Buying your first home will be the biggest decisions you’ll make in both your personal financial lives. In fact, it ranks as one of the hardest, most frightening, long-term commitments you’ll ever undertake. It can become especially daunting if you don’t educate yourself before putting pen to paper on a mortgage contract. But if you take the time to learn, you’ll be at a distinct advantage as you look for and finally move into your first home.
Do you have questions about buying a home and working it into you financial plan? Talk to a financial advisor about it today.
1. In a People House
Yes this is a Dr. Seuss book in a list about essential literature for first time homebuyers. It serves as a gentle reminder before you start the process to keep a sense of humor and perspective. Buying your first home doesn’t have to be a stress-filled experience. As the mouse explains to the bird, a house is full of people stuff and it’s your stuff that will make it a home.
2. Home Buying for Dummies
Just like all the books in the Dummies series, this one doesn’t assume you’re already intimately familiar with the material. These books, especially this one, are full of helpful information presented in an easy to digest format. It helps to keep this book handy after your closing because it features a handy section on selling your home. After all it’s your first home, not your last.
3. 100 Questions Every First Time Home Buyer Should Ask
I like question and answer books because they afford the ability to jump around and use them as sort of encyclopedia. Similar to using an encyclopedia when you were in school, they may not provide enough in depth enough to complete the whole project but they do offer enough to point you in the right direction.
4. The Amityville Horror
This fictional story based on some real-life facts is a cautionary tale about a family who couldn’t pass up a deal that was just too good serves as a reminder that all real estate that glitters is not gold.
5. 106 Common Mistakes Home Buyers Make and How to Avoid Them
Let’s be honest. The first time we do anything we make mistakes. Home buying is no different. This helpful volume will help you avoid 106 of them. It is based on the real-world experiences of buyer, realtors, builders and lenders.
6. NOLO’s Essential Guide to Buying Your First Home
This book is a like having real estate lawyer on call to answer your home buying questions. It’s a combination of straight facts and real-life stories about common traps and pitfalls and how to avoid them.
7. Home Buyer’s Checklist: Everything You Need to Know – But Forgot to Ask
The most common mistake first-, second- and third-time homebuyers make is assuming that the experts they have hired or are consulting are telling them everything they need to know. The reality is that it is the buyer’s responsibility to ask the right questions.
8. Home Buying by the Experts
This is an interesting compilation of helpful how-tos and “what the heck does that does that mean” plain English translations of real estate documents.
9. Buying a Home – The Missing Manual
This is a walk through guide of home buying process including tools to help you pick the house you want out of an abundance of choices and how to make an effective offer.
Bottom Line
Before you make any financial move, educating yourself is always a great decision. Buying a home is one of the more emblematic examples of this timeless advice. In fact, reading even one or two of the books above could give you advice that you never even knew you needed before you began searching for a home. After all, gathering as much information you can about one of the largest investments you’ll ever make couldn’t hurt at all.
Home Buying Tips
- Buying a home is a major financial venture. Mortgage payments may make up a large percentage of your monthly income, making it imperative to include it in your long-term financial plan. You’ll need to properly allocate money towards it, as well as your retirement, vacations and children’s educations. A financial advisor can help you build a robust financial plan. Finding a qualified financial advisor doesn’t have to be hard. SmartAsset’s free tool matches you with up to three financial advisors who serve your area, and you can interview your advisor matches at no cost to decide which one is right for you. If you’re ready to find an advisor who can help you achieve your financial goals, get started now.
- If you enjoy reading about personal finance topics, then you may have interest in some of the best investing books out there. Whether you’re new to investing or count yourself as a seasoned pro, there’s always something new to learn.
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