One of the most important steps in home buying is knowing how much home you can afford. You will have to consider average Las Vegas home prices, median sales price in your area, median home prices, home down payment options, loan options, and other factors that influence a home purchase. There are so many factors that go into determining your overall home-buying budget. There’s no way for us to give you exact numbers here.
Instead, today, we are going to talk about the home-buying process and the different factors that ultimately affect your home loan budget, so you can prepare yourself and get a little bit of an educational foundation before you jump into the Las Vegas housing market to purchase your first home.
The Home-Buying Process
We would just like to briefly touch on the steps involved in purchasing a home. Before you can jump in the car and go look at fifty properties in your local Las Vegas housing market, and before you start planning your future parties and imagining all of those great renovation ideas you saw on HGTV, you have to take a step back and prepare.
Figure Out Your Priorities With Real Estate Professionals
Buying a home is one of the most expensive purchases we make throughout our entire lifetimes. It takes careful preparation and planning. Before you do anything, you need to sit down with your realtor and discuss what you’re looking for in a home. There are tons of questions that your realtor will ask you, and you can probably guess a lot of them, so we won’t list them here. They will also tell you things you need to know about the state of your local Southern Nevada housing market like median Las Vegas home prices, local housing supply, the current sales pace for sellers, and lots of other things Las Vegas realtors need to share with their buyers.
If you are ready for those conversations and you do want to get started on the home-buying process, contact a local, reputable realtor like the ones at local company Blue Diamond Realty. As far as Las Vegas real estate professionals go, Blue Diamond Realty’s agents rank among the best.
Figure Out Your Budget
Next, you need to find a lender and meet with them. Your realtor will give you contacts for this, so you don’t have to go out and find your own. Finding a lender is arguably the most important piece of the puzzle because they’re the people who determine your budget for buying. You can’t go shopping if you don’t know your credit limit, right? It’s the exact same thing with house shopping.
Shop Until You Drop in the Las Vegas Housing Market
Then, after you meet with a lender, you can start the fun part of looking at homes and, hopefully, falling in love with one that meets the criteria you laid out with your realtor and the budget you formatted with your lender. You can then make your offer, and assuming it’s accepted, open a whole new chapter of your life in your brand new home! Congrats!
Factors That Affect Your Loan Eligibility
Lenders look at a lot when you apply for a home loan. They basically take a cumulative look at your life and your overall financial situation to assess the level of risk your present for their company. That’s what loans are about for anything: risk.
As far as financials go, lenders look especially at your checking and savings accounts, employment history, current employment situation, credit history, and your plans for making the down payment on your loan. Believe it or not, it makes a difference whether the down payment comes from your personal accounts, from investment accounts, or if it’s being offered by a family member.
Shopping for Loans
Once your lender gets a handle on your liability to their company by looking at your life and finances, and cross-reference that with local housing market data like median home prices, local housing supply, median sales price, current sales pace, and the general state of the Las Vegas, NV, and Southern Nevada housing market, they’ll determine how much they can trust you to borrow. To secure a loan, you basically have to go shopping, as you’ll do with houses. Let us explain.
There are tons of loan products out there to choose from to finance your Las Vegas real estate purchase. Your lender will narrow down the options for you to a couple or a few, or maybe just one if that’s all you qualify for. There are different loan terms, meaning how many years they last, different interest rates, different down payment options, different incentives for first-time homebuyers, and more. If this sounds daunting, don’t worry! It’s your lender’s job to get you through the weeds and find the best loan product for you and your situation.
Once you get approved for a loan, you can go shopping for houses. And, every time you submit an offer, you can get a letter from your lender that states they are planning on funding your home purchase, which makes you look great to sellers!
Take Your Time
Although home buying is an exciting process, it’s crucial to take your time and prepare carefully. A home is the biggest purchase most people make in their entire lives, so you want to come out of this with a home you love that fits within your budget. Find a great realtor, take your time meeting with your lender, and then have fun shopping for your next home!
If you’re in need of reliable Las Vegas realtors, Blue Diamond Realty is your trusted local brokerage. They’ll guide you through the whole process from start to finish and get you the home you desire, no matter how much home you can afford. If you’re in Las Vegas Valley, North Las Vegas, NV, or the surrounding areas, contact them today for more information about your local housing market or to start the home-buying process, and to get connected with a lender who can give you your home-buying budget.
