Am I Ready to Buy?

No one knows better than you. That is for sure. I know that most books and websites drone on about the largest financial decision you will ever make. To be honest, that is a lot of baloney. Owning a home is frequently very similar in cost to renting. You just have to decide whether you are ready to make the commitment to pay yourself for a long period of time or whether you want to continue to line someone else's pockets.

In a typical market (one where housing values increase between 2 and 3 percent per year) you will need to stay in, maintain, and pay the mortgage for your home for about 3 years before it will be financially viable to sell it. If you cannot commit to make the mortgage payments for that period of time or are not ready to be tied to the maintenance for that long, this is a large consideration.

Take a look at your finances.  Are you in the financial position to make this kind of commitment? If you are, you will need the following things before you start:

• Budget Knowledge--Know where you spend your money and if there is enough for a monthly mortgage payment.
  
• Clean Credit--Not good credit, but clean. Make sure that there are no mistakes on your credit report or foibles that you can correct to improve your score.
  
•  Earnest Money In order to show a seller that you are a serious buyer (even if you are asking them to pay your closing costs) you will need to put some money on the table. A few hundred dollars will usually do the trick.
  
•  An Honest Team You will need to choose a professional representative with the area and subject knowledge to refer you to honest lending professionals, understand your market and pricing and help you through the purchasing process?I recommend me, of course (just checking to see if anyone actually reads this stuff).