As you know, the market is crazy that is why you have to be decisive about what you really want in a home. Buying a home is a huge life-altering decision that's going to change and shape your future and you got to do it the right way without feeling pressured. 

 

How do you buy a home with ease and confidence without feeling like you’re being scammed?

  1. Get a solid understanding of what you really want.
    You need to understand what you want, where you want it, and when you want to get home. Having clarity of your homebuying needs helps you narrow down your choices and focus on these needs. 

  2. Select your team.

Buying a home with confidence also starts with the people that you're working with. Make sure you're working with a really good real estate agent. Aside from that, you will need a good lender and a home inspector as well. You need to be well-equipped with a good, knowledgeable team around you that's going to help you figure this whole thing out. The last thing you want to do is be out there trying to buy a home and you don't have a good squad around you and you're not even sure what you want. So make sure you have a good understanding of where you want to be when you want to buy a home.

  1. Increase your knowledge. 

This is connected again to my second point about selecting a good team, which is really important. Aside from that, you need to really have a good understanding of the home buying process. So if you're about to buy a house in the next six months, start looking for houses now. Do your research and make sure you understand the home buying process. You need to be knowledgeable about the option period when you can get into and out of the contract and you understand what that's all going to entail. the last thing you want to do is try to go through this whole process, not understanding each step, and try to learn on the fly when you have to make split-second decisions. Your team is going to really help you with that. A good Real Estate Agent is going to educate you on the home buying process and ensure you understand how the comps are working in your area. A good realtor makes you well-informed about the market value for the home versus the appraisal value. Your good home inspector is going to educate you on the fact whether you are buying a home that has problems or not. A word of the wise, if you feel like you're getting pushed impression by your agent, you need to bounce. Go get somebody else.

  1. Understand your equity position.
    You need to make sure that you're buying a good investment. The home is just not about living, it's a good investment. Ask yourself this question, are you buying a good investment? Are you purchasing your equity right now? And how long will it take for you to get that back? A lot of people are buying that equity. So understand that it's not like it's not uncommon because the house is worth X and you paid Y and you're paying Y because you're trying to win. The truth is, home values here in DFW are not coming down. For those who are waiting on the bubble to pop, you're gonna be waiting a very very long time. And guess what? You might not be able to buy the house by that time. 

  2. Listen to your home inspection.

Make sure you're buying a healthy home. I understand it's a limited amount of homes out there but that doesn't mean you have to buy a piece of junk. Because once you sign on the dotted line, It is your home. So make sure you do your research and get an understanding of how a home is looking before you just say oh, this is the one. And that home has foundation problems or whatever else. Your agent can help you with that understanding as well, but make sure you definitely listen to your home inspector. If he's saying the big five is messed up: Roofing, Plumbing, Electrical, AC, and Foundation, you're buying a problem. If not, you're probably buying a pretty healthy home. But you need to have that conversation with your home inspection. There's no such thing as a perfect home even it's a brand new construction home. Houses have problems and it's part of homeownership. You need to understand that and be ready to take care of it. But don't buy a $50,000 problem. 

  1. The cost of waiting

You need to understand the cost of waiting and the cost of renting. Two different things for the people out there saying we're waiting for the market to pop, it's all going to fall apart. You need to understand your market. You need to understand your area here in DFW. We have jobs, good lord and it is not about to slow down as long as people keep coming here for jobs, guess what? Home values don't keep going up. If your pay increase is 2-3% every year and here in DFW, we've been seeing a 6% increase every year and then the last year. we saw a  13 increase in home values pretty soon. You can't buy the house that you want. It's not affordable so what do you do? You buy the house that you can afford, that you're comfortable with. Right now you let that house sit, you earn some equity on their house, you turn around and you sell it two or three years from now. And you make a lot of money on it to get the house you don't have to get the house on your first home. I see so many people who are trying to do that. They're trying to get the house. So make sure you understand all of these things when you are looking at buying a house.

 

You can be decisive right now without feeling pressured. But you do need to be knowledgeable, and educated. You need to have a good squad around you, and you need to listen to the people who are educating you in the home buying process so you can truly understand what you're buying.