When buying a home, there are many things to think about. We saved up before we bought our house, but it still seemed like there were many things that we forgot about. Now that we are kind of in the process of buying our next house, we have a much better idea of how much money that we need to save. Being prepared when buying a house can never be a bad thing. It's always good to be prepared!
Down Payment
The down payment is most likely going to be your biggest cost when it comes to buying a home. We didn't put a 20% down payment when we bought our current house, and we now have to pay Private Mortgage Insurance (“PMI”). This is something that we really regret. We would change this, but now that we know that we want to sell our current house, it just isn't worth it in our minds to put extra money towards a house that we want to sell. For our next house, we would like to put down around 25% or 30%.
Moving Costs
When we've moved to our rental house and to the house that we bought (the one we currently live in), we moved everything ourselves. However, for the next house we think we might get some help and hire some of the removals out. Not having to deal with all of the hassle will be a lifesaver! Especially since we will both be busy with work and planning our wedding.
Closing Costs
Closing costs are something that we did not think about at all when we bought our first house. Luckily, the seller paid for all of the closing costs and it saved us around $4,000. That was a lifesaver!
Furniture
When you buy a new home, I'm going to guess that you probably bought a place with more space. A place with more space might require more furniture, and you might just want new furniture anyways so that you can make your new place look awesome 🙂 Furniture can of course be very expensive, especially when you are furnishing whole rooms. And when you add in a home decorator, the costs of buying a new house can possibly go through the roof.
Monthly Payments
When factoring in your monthly payments, are you thinking about everything? Be sure to include the actual monthly mortgage payment, monthly property taxes (unless you pay it in full once a year), and home insurance. That can add at least a couple hundred dollars extra to your monthly payment, and possible even an extra $1,000 or more since in some areas houses might have very high insurance costs and property taxes.
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