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Home Some Essential Secrets to Home buying

Some Essential Secrets to Home buying

Excerts take from "10 Secrets of Off-Season Home Buying"

By LUKE MULLINS , from US News and World Report

The original article had 10 points, but below are the 5 that I love. Wish all buyers would consider these few tips before taking the plunge~!

1. Make sure you are secure in your job

The house-hunting climate may be favorable, but buyers need to be confident in their income stream before jumping into the real estate market. "If you are unsure about your [employment] outlook, there is nothing wrong with renting," says Mike Larson of Weiss Research.

2. Spit-shine your credit

House hunters should consider getting preapproved by a lender before starting their search. "The idea is to try to work your way through the financing issues before you actually are ready to put an offer down," says Guy Cecala, the publisher of Inside Mortgage Finance.

3. Get wired

Joshua Dorkin, founder and CEO of BiggerPockets.com, a real-estate networking and information site, encourages home buyers to find a good real estate blog that covers the area that interests them. "You will get a nice localized perspective as to what's going on in the neighborhood," Dorkin says.

4. Do your homework

For a ground-level understanding of the community you're considering, get out and stretch your legs. "Drive around the neighborhood, go up and down [and] look at all the houses," Dorkin says. "Are people taking care of their properties? Is every house on the block for sale or for rent?"

Posted Monday Aug 30