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by: DirectMortgage
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When you're thinking about buying a home, there are two keys activities in which you have to engage. One is finding a house you want to buy. The other is finding the money with which to purchase that home once you have found it.

We'll begin with deciding on a home. If you haven't decided yet which city to move to, there are useful tools on the Internet that can help you make a decision. By typing the keywords "city profile" or "neighborhood profile" into a search engine, you'll be able to find a site that can give you valuable information. For example, you'll be able to learn about a city's population, the percentage of that population that are Democrats or Republicans, teacher-to-student ratios, demographic make up, median age and income, unemployment rate, median home values, information about the climate, overview of the crime in the area, air and water quality, sales and income tax for the city, and even information about religion.

Besides knowing the city where you'd like to live, it's important to know how much you can afford to pay on a home. Although this is somewhat of a personal decision, there are important objective factors that play a role in how large a loan you might be able to obtain. These factors include your credit score, your income, and how much debt you have. Free mortgage calculators available on the Internet can help you get an idea of the maximum loan amount you might get, whether it's better to rent or buy, what your monthly payment might be (an important figure to know!) and how much you could save by making extra payments.

Now that you know the general area you want to move to and about how much you are willing to spend on a home purchase, you need to find houses that are in the price range you want. There are websites that allow you to type in a specific address and get an estimated value of the home. You could also type in a zip code or city and see an aerial map, move the map around, zoom in, and see an estimated value for each home on a street. If you see a house that you're curious about, you can then select it and see a photo of the house taken from the ground, as well as learn information about the home that could include the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, how many square feet it is, when the home was built, the size of the property, what type of roof it has (shake, asphalt, etc), and more.

Searching for a home this way could mean you fall in love with a home that isn't currently for sale. In such a case, you could always approach the owners and make an offer, or you could search first for homes that are for sale, and once you have found one, use a valuation tool to see if the sale price is in line with the estimated value and with the value of neighboring homes. There are multiple websites that will allow you to search for homes for sale. These can be used in conjunction with a real estate agent.

After finding the home you want to move into, you'll most likely need to obtain a mortgage loan. Choosing the right loan from the right lender is extremely important because of the huge amount of money you're dealing with. When evaluating lenders, consider how quickly they can close your loan, how many different types of loan programs they have, how competitive their rates are, and how convenient they are. For example, will you have to drive somewhere to sign the final documents, or will the lender send the notary to your home or office? Will you be able to upload supporting documents over the lender's secure system or will you have to spend money to mail the documents?

Taking advantage of the Internet will allow you to research cities, find homes for sale, learn home values, calculate how much you can afford, and find the best mortgage lender. May you have much success in your move!

About the Author

Learn more about mortgages at Direct Mortgage's Mortgage Help webpage.

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