He is moving to Chicago and plans to stay here for a long time. Your spouse and kids are thrilled at the prospect, but you’re concerned about the cost of homes for sale, having been warned by many about the huge costs involved in selling or even renting homes in IL. How do you find your dream home here? Here are 5 tips that can help guide you towards your goal:
1. Decide on a budget: Start with what you can do. Decide on a budget. Don’t do it for the maximum you can afford; rather settle for a sum that you feel super comfortable with. Take a few notches down and give that number to your real estate agent. Most people make the mistake of giving the agent the most they can afford which would then add stress to their minds and the budget for the real estate agent would take that amount as the base (minimum) amount for their search. This means that you will invariably get a house that costs more than your maximum budget.
2. Have your home independently inspected: No matter how well-certified the home your real estate agent shows you, you insist on getting your own inspection done. It’s not that your real estate inspector is less qualified than the independent one; however, due to differing interests, inspectors would award different grades. In the case of the real estate agent, the inspection would be about soundness, health and safety risks; for you it would be the possibility of needing large investments in the near future.
3. Research the neighborhood: You’re not just buying a house. You will also live and interact with people who live in the neighborhood. Learn about them and see if their lifestyles match the one you lead. It would be a disaster if you bought the house and then found out that you don’t really fit in with the people in your neighborhood. Therefore, it is very important that you have a good idea of what neighborhood you are moving into.
4. Proximity to facilities – How far is your house from your children’s school, park, hospital, your workplace, a good restaurant, supermarket, etc. This is another component that you should check. If the house is too far from daily destinations, you’ll end up paying more for gas, not to mention wasted time and effort, than rent. You’re better off finding a home close by and paying a little more than settling in a lower-cost home that’s miles away from everywhere you’d need daily access.
5. Kitchen and Bathroom – Take a careful look at these two rooms and make sure they are exactly what you wanted. For most, a small stuffy kitchen would bring on depression. For others, bathrooms that are too small would be annoying. Be sure to review not one, but all of them before you decide to buy the house.
