If you are the type of person who doesn’t mind soiling his shirt in locating and fixing whatever’s wrong with your car, going under the hood, if necessary without mind to how ever greasy it may be, then you are the type who would enjoy going on a home buying spree.
The first step would be for you to look at your bank account balance — do you have enough to pay for a new home up front? If your answer is yes, you have saved up enough for it, then there should be no problem, go home buying already. Don’t fret if you don’t have enough money for an up-front full payment; this should not stop you from proceeding with your home buying spree because there are other options open to you.
It’s possible that you have saved up just enough for a down payment, and are planning to amortize the balance on a mortgage loan. A real estate broker could facilitate the paperwork for you or, if you are the nitty-gritty type of guy, you may go directly to the bank for this. If you’d surf the Internet, there are calculators online that can assist you in computing your capacity to pay and to define your limitations.
Take note, though, that the options of borrowing from a bank or from other lending institutions are not the only options open to you — you may also go directly to the owner of the house of your choice and request for owner financing, for a more considerate schedule of payment for a longer period of time in exchange for an interest rate that could be higher than the rate imposed by the banks.
These are just a few of your options. Now, once you have determined your capacity to purchase a home of your own and your limitations are clear to you already, the next step would be to go around shopping for a home that you’d want to call your own, and you should work within your budget. You should not waste time looking at houses that are too big and way beyond your predefined capacity to pay, no, you don’t do this. Don’t think that just because you have a job now, it’d be alright to spend to your limits. You should leave enough room for contingencies, e.g., you or a member of your family might get sick and would need funds for hospitalization, or you lose your job or things like that. You should leave allowances for unforeseen eventualities like this.
Options are open and lenders are willing, especially at this time when real estate has slumped to a minimum. You are qualified to join in the fun of home buying, now that you have defined your limitations and your capacity to pay for your new home.