After looking at all available OC real estate properties, you find the dream home that fits your idea of luxury. You go through the motions of presenting an offer and going through negotiations – and the seller accepts your offer.
While it might seem that everything will be going smoothly up to closing time, the chances of making costly mistakes could still happen. At the very least, these could result in delays in the process. At most, these mistakes could hurt your chances of closing on your dream home.
Make sure you don’t commit these five common mistakes in your home-buying journey.
Splurging on Big-ticket Items for Your Home
You may be excited to get all the furniture and appliances you’d want to furnish your new home with. But doing so isn’t wise, especially if you buy these items on credit. That will put a dent in your credit score and your lender may see this as extra debt that will exceed your current debt-to-income ratio. You might be deemed unable to make the monthly payments on your home. Plus, buying furnishings at this stage is still premature as you’re not yet completely sure that the deal will push through.
Getting Financing for a Car
This is essentially the same as the first item on this list. Avoid making huge purchases in the period leading to your closing date. Purchasing furniture and a new car sends warning signals to underwriters and shows that you tend to take on more debt than you can reasonably afford.
Changing Jobs
Your lender pre-approved you based on your present job and salary. If you get a new job with a higher salary while in the middle of your home-buying period, you may still be able to hang on to your loan but the process will take longer and disrupt your timeline. And with every day of delay in the process, you incur more costs – especially if you’re also selling your present home and you need to transfer to your new one at the soonest.
Receiving a Large Amount of Money
If you’re lucky enough to have family members who will happily gift you with cash as congratulations for acquiring a new home, this is something that you have to report to your lender to let them know that the money is a gift and not an extra loan that you need to pay off.
Not Preparing the Necessary Documents Beforehand
Make sure everyone and everything are on track. You want all the documents and reports on hand well before the closing date just in case there’s something you need to go through or negotiate with the seller.
To summarize, you’ll want to make sure that your lines of credit and debt profile are clean because your finances will be monitored closely by your lender. You want to show that your finances are stable and that you’re capable of paying off your loan. Moreover, don’t forget to be responsible for all the other details related to the closing process. Having the home you want doesn’t stop at winning a bidding war. You’ll have to closely monitor how things are moving along so that in case something critical in your home-buying journey crops up, you’ll be on top of things immediately.
To ensure a mistake-free real estate transaction in the OC and the rest of SoCal, let me, Robyn Robinson, help you. I’ll handle your home-buying endeavor so that you can truly feel the luxury life that Orange County in California has to offer. Call me at 949.295.5676 or send me an email here.