When you begin searching for your first home in Minnesota, there are 3 things that will go into your search criteria.
1) Location – most important because it’s something you can’t change about the house.
2) Price – there will be limitations on what you can afford based on your income and credit.
3) Style and Features – this is the type of house you’re looking for and what’s in the house itself.
While working with dozens of first time home buyers over the past several years I have noticed that one or more of these factors change throughout the course of our home search together. The reason for this search modification is because most new homebuyers will start looking for their first home in the best location, at their highest approved price, and with the most features possible.
Most of the time these buyers aren’t able to find their perfect home for the price they can afford, and that’s usually the one part of the equation they can’t change. There’s no magic way to make a house more affordable or put more money in your pockets (unless you’re using one of the numerous First Time Buyer Programs in MN). Since price flexibility isn’t realistic, we may have to change one or both of the other factors for them to find what they’re looking for.
Location is tricky–buying a home in a “bad neighborhood” usually means you can afford a really nice house with lots of upgrades and amenities. However you may not want to live in that location, and therefore no matter how nice the house is it may not be worth your money.
Style and Features can also be complicated–you may prefer a single-family home, but could be almost as happy in a townhouse or condo. You may want 3 bedrooms but for the next 5 years be fine with just 2. You may think having a deck outside is a necessity, but you could get by with just a little bit of backyard space. The fact is that there are so many possibilities for the style and features in your first home you may want to keep things as open-ended as possible while you’re looking. That way you can see a wide variety of houses and have options to choose from when you find a good house in a good neighborhood that you can afford.
The main thing to keep in mind is to not get discourage if you don’t find your dream home right away. Many buyers spend a couple months looking for their first house, and they all agree that the wait is worth it.
You’re better off waiting to find the right house than settling on a bad neighborhood or overpaying for a house with too many flaws.
I have to admit; I have some buyers remorse because I didn’t spend enough time researching the location of my house. There is nothing I can do about it now.
I’ve had the same experience with my clients. It makes sense to want the perfect house for as little money as possible and I try to help them get as close to that as I can, but buyers do get discouraged because it takes time and there are some disappointments when they don’t get everything they were looking for in a home. They just hang in there. Quite often, they find something special about a house that they’d never considered and get an accepted offer on that particular one. Like you said, once they find the right house, it will well worth waiting for.