The Top 3 Things to Do Before Moving into Your New Home

Before you move into your new home, you should make sure a few things are taken care of within it. Here are our tips.

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Today’s topic is the top three things to do before you move into your house. Without further ado, let’s get to it:

1. Cleaning and improvements. If you want to change the flooring or paint the walls, it’s much easier to do before you move all of your furniture in. The same goes for a final, deep clean.

2. Get a new mail key and update your address at the post office. This way, once you start moving in, you can get your mail right away.

3. Call cable, internet, and utility companies. Just in case they need to run anything through the walls before you move in.

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Making any improvements before you move in is a smart idea.

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If you have any questions or want any more tips on what to do before you move in, don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you.

How Do You Determine How Much Home You Can Buy?

If you want to accurately determine how much home you can afford to buy, there are two professionals you must speak with.

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Buyers ask me all the time, “How do we determine how much we can afford for the new house we’re looking at?”

First, speak to a lender before you start shopping for a home. They can give you accurate information regarding your debt-to-income ratio and your FICO score, which are the two key ingredients to knowing what you can afford.

On the real estate side, speak to a real estate professional. They will be able to provide you with accurate information that will affect your monthly payment. This information includes what your property taxes will be, what your HOA payments will look like, and how these factors will affect your debt-to-income ratio.
 

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Getting a professional opinion
on both the real estate and lending sides is your best bet.

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You can research some of these things on your own, but getting a professional opinion will best determine how much you can truly afford for the home you intend to purchase.

If you have any questions about this topic, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We’d be happy to help you.

Can You Buy a House Without a Down Payment?

With the El Paso County Bond Money Program, you can get a grant that you don't have to pay back.

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If you don't have money for a down payment, can you still buy a house?

Absolutely.

In fact, there are a lot of down payment assistance programs out there right now that are great for homebuyers. I think the best one right now is the El Paso County Bond Money Program, which is a turnkey program that allows you to buy a house with zero money down. Using an FHA loan, El Paso County will grant you that money for your down payment.

Since it's a grant, you don't have to pay it back and there's no interest. Of course, there are qualifications for this program, but it's the program that I would recommend the most.

There are a couple other great options like C.H.A.C. and C.H.A.F.A.

C.H.A.C. (Colorado Housing Assistance Corporation) and C.H.A.F.A. (Colorado Housing Finance Authority) both allow you to get into a home with no money down. You might need $1,000 in earnest money to put down on a house, but in most cases, you'll be able to get that back at closing.

 

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With the El Paso County Bond Money Money Program, you can get a grant that you don't have to pay back.

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Basically, you can have no savings and buy a house. How great is that?

If you have any other questions about buying a home, don't hesitate to give us a call or send us an email soon. We're here to help.