When's the Right Time to Buy Real Estate in Santa Monica

When is the right time to buy a house? This is a question we get asked at REALESTATE-SANTAMONICA.COM at least once a week. So we thought we’d go over a few factors that can help you decide for yourself. We understand that different buyers have different needs, so this little article is geared mainly to our first time buyer. We’ll address the needs of the more experienced buyer in a coming-article.

So now it’s time to examine the question, “When is the right time to buy a house?” The truthful answer is that there really is no perfect time to buy a house. In fact, there’s really no perfect time to do anything. Sometimes you just need to put your fear aside and take the plunge.
There are however some indicating factors that can help you make an informed decision as to whether you should buy a home.

Perhaps the most important decision is how you feel emotionally. Do you really want a home of your own? Do you feel like you need to put down roots? These are feelings worth examining.

Many people want a home of their own so that they can put their personal touches on it, and really make it a home, versus just simply a house they rent.

After examining your emotions about home buying, it’s definitely important to take a hard look at the financial aspect of a home purchase. To start, make sure you have a down payment. There are currently a number of mortgage products available to first time buyers and some down payments are as low as 3% of the purchase price. These are FHA mortgages and we’ll be giving you some helpful information on this in a coming article. A good mortgage broker will walk you through this. At REALESTATE-SANTAMONICA.COM we have a number of mortgage professionals available to help…we’re happy to refer you.

And when you’re dealing with your mortgage broker, be sure and have him/her walk you through the amount of money you will need to close your transaction. These are called closing costs. In today’s buyer-oriented market, you can often-times get the sellers to pay the closing costs, but you should make sure you know what these figures are just the same.

Most importantly of all, you need to know how much your monthly mortgage bill will be. And be sure and get all of it! So many times buyers only get the principal mortgage cost and don’t know to ask about the others…taxes, insurance and interest on the loan.

So those figures are basically what you need to be aware of when making a home purchase.

Now on to the fun stuff! One of the greatest benefits to owning a home is that not only do you get a great place to live, you also get an amazing tax write off. Consult your tax professional (we have many we can recommend) and find out what your true cost of homeowner ship will be monthly. Many buyers don’t realize that the interest they pay on their mortgage is fully tax deductible…so that $2,500 monthly mortgage is significantly less when you figure in your tax advantages. More than once we’ve seen buyers overjoyed to find out that when they buy a home they are actually paying less than when they were renting! Be sure and look into this.

Another great consideration to home ownership is that when your home goes up in value, you can keep the profit after you sell it. I’m sure some people are reading this and saying to themselves “duh,” but many people don’t realize that for single people you can take $250,000 profit tax free and for married people it’s $500,000. You can only do this once ever two years, but it is an amazing benefit to home ownership.

These are just a few things to consider when writing up that first offer on a home of your own. We hope you’ve found this helpful and if there’s anything at all you need, your friends at REALESTATE-SANTAMONICA.COM are here for you.

As a respected and experienced Santa Monica Real Estate agent and Realtor, Colin Whelan brings his knowledge to the public in order to empower buyers and sellers  www.realestate-santamonica.com

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