Although the purchase of a house is always determined by personal tastes and needs, there are a series of objective questions that we should ask, as it is a fairly significant investment of money at stake, and buying a home involves a medium or long term commitment.
At Lasose Properties & Investments we show you the 5 essential questions to ask before buying a home.
How much money do I have?
One of the key points before buying a home is to know how much budget we have, as this will determine many aspects. For one thing, we will have a clear idea of the range of money and the price range of the property we are looking for. For another, we should bear in mind that if we don’t have enough money to pay for the property upfront in cash, we will need to have some previous savings, seeing as the bank only finances up to 80% of the sale price or the appraised value of the property. Likewise, the costs of buying and selling a property are between 10% and 12% of the purchase price, which must then be added to the 20% that cannot be financed.
What is the state of the property?
It’s essential to look over all the characteristics of the property, as well as the state of the installations and the general overall condition. It is advisable to request information on any prior works or reforms that may have been carried out previously, in order to check over all the work done, to avoid problems once we’ve become owners of the property.
What’s the local neighbourhood like?
The best thing to do is to visit the area during different times of the day and on different days of the week in order to be able to check out the noise and activity in the neighbourhood.
Do you have all the documentation in order?
Within the documentation necessary to buy the property, we will have to check the energy certificate to ascertain the property’s energy consumption and take this into account for bills, as well as to make sure that there are no pending payments or charges on the property.
What are the costs of the property?
Once we know that the property does not have any outstanding payments, we need to find out what the expenses derived from the sale and purchase are, and what the relevant taxes are – which will depend on whether it is a new or second-hand property. We’ll also need to check what the annual tax bills are going to be, such as IBI or the community of owners’ fees, in order to find out what the maintenance costs of the property will be.
