3. Aim for a home you can really afford.
The rule of thumb is that you can buy housing that runs about two-and-one-half times your annual salary. But you'll do better to use one of many calculators available online to get a better handle on how your income, debts, and expenses affect what you can afford.
4. Don't worry if you can't put down the usual 20 percent.
There are a variety of public and private lenders who, if you qualify, offer low-interest mortgages that require a down payment as small as 3 percent of the purchase price.
5. Buy in a district with good schools.
In most areas, this advice applies even if you don't have school-age children. Reason: When it comes time to sell, you'll learn that strong school districts are a top priority for many home buyers, thus helping to boost property values.
6. Get professional help.
Even though the Internet gives buyers unprecedented access to home listings, most new buyers (and many more experienced ones) are better off using a professional agent. Look for an exclusive buyer agent, if possible, who will have your interests at heart and can help you with strategies during the bidding process.
7. Choose carefully between points and rate.
When picking a mortgage, you usually have the option of paying additional points -- a portion of the interest that you pay at closing -- in exchange for a lower interest rate. If you stay in the house for a long time -- say five to seven years or more -- it's usually a better deal to take the points. The lower interest rate will save you more in the long run.
8. Before house hunting, get pre-approved.
Getting pre-approved will you save yourself the grief of looking at houses you can't afford and put you in a better position to make a serious offer when you do find the right house. Not to be confused with pre-qualification, which is based on a cursory review of your finances, pre-approval from a lender is based on your actual income, debt and credit history.
9. Do your homework before bidding.
Your opening bid should be based on the sales trend of similar homes in the neighborhood. So before making it, consider sales of similar homes in the last three months. If homes have recently sold at 5 percent less than the asking price, you should make a bid that's about eight to 10 percent lower than what the seller is asking.
10. Hire a home inspector.
Sure, your lender will require a home appraisal anyway. But that's just the bank's way of determining whether the house is worth the price you've agreed to pay. Separately, you should hire your own home inspector, preferably an engineer with experience in doing home surveys in the area where you are buying. His or her job will be to point out potential problems that could require costly repairs down the road.
* For More Information Go To CNNMoney.com

15 Tips To Buying Real Estate Successfully (By D.S. Peter)
1. Do not overanalyze. You may lose a lot of great opportunities to make a great deal of money. Start making offers!
2. Get the property under a contract first with a safety clause.
3. Ask fellow investors, real estate broker about the property value. If it makes sense, go ahead with the purchase.
4. If you are buying for a quick flip neighborhoods do not matter. What matters is the $$$ you are going to make.
5. Your perfect buy should be a house/condo/building in excellent condition and in a good neighborhood.
6. Your Second choice should be a cosmetic fixer in a good neighborhood.
7. Inspect the property. Try to get as many things fixed by the seller as possible. Check the neighborhood. Drive around the block. Look at the houses in the neighborhood, what is their condition. Look at the cars parked in the street. Old cars normally can tell you a lot about the neighborhood. Trash on the sidewalks can spell less than great neighborhood. Which in turns means you should buy and sell quickly (most of the time). Renting in that neighborhood could be challenging, especially for the new investor.
8. Use a real estate agent or broker. My first great deal was found by a broker. Try to get access to the MLS so you can look for deals yourself.
9. Shop around for Financing. My experience with the loan officers tells me one thing. Email them your questions and ask them to email you back their answers or put them on paper. They tend to always change terms and rates (though illegal), and put junk charges.
10. Try to reduce your Title/Escrow charges review them with an experienced investor or real estate agent.
11. Use a real estate attorney for your foreclosure/pre-foreclosure purchases.
12. You can check these free Real Estate Investing Educational sites: http://www.realestate-investinginfo.com and
http://www.buying-investment-property.info.
Read as much as you can from them.
13. Make connections with other fellow real estate investors. You can learn great deal firsthand experience from them. One piece of advice alone could be worth thousands for you. So if you like challenges and lifetime learning Real Estate Investing is a great field to work and have fun.
14. Advertise yourself. Get business cards hand them to interested people. Place ads in the newspaper and use whatever other means of advertising you can think of.
15. Do not be afraid to buy real estate. Fear and lack of knowledge are the number one factor for failure.

How To Come Up With A Down-Payment

Coming up with a down payment for home can certainly be the hardest part about being able to afford one, especially if you are looking to become a first time homeowner. There are more than just a couple ways you can go about doing this however. If a loan or gift from others does not seem feasible, maybe they would be willing to co-sign the loan.
Here are some ways to come up with a down payment you should think when the time is right:
1.) Ask for help. Parents, friends, or relatives may all be willing to give you a loan with favorable rates. When it comes to asking parents, that often means no interest rate, and sometimes no strict timeframe which can be a huge benefit.
2.) Use your other assets - either by selling them or by borrowing money against them. This can include things such as cars, boats or bicycles, as well as stocks or trinkets, such as heirlooms or collectibles.
3.) If you have life insurance with any build-up value, you could cash in that value, or possible borrow against it.
4.) Many times you may borrow against your retirement fund.
5.) If you are a first-time homebuyer, you can take out $10,000 from your IRA, penalty-free to put towards your home purchase.
6.) You may want to get a second job, or do some freelance work to increase your income.
7.) Sometimes, you can get help from a non-profit organization such as a church. There are loans available that will let you put a lower down payment down, as long as a non-profit organization puts in part of your down-payment.
8.) Offer to give something other than cash for your down-payment. This could include things such as offering the seller something like a car or a boat in lieu of the down payment, or it could be for your services; an example being offering landscape services for the person's new home or if possible do their taxes.
9.) Finally, you can look for options that don’t require a large down payment. Such options include loan programs such as VA or FHA. Another option is to purchase a foreclosure property, which can often be had with little or no down payment. You can also consider getting an 80:20 loan, where you essentially have two loans; one is the regular mortgage on the property, and the other is a loan for the down payment – even through these are separate loans, they often come from the same lender.

We soon will have many more tips for purchasing Real Estate