How to think like a homebuyer
Know your number, inspect everything, walk if you must.
Buying a home is the largest decision most people make with the least training. These are the same CEO words, written so you walk in prepared instead of hopeful.
The six laws, in this form
The payment, not the price, is the real number.
Add taxes, insurance, HOA, utilities and repairs. Compare that total against your take-home pay.
Read every page you sign, out loud if needed.
Disclosures, inspection report, loan estimate, HOA rules. Ask about any line you cannot explain.
Inspect with your own inspector.
Roof, foundation, water, electrical, permits. Attend the inspection and ask what it will cost to fix.
Slow decisions, fast paperwork.
Never decide under pressure, but return documents the day they are requested.
Say your real limit out loud.
Tell your agent and lender the true maximum and the reason. Protection needs the number.
Be willing to lose the house.
Write your walk-away conditions before you tour. Reread them before you sign.
Daily moves
- ◦ Get fully underwritten, not just prequalified, before you shop.
- ◦ Keep a reserve after closing — a house always asks for money in year one.
- ◦ Tour the street at night and on a weekday morning.
- ◦ Compare loan estimates side by side on the same day.
Bring it to the coach
Ask the QUUNIX coach with your real situation. It answers from this material and names the law it is using.
- > Work out my true monthly cost for this home.
- > What should I ask at the inspection?
- > Write my walk-away conditions before I tour.