Top 5 Tips for Home Buyers in 2023 | Home Buying Tips

Are you planning on purchasing a home in 2023? Have you been on the hunt but haven't been able to find the right property yet?

Our current real estate market is definitely unique, but with the right real estate team and these five tips, I'm confident you will be able to get the home you have been after.

1. Get Preapproved by a Lender

This one goes without saying, but you must get pre-approved by a lender. You need to bite the bullet, sit down with a lender, and review all of your financial information so they can get you a pre-approval letter and you’ll have an estimated monthly payment to digest.

Aside from ensuring you can get the loan you want, listing agents will ask for your pre-approval letter when reviewing any offers you make on a home. They won’t just take your agent’s word for it.

2. Research the Neighborhood

I cannot stress this enough; your search should not start with bedrooms and bathrooms or finishings - it should start with the neighborhood. When my clients are looking for a home, we go out and identify which neighborhoods suit their lifestyle.

To help in your home search, think about these questions. How is this home going to help me create the lifestyle that I want? What do I want access to? How about the schools? Do I want to walk to the beach or do I prefer a view?

This will help narrow down potential neighborhoods and it makes finding the right home much easier. Remember, no house is perfect, but if it's in the neighborhood that offers you that lifestyle you dream of, it'll be much easier to know which sacrifices you should make.

3. Don’t Skimp on the Inspections

There are a handful of key inspections to consider: a general home inspection, termite, roof, sewer, pool, mold, and geological. When you get a house into escrow your due diligence period is for you to get comfortable with the home, and figure out its history and current condition as best as you possibly can.

You can expect to spend some money on these inspections, but it is worth every penny. If you find something that would significantly change the value of the home, you might find yourself walking away from the deal and getting your deposit back or you may renegotiate with the seller.

4. Don’t Rush the Home-Buying Process

If you are well-calculated and researched, the home-buying process will happen quickly. But I have seen situations where buyers purchase a house after having done very little research and after a year or two they are ready to sell because the home's location doesn't suit their lifestyle. That’s good for realtors, but it's not good for homeowners because the more often that you sell, the more you pay in real estate fees and it eats into your equity.

5. Work with a Local and Experienced Real Estate Agent

To help cover all your bases on everything we have talked about, work with a local real estate agent. It is simple nowadays to figure out if an agent is local and if they're experienced by looking at their Google reviews.

I hope you found these home-buying tips helpful. As always, if you have any questions, you can shoot me a text message at (949) 620-6206. I look forward to hearing from you!