Moving Into Your First Home - Information From American Financial Resources

Buying and moving into your first home after years of renting is an exciting experience. No longer will your monthly housing check go to a landlord or apartment complex, but instead will be building equity in a piece of real estate you own. You can decorate and renovate to your heart's content (though you may need to comply with local ordinances and property owners association rules as applicable), build your net worth, and take pride in owning your own home.

Buying a home when you are renting is considerably less complicated than when you already own a home. If you are a property owner you have to either sell the existing home first and make other arrangements for a place to live until you can move into your next house (sometimes sellers lease back the home from the buyers for a period of time), make the purchase of a new home contingent on selling the first home, or figuring out how to afford two properties at once until the first sells. A renter purchasing does not have to deal with any of that, but there are some things to take into consideration when moving from an apartment or rental into a home you purchase.

• Timing Your Move - If you have a lease on your current rental it is most convenient to time your move into your new home with the ending of your lease. Once you have an offer accepted plan on 30 - 45 days before closing will take place and you will officially own the home. Depending on the housing market you are looking in and how specific your needs are you may want to allow yourself one to three months to search for a property. Of course you run the risk of things moving more quickly than you planned and being able to move into your house when you still have a few months left on your lease. If there is room in your budget this can actually be nice as it allows you to get into the home and do any repairs or renovations needed and not have to move all in one day. This is assuming you are moving across town and not across the country.
• Documenting Your Housing Payments - Part of your mortgage application will include information about your finances which must be supported with documentation. If you have been paying rent to a property management company or an apartment complex with a business office it will probably be simple to get a report of your rental history. The lender offering you a mortgage will want to see how much you have been paying and that you paid your rent on time as this will give them helpful information in determining whether to approve your mortgage application. It gets trickier if you have been paying rent to a roommate, family member, or individual property owner. You might be asked to provide copies of one year's worth of cancelled rent checks. Your bank should be able to help you gather this documentation if you don't have it readily available.

Get Pre-Approved For A Mortgage

On of the first steps to take when planning to move out of an apartment and buy a home is to get pre-approved for a mortgage. At American Financial Resources we can get you pre-approved in minutes whether you are looking for a fixed rate loan, an adjustable rate mortgage, an interest only loan, or even if you aren't sure what mortgage program would make the most sense for you. Just give us a call at 800-316-9508, request a quote using the short form on this webpage, or get started simply and easily online.

Additional Resources For First Time Home Buyers: