Friday, June 10, 2011

Home Buying Tips - Computing The Reservation Amount

One of the most essential components of home buying process includes making the perfect offer for your house. Minnesota real estate experts encourage all home buyers to take enough time to research price ranges in the area and make their own reservation amount, or the maximum price they are able to pay for the house. The reservation amount helps you to bid more effectively and stay within your budget, making it easier to negotiate with your seller or seller's broker in terms of making a deal.

Barron's 'Smart Consumer Guide to Home Buying' states that it is normal for home buyers to cut the price of their offering price to create some room for negotiation when making the deal; there's no rule on how much the discount needs to be, but it depends mainly on economy conditions and how much you actually want the property.

Below is a basic process for determining the reservation price in order to get the right price for your very own dream house:

1. Write down the amount you can afford to pay every month. This is often near to what you are paying now, or what you're conveniently willing to spend monthly on homes costs.

2. Compute your tax and insurance rates. Barron's 'Smart Consumer Guide to Home Buying' provides the following tips for computing the tax and insurance costs. Make use of a factor of .68 for locations with higher taxes and insurance rates; .85 if the tax and insurance rate is comparatively cheap; or apply the standard .75 for a rough estimation. Multiplying this rate by the amount in Step 1 will give you your reasonable loan P&I payment.

3. Calculate your typical loan term and interest fee. Jot down the mortgage term in years and the interest fee. You will need to find the right payment from the loan payment tables that are applicable to this mortgage loan term and to the interest fee.

4. Calculate your exact mortgage loan amount. This may also be seen from the loan payment tables; you may also get this from a mortgage lender.

5. Include your money available for your advance payment. This will provide you with an overall sum of the amount you can manage to pay for the house.

Right after finishing the calculation from Step 5, you can compare it to Step 1 and see what the difference is. This will your negotiating range that you can use when creating a deal. If the amount from Step 1 is higher than Step 5, you may be able to secure a deal by bidding a higher price than the vendor is offering. If the sum from Step 1 is lesser than Step 5, you'll need to focus on reducing the final price to a more affordable range.

Calculating the reservation price is an important part of the home buying process and can help you to negotiate the most effective deal for your case and get the home you want. Think about using these calculations for every house you're considering so you have the certainty to overbid or negotiate for a low price with the budget you have.