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Assuming
you have the financial resources and the desire to eventually own
your own home, there are very few good reasons to put off the purchase.
You can miss out on years of appreciation if you do.
The main thing you
want to avoid when buying a home is being put in a position where
you will have to sell it too soon. If you have to sell a home before
it has appreciated enough to cover the costs and commissions of
selling, you could find yourself in a financial bind. This is especially
true for those who buy a home with a down payment of ten percent
or less.
Real Estate commissions
traditionally run around six percent of a home’s sales price. The
seller’s closing costs generally come to about one and a half percent.
You can see how this can easily exceed the first year’s appreciation.
If you made a minimal down payment, you could actually have to come
up with cash out of pocket to sell your home.
New to the
Area
A very good to reason
to delay buying a home is if you have just moved to an unfamiliar
area or region of the country. It makes sense to rent for a number
of months before deciding on exactly where you want to live. Often
when people buy a home immediately they find that they have might
have made a better decision if they had waited awhile.
Uncertain
Job Future
You could be right
out of college or expecting a promotion and a transfer. Or your
company has announced and impending "restructuring." If
any of these apply, it might be best to wait to buy a home. When
you have a more accurate picture of what your next few years will
be like, that will be the time to buy.
Marital Problems
Real estate agents
see a lot of life unfold before their eyes. One of the saddest occurs
when former clients divorce and are forced to sell a recently purchased
house. It happens all too often when a family in turmoil decides
that buying a new home may help resolve their problems. Perhaps
it is inevitable that such problems occur, but selling a home before
it appreciates can create an additional financial burden in an already
difficult situation.
copyright
2000 by Terry Light and RealEstate ABC |
