July 23, 2021

Are you in the market to buy a home? San Diego Realtor Jeremy McHone gives you three common mistakes he sees home buyers make when buying a home.

3 Mistakes to Avoid as a Home Buyer

What are the three mistakes to avoid when buying a home? I'm Jeremy McHone with the Whissel Realty Group, and I want to talk to you about the three top mistakes I see home buyers make when it comes to buying a home.

Factor in the Commute

The first mistake I see people make when they're buying a home is they don't take commute into account. Now, when you're not doing it every day, that 45 minute to an hour drive each way might sound okay, but are you really going to be okay with doing that for the foreseeable future? 'Cause that one hour each way every day, well, that's two hours per day, that's 10 hours per week.

At the end of the month, that's an extra 40 hour workweek that you just spent in your car driving to and from work. You may want to take that into account and do that drive a couple of times before you decide to buy a home. That's a long commute, even if that home's a really good deal.

Stuck Trying to Find a Deal and Not a Home

The second mistake I see people make when buying a home is they just buy a home because it's a good deal. They, maybe they don't love it, maybe it's got some things that they don't love, but it's such a good deal that they think they can't pass it up.

The problem is, when you're buying a home, you're buying a lifestyle, and if that lifestyle you're buying into isn't congruent with the lifestyle you want to live, odds are you're going to get tired of it really quickly, and even though it may have been a great deal when you bought it and you may make some money when you sell it, it's not worth it if you're not going to be happy when you live there.

For example, if you've had multiple knee surgeries, maybe getting that three-story townhome's not the way to go, even if you can get it for a way better price than you can get that same size single family home, Maybe buy something smaller that's one story where you're not going to have to walk up stairs every day.

Not Meeting with a Lender

The third mistake I see home buyers make when it comes to buying a home is putting a cart before the horse. What do I mean by that? I mean they're either looking online or they're going in person looking at houses, or even worse, they're trying to place offers and they haven't even met with a lender yet. Unless you're paying cash for your home, the first thing you need to do is you need to talk to a lender and you need to get pre-approved.

What this will do is this will allow you to establish a budget. One, you know that you can actually afford the house that you're looking at, and so you know you're looking at houses in the right price range, 'cause you might be able to afford even more, and two, so that you know that you're going to be comfortable with the payment for that house.

Because if you're like most people, it's not just the sticker price that you're concerned about, it's how much you're going to be spending each month to live there, and by meeting with the lender upfront, you can establish that budget and make sure that that's a payment you're comfortable with. The last thing you want to do is get really excited about a house and then either not be able to qualify for it, or go to place that offer, and in the time it takes you to get that pre-approval ready to submit with the offer, somebody else swoops in and buys it out from under you. That's why the first thing you need to do before you buy a home is meet with a lender.

I'm Jeremy McHone with the Whissel Realty Group. These are the top three mistakes I see home buyers make. If you have questions about the home buying process or you just want to chat about this, drop a comment below, send me a DM, or give me a call or text at 619-971-0791, thank you.

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