Buying your first home has some similarity to buying your first car. Look, it doesn’t matter how good your intentions are. If you’ve never owned a home before, you’re likely to tear it up a little bit during your first ownership.
Consider the disposal. Did you know that putting fat down there is a great way to clog the pipes? But what if you like bacon? Oh, here’s a solution! Just pour the liquid grease down the disposal and flush it out with hot water! That’ll get it through your pipes, right? Wrong. It’ll gradually accumulate in your pipes over time until your sink is terribly clogged.
You may not even be able to get such a clog fixed yourself, and it could start leaking out elsewhere, forcing you to call a plumber. You’re likely going to have leaks in even the most sturdily built, expensive properties. Sometimes you may neglect to take care of the yard work as needed. And what if there’s a freeze and you haven’t flushed the sprinklers?
Then there are natural disasters which occur over time. Did you know sometimes pipes buried underground can burst for no real reason? Well, there’s a reason—maybe it got cold; maybe the pipes were old. The point is, there’s nothing you could have done to prevent it.
When this happens, you might get a flooded basement. Catching it in time could be key.
There are electrical issues, interior and exterior maintenance issues, security issues—the list goes on. So when you’re buying your first house, you need not look at it as your perpetually permanent residence. Take care of it as it will be, but for that first home outing, you might want to buy similarly to how you purchased your first car.
Of Cars and House
You didn’t get the nicest car or the most ideal one; you got one you could handle, and that you could sell when your time was through. Well, ideally. Many youngsters tear up that first car so bad it’s good for nothing afterwards—and you definitely don’t want to do that to your first home!
Your first house can be an exceptional asset. If you find the right realtor, you may even make money over time as you fix up the inside and upgrade certain features of the property. Adding a wall or knocking one out can add thousands of dollars to a home’s value; as can refurbishing a kitchen, or turning an attic into a room.
When it comes to St. Louis homes and first time home buyers, it’s important to source a realtor who has at least a decade’s experience in the market, like Irene Hasegawa of SoldByIrene.com, a realtor who: “…has been in real estate development and renovation since 1998.” The locality of this realtor is also a key element of your home choice.
A native who is in the business of realty understands many neighbourhoods and those most conducive for a given house hunter. Sometimes you’re hunting for a family home, sometimes you’re hunting for a bachelor pad or a Summer getaway cottage. Find the right local realtor, you can get an ideal property in the neighbourhood you want, and at appreciable rates.
Whether you’re buying for the first time, or looking to get into the realty game, there are definitely options in St. Louis right now. As a matter of fact, home values have gone up 10% recently, and they look to be expanding even further. Get a good local realtor, and you can get a real bargain.
