Are you ready to buy a home? 4 Questions to ask yourself

Infographic are the bottom

There are probably hundreds of different articles out there on whether you should buy or rent and whether it’s the right decision for you. At the bottom of this article I will link a couple different articles that I have found if you want a different perspective.

Let's dive into it.

You are trying to decide if you want to save up and buy a home now or get out of your parents home and starting renting right now. There are Pros and Cons for both side of the argument and many factors to weigh in beside just the Pros and Cons.

A couple of the main questions you should figure out are

• Are you fiscally responsible?

• How steady are you in your current career?

• How long do you plan to stay in that home?

• Do you want flexibility or stability?

Those are just a few of the broad questions to think about if you are getting serious on if you want to buying or renting.

Are you fiscally responsible?

Here is where you need to be honest with yourself. Are you finding yourself living paycheck to paycheck? Do you see something on Amazon so you dip into your rainy day fund (if you have one) and buy whatever it is out of an impulse? How's your credit score looking? If you scrolled right past this so you could avoid thinking about it then you may not be financially responsible. Or are you trying to be more responsible but are having a hard time staying discipline to answer these questions truthfully. My best advice for that is to stop right now and to go talk to a financial advisor. They will help get your finances situated so you can then figure out if you want to rent or buy. An awesome guy I know that could help out is Taylor Mitchell and I am sure if you reached out to him he would love to help out.

How Steady are you in your current career?

Two reasons for this one. First if you are not in a steady career it simply would not be wise to think about buying a home without being really confident that your job will safely provide you a source of reoccurring income each month.  Second, obtaining a loan to purchase a home is tied to your ability to qualify and in a sense your ability to honor the commitment to pay. A lender is looking for assurance to the best of their ability that they risk the take on you in lending a loan is built upon sound understanding of your capabilities.

How long do you plan to stay in that home?

This one relates to the question above. If you are in a steady career, you may be entertaining two different notions of what to do, staying in the location for a while at lower level of consumer commitment,  or you are looking at a higher risk of getting involved to buy a home. All else being equal, if it make more sense to own versus renting However, if you do not plan to stay in the home for a little while and do not have a steady income, home buying might not be the best decision for you at the moment. If you are going to be traveling a lot and want to keep a low cost then renting would be a better decision at the moment.

Do you want Flexibility or Stability?

This really relates to what you want to be doing in the now. Do you want to travel a lot right now? If your answer is yes, you are probably better suited to rent at the moment. Maybe, you are planning to do a two month trip or longer. It would save you money if you were renting or had all your belongings in a storage facility. You would have the flexibility to keep your footprint cost down while you travel. Are you in a stable career now and starting to think big picture? Then buying might be better for you to help prepare some long term goals such as family, building a portfolio, having your home be used as an asset and raise in value while you live there.

These are just a couple of the questions to ask yourself if you are deciding if you want to buy or rent. In a couple upcoming blogs I will dive into more of the pros and cons for buying a home now or renting.”