Are you ready to buy a home?

Potential homebuyers are often stuck deciding when it would be best time to buy a house. However, the answer to the question relies largely on the buyers themselves and not on a calendar.

Before visualising how you want your front porch to be or how elaborate you want your interiors to become, you need to do these three things to help give you a clearer home-purchase strategy:

Know what you want in a home, location-wise

When planning to buy a house, it is crucial to know what you want and what you can afford. The best place to start is to determine where you want to live and know the housing costs in the area.

As a rule of thumb, high-demand areas like those near capital cities or business districts would entail higher housing costs.

Listings sites are an excellent resource for home-hunting, but you can also contact a local agent or broker to know more about a specific area. Which Mortgage has a tool that can connect you to some of the best real estate professionals across the major markets in Canada.

Determine how much you can afford

Along with pinpointing the location of the home and the related housing costs, it is also critical to gauge your finances. Are you in a healthy financial situation? Can you really afford a monthly mortgage payment given your current income?

Every homebuyer has a different financial situation — some are fortunate enough to have deeper pockets, while others have tighter budgets. By using the Mortgage Affordability Calculator, you can determine how much money you can borrow for your mortgage. This tool considers your annual income, any outstanding debts, and monthly living expenses when calculating a tailor-made mortgage amount for you.

Look for ideal home-loan deals

Now that you have a rough sketch of how much a home purchase would cost you, you can now determine whether you are indeed ready to break into the market.

To get started, you need to find a home loan that would best fit your financial health. Mortgage brokers can get you the best mortgage that fits your wants and needs. They can take a look at your personal situation and examine a wide range of loans offered by various companies to find the best product for you.

To reach out to an expert, try using the Mortgage Broker tool.

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