Most home buyers, and especially first time home buyers almost without fail. This frequently leads to stress, buyer’s remorse, and often decades of financial challenges too.
This simply comes down to home buyers focusing on the wrong things when searching for and evaluating homes to buy.
If you want this to be a personally and financially rewarding venture (which it should be as the biggest purchase and investment of your lifetime), then consider these alternative approaches to picking your home on Long Island.
- Pick The Cheapest/Worst Neighborhood
All too often first time home buyers (and move up buyers) dream of purchasing their perfect forever home in the trendiest neighborhood, that is in perfect, like new condition.
There are many downsides to that strategy. One big one is that the following couple of years will bring huge leaps in property taxes and housing costs that they did not budget for.
Most forget that there will be a different neighborhood which is fashionable next year, and which is being given a makeover.
Instead of buying at the peak, and watch your property value fall, how about buying low, and benefiting from massive appreciation in your home value as others invest millions in renovating the area?
- Look At The Second Best Location
Giant premiums are put on what appear to be the most prime property this year. That can be nearest the nightlife and restaurant scene, those with a front line water view, the highest floor with the best view, or nearest to the business and work hub of the moment.
Of course, between expansion, new buildings, and factors like rising sea levels and a constantly changing climate cycle, the second best option can prove the most valuable in the longer term. Homes two or three rows back may end up being the new waterfront properties on the beach. And are probably selling for a significant percentage less than the front line today.
- By Property Taxes
You can lose your property, and all the work and investment you’ve made in it faster due to failing to keep up with your property taxes than your mortgage payments.
Eventually, one day you may have paid off your mortgage, but will always have to pay annual property taxes. They are always going up.
Compare properties by property taxes. Lock in a low rate now.
- Don’t Buy Your Forever Home First
No matter how adamant first time home buyers are that they just want to buy their forever home as their first home, that rarely ever turns out that way. On average households in America move about every five years.
In fact, the housing market is more like a ‘housing ladder’. Buying your first property is about getting on the property ladder.
It’s about picking a property that will help you afford your real dream home, and learning all of the things that no one ever tells you about owning a home and the process of buying and selling a home.
You could start by purchasing a very affordable home that will go up in value, which you can use as a down payment on your dream home. Or you can rent out that home and use the monthly income to pay for a home you love more, including its property taxes. This may even be a home in a cheaper part of the state or another state.