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Are you in danger of making the same mistakes I made?
Key points
- When I bought my first house, I made some decisions that weren’t very smart.
- I didn’t think about whether the house would work for our family over the long run.
- I also made a small down payment which cost me money.
When I bought my first home, I wasn’t very skilled in financial matters and I was simply eager to purchase a property as soon as I could. I was excited about the house, but unfortunately I didn’t make the best decisions when it came to buying it.
In fact, I made three big mistakes that ended up costing me unnecessary money and stress. Here’s what they were.
1. Not thinking long term
When I purchased the property, it worked well for my lifestyle at the time. It provided a nice water view, it was close to a bunch of restaurants, and it was fairly close to the beach. Those features had me envisioning a fun lifestyle that would leave me feeling like I was on vacation all the time.
Because of that, I ignored the fact that the house was really too small for a growing family, or even for my current extended family to visit. I also didn’t think too much about the fact that the house was older and would soon need a new roof, a new air conditioner, and other costly repairs.
Since I didn’t think about the big picture and whether the home would work for me over the long term, I ended up needing to move within a pretty short time after purchasing the home. I got lucky and was able to sell for a bit of a profit, but I just as easily could have lost money due to the high transaction costs and the short period of ownership.
One of my biggest mistakes that I made was that I didn’t do my due diligence and get quotes from multiple mortgage lenders. In fact, I only ended up getting a single quote from the mortgage company my real estate agent had suggested working with.
Since I didn’t compare rates, I’m quite sure I most likely ended up with a higher cost loan than I probably would have been eligible for. This made my monthly payments more expensive and …….
Source: https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/mortgages/articles/3-big-mistakes-i-made-when-buying-my-first-house/
