Top 3 Tips for Buying a New Home

This post is sponsored by UpNest. As always, the content and opinions expressed here are 100% my own.

Last summer we made the move from South Florida to the Orlando / Central Florida area when my husband was transferred for his job. (You can read our whole moving story here) We had just moved into our dream home only a few months earlier, and were faced with the task of reselling it, while also looking for a new home to move into.

Moving to a new area and trying to find a new home for your family isn’t always an easy task. In fact, it can be downright overwhelming! Even though I am a licensed Florida real estate sales agent, I was in a whole new location and had no clue where to start looking.

We know we wanted to make sure our new home would be in a safe area with great schools, but other than that we were nearly clueless as to where we wanted to buy. We were also faced with the decision of whether to buy a new construction home (there’s tons of new construction here in Central Florida) or a home that is already built.

If you follow me over on Instagram you may already know that we decided to build a new home. This decision came after a fairly exhaustive search for our new home. Throughout the home buying process there’s quite a few lessons that I learned! Here are some tips to make your home buying process as simple as possible:

Top 3 Tips for Buying a New Home

1. Have all of your important papers in order. Before you begin your house hunt for the perfect new abode, be sure you have your documents in order! This includes (but certainly not limited to): all recent bank statements, at least one month of recent pay stubs, your past 2-3 years W-2’s, past 2 years tax returns. Having all of these documents already in a safe place will ensure that the process of obtaining a mortgage loan will go much more smoothly.

2. Get pre-approved from a lender before you begin the search for your new home. This step will save you any headaches of finding a home you absolutely adore, but it’s outside of your budget. Be sure to know exactly how much house you can actually afford before you start looking!

3. Get a GREAT real estate agent to help you buy your home – I’ve recently found out about an amazing new website that I wish I would’ve known about before we began our house hunt a few months back. UpNest makes the process of buying or selling your home so much easier. With UpNest real estate agents compete to earn your business, so you can ensure that you’re receiving their highest level of service! UpNest is a FREE service with no obligation to use the agents that send you a quote.

Once you know your budget, have your pre-approval in hand, and have an agent ready to go, let the house hunting begin!

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