Thursday, November 22, 2007

First Time Homebuyers in Minnesota

If someone is buying a Minnesota home for the 1st time it can be truly gratifying. It can also be very, very scary. There’s a ton of info to comprehend in a fairly fast time period. There are new terms and numbers to understand and you will have dozens questions!

From a psychological standpoint, whenever you’re studying new material you only remember about 20 percent of the 1st exposure to it, and although you asked a question once, you might need to ask it repeatedly before the information makes sense. Any good Minnesota Realtors will understand this and use it to bring all the technical terminology to a simpler level so that it can be perceived by your brain. It is not even a bad idea that you to take notes as you speak with them so you can look back & remember what was said.

As a 1st time home buyer as well, you will have access to all the 1st time home buyer financing that people who already own don’t have! What’s so special about this? Because now you can buy anywhere from between $30,000 to $35,000 MORE of a Minneapolis home same mortgage payment as other buyers. These programs are available basically because the U.S. government wants people to own Minnesota homes. They believe that you are a more trustworthy and reliable person in order to buy, and manage your own house, so they’ve made these benefits available to encourage anyone that is “on the fence” about their first buying experience and to make it a bit easier!

As for the new buyers the first initial inquiry is usually “where do I start?”. There are those who begin searching the MN MLS listings or in the local paper looking at what’s for sale and that’s a great way to see what’s in your desired location, but now when can you visit them? Well, that’s where I come in. If you want to make appointments to see the inside of a Minneapolis home for sale, a Minnesota real estate agent must set up the arrangements for you, get the lock-box codes & open the houses up for you. They are is accountable for you while you’re in that house as well. Once you begin looking at homes as well, consider consulting someone at a bank or other lending institution as well, to make sure you are shopping in a price range that you can qualify for (as well as afford). Some people are surprised when they qualify for more or less than they assumed and were looking at the wrong housing for their range, wasting their own precious time.

Be aware as well, that many Minnesota Realtors in the industry will attempt to get you to sign a contract immediately that says you will work with them and only them. You do not need to sign that. They are just trying to make sure they “lock you in”, but you can always try different real estate agents and use whoever you prefer. Or even question them to see who you like the most & who is going to serve your needs! At the end of the day, your Realtor will not get paid until you buy a house using them and even that is paid of the seller’s fees, not the buyer’s!