Buying a house can be an incredibly exciting experience, one that can send people running around all over the place trying to figure out just how exactly to find the residence of their dreams. However, just because a house is a big investment does not mean that it is impossible to understand just what you need in order to make the best choice possible for yourself and for others.
If you are going to put a large amount of money down on a property, then you might as well make absolutely sure that you are going to get the one that will serve your needs perfectly, not just in the current period of time, but for many more years far into the future.
In this post, we will discuss a very important question that you can ask yourself in order to determine whether you are making the best decision possible, or if you might be setting yourself up for financial failure down the line.
Ask Yourself This Incredibly Simple Question: Can You Really Afford The Home That You Want To Get?
This might sound like a question that should not need asking, but unfortunately, a lot of people fall into the trap of buying a home simply because they were falling in love with it so much that they could not imagine not living there at all anymore.
Even if a certain piece of property seems like the one and only choice you should go for, you must also consider your financial stability. Will you be able to pay off your home loan without sacrificing anything from your current quality of life? Will you be able to still put away a good amount of savings while paying off your expensive home? How many years will you have to take in order to finally pay off the entire mortgage?
If you enjoy the simple things such as going out for a movie with a delicious tub of buttered popcorn in tow, or love to savor a delicious plate of fancy dinner at a very high-scale restaurant, then these may be things that you will have to sacrifice in order to consistently make your payments on time.
Logic Vs. Emotion
As much as advertising companies want you to seal the deal on a house super quickly, you have to make sure you go through each and every step of the process with a level and logical head. According to an article written by Anthony Iannarino, for the website called Iannarino, a lot of people make their buying decisions based on their emotions rather than on the facts and statistics.
That is why many companies try so hard to build close relationships with your audiences. While this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing, it could wreck havoc on your bank account if you allow them to sweep you off your feet without considering how it could damage your way of life.
When you browse around for a house, apartment, or condo for sale on a properties listing site, you have to make sure that you set the parameters in such a way so as to guarantee that you are only looking at options that are actually within your budget. As much as you want to own the residence you have always wanted to get, be as realistic as you possibly can about your financial situation.
There is no use in getting a beautiful place to live in only to be living with mountains of debt haunting you for decades after you signed the contract.
This Doesn’t Just Apply to Houses
The same thing applies to buying other big life purchases that many people tend to make in life, such as buying cars.
Take this article written by Financial Samurai on the website called Get Rich Slowly; In it, the author talks about his experience of jumping on an absolute deal for an old car (almost twenty years old!) that he had been wanting to get for most of his life.
He did not care that it was old and would probably experience a ton of problems down the line. All that he knew was that he got the car of his dreams for a price that he deemed to be a steal, and let his emotions get the better of him. Well, it did not take long for him to finally start feeling the negative effects of his decision that was based on emotions. The car began to break down, and soon the costs for repairs started to cost way more than what he had initially paid for the car.
The same can be said for a home purchase. Do you really want to go through the same nightmare with your property? Do not let your heart get ahead of you when buying a property. You might just end up with headache after headache, all because you settled for a property instead of really taking the time to cross out anything that does not fit all of your meticulously chosen criteria.
Use Your Heart and Mind to Make the Best Decision
As you can see from this article, you will need to ask yourself a lot of questions in order to determine whether you have found the perfect home or not. But fear not, as there are plenty of properties out there ready for your choosing.
All you have to do is to make sure that you have examined all of your personal criteria for the perfect house with a lot of critical thinking and scrutiny. Do your research, and do not settle for the first site with information that you see. Really dig deep into the details that you need, and cross-check your references to make sure that you are not being duped into making a decision that you will heavily regret later on.
As long as you always think twice about any decision and consider any and all option from every possible angle, then you should be able to make your choice confidently and without any regrets down the line.