Buying your first house is very exciting. If this is your first house, then you will often hear the term "first time buyer". You may hear this term over and over again. Do not let it offend you, rather think of it as a blessing that you do not have another mortgage that is hampering your purchases.
No matter where you are looking to buy a house whether in Ireland or New Zealand, or maybe it is a vacation home in Ireland; there are a few things you are going to want to look into before you sign up for a 30 year mortgage. Nobody likes the word budget, but it is important when you start looking at houses. You are going to want to find a budget calculator and a mortgage calculator. You will use these to help estimate what percentage of your income could be dedicated to mortgage payments and an idea of what price range of houses you should be looking at. As a first time buyer it might not hurt to go and speak to a personal banker to help you find and navigate the mortgage calculator and budget calculator options. There are many different sites that offer either one or both.
A Mortgage Calculator is going to give you a snapshot of what your payments may look like. This is helpful because as a first time home buyer you may not have a complete understanding how the amortization table breaks down what the payment are in regards to what is principal and what is interest. When getting ready to sit down and work with this type of calculator make sure that you have some basic information available.
Knowing the price ranges for the houses you are considering. You may want to do two of these calculations, first a house that would be on the low side, followed by a house that would be on the higher end of the spectrum to be able to give you a more accurate understanding of what your payments may be. Doing two of these calculations will give you a parameter to narrow down your selections. Once you have completed that a good mortgage calculator is going to ask you for your credit rating, loan amount, interest rate, and loan term. You may also be asked a few other details so having all your information in front of you may be helpful. Once you calculate your payments you should see a breakdown of the repayment schedule. Having this information before you start your search is a great way to get a house that is going to fit your budget.
Another calculator that is going to be helpful when looking for a house is the budget calculator. The two calculators tend to work hand in hand, however; this calculator looks at all of your other expenses too. You are going to need to know a lot of information for this procedure. Keep in mind that a little extra work now is going to make the process go smoother once you are looking to finance the house. You want to use this calculator to make sure that you are going to be able to buy the house, but also to afford furniture to put in the house. You want to make sure that your debt to income ratio is below 36. Being a first time buyer you may not understand how all these numbers will jive, but you will quickly notice that these are numbers that are going to come up within 5 minutes of speaking with a real estate agent.
The house market is hot in Ireland. It is a crucial time to be able to get that dream house that you have been waiting for. Don’t let someone else get it.
