Buying Your First New Home? Check This Out

The spring home buying season is in full bloom, and odds are, if you're reading this, you may be thinking it's time to finally start looking for your first new home. Buying a new home is an exciting milestone in life, especially if you are new to the process. But before you dive in, it’s important to get your finances organized and know what you can afford.

To help owners make a sound decision on their property purchase, we’ve compiled a list of pre-purchase things you should consider to ensure you have a smooth and rewarding buyer experience.

Set A Budget - This is likely the most important step you can do when buying a home – new or used. You want to know how much you can comfortably afford to spend in total and each month, BEFORE you apply for a mortgage. Create a realistic hypothetical monthly budget that considers all the costs of owning a new home including mortgage payments, utilities, insurance and an allocation for property taxes. It is also wise to consider a “maintenance fund” for unexpected expenses that will eventually occur, though you should not have much to worry about with a new home for a few years.

In calculating your mortgage payments and cash required to purchase you must also consider some extra costs associated with buying a home, such as legal fees, CMHC insurance if you are using a non-conventional mortgage and closing costs. Costs not associated with the home need to be considered in the budget as well: car payments, phone bills, the internet and cable bills, childcare costs, and the bare necessities like groceries, clothing, entertainment and lifestyle expenses like gym memberships and vacations. With prices of the essentials going up, not being able to budget for each cost is one of the biggest blunders someone can make when planning to purchase a new home.


Check Your Credit Reports Scores – This is another critical step when buying a home, and it's something you can do right away. Your credit score can make or break the chances of you getting a mortgage and certainly the rate you will pay to borrow money. You want your lender to like what they see when it comes time to review the score and if you have any outstanding negative issues it is good to have a rational and reasonable explanation for those items to smooth things over. There are also steps you can take in preparing for your loan application to improve or clean up any outstanding issues on your credit report. A credit score is calculated based on a number of factors, including your debt payment history, debt-to-credit utilization, and length of credit history.

Start Gathering Paperwork - start gathering your federal income tax records for the past couple of years, recent paycheck stubs, canceled checks for rent or utility bill payments and any other paperwork a mortgage lender might want to see, like credit card and student loan information.

Talk To A Mortgage Professional - Now, it’s time to talk to a mortgage professional. This preliminary talk is also called the “pre-approval” process—it enables you to determine roughly how much mortgage you can qualify for, based on the information you provide.



Start Shopping For A Home - Determine where you want to live. Laurel Green offers housing to suit your family’s size, budget, and lifestyle. Whether you’re starting out, have a growing family or looking to downsize you can choose from a wide selection of single family homes with attached garages, lane homes with detached garages and value rich duplex homes with front attached garages.

Browse through the selection of homes in our community to get an idea of what options are available to you.You will also find a great selection of professional quality builders. Each is a certified member of the CHBA-Edmonton Region, feature excellent customer service and warranty programs and stand behind the homes they craft.

Make The Best Deal Possible - This is one of the most important things you do when buying a new home. Once you have found a plan that fits your needs and budget see what promotional offers or special incentives your builder may be offering. This step is much different than buying a used home but of course, you have the right to negotiate the best deal and building terms possible before signing on the bottom line. Your builder wants to make sure they have satisfied customers, and they will be there to assist you every step of the way.

Come visit Laurel Green’s beautiful show homes for more information and check out the current builder promotions which could save you thousands of dollars.