Tips for Buying Your First Home in a Competitive Market

Buying your first home can be stressful and confusing, especially during a time like the present. There is a lot of competition on the market, so it’s essential to know the best tactics to make yourself a viable option for sellers.

Here are five tips that can help you be successful in your endeavor.

1. Get Pre-Approved

Financing is an important aspect of house purchases for the majority of buyers. Therefore, getting pre-approved for a mortgage can make a world of difference when buying your first home.

Pre-approval is a great way to know how much you can borrow and spend, how much you’ll likely be paying monthly, your credit score, and your down payment. It also can make you look like a superior candidate to sellers over others, as many only look at offers with pre-approval letters.

When looking to be pre-approved, some of the documents you’ll most likely need are:

W-2 forms
Paystubs
Bank statements
ID

2. Know What You Want and Need

When looking into buying your first home, you’ll want to already have an idea of what you want and what you need. When thinking of needs, think of aspects of a house that you’re not willing to negotiate. Wants should be features on which you might compromise.

Having these prepared in advance can be extremely useful in expediting your decision-making process. Speed is essential in a competitive market.

3. Get Help From a Realtor

Realtor services are tailored for lifting some of the stress associated with finding and buying homes.

Communicate your wants and needs to a realtor so that they can monitor listings and show you the ones that fall under your provided criteria. When you find houses you’re interested in, realtors can get you showings, whether digital or in-person, and negotiate on your behalf.

4. Strong Offers

You want your proposal to be impressive enough to stand out.

Some things to incorporate in your bids are a higher price, larger down payments, communicating how much you like the home, and letting the seller choose the close date.

5. Limit Contingencies

Contingencies are any requirements you may have before closing the sale on the house, such as a finance approval, insurance, selling your house prior, or a home inspection.

While contingencies are valid, having unreasonable ones or too many can quickly make a seller deny your offer. An agent can serve as a great tool to advise on contingencies.