St Louis Real Estate

So, you're ready to move up in the world and buy that first home. Excellent! Equity in real estate is the largest source of wealth in the country and the simple truth of the matter is that you are going to have to live somewhere! ValueList Real Estate Services is here to help and to guide you on your path to owning your own home.

The St. Louis real estate market is a great place to buy your first home. Contrary to what some pundits say, real estate has traditionally been a great investment. The old adage that they aren't making any more land is very true and as mentioned above, you are going to have to live somewhere. If you live near St. Louis and want to buy your first home, then you are lucky. St. Louis real estate is generally considered to be one of the most affordable markets in the country. Compared to many other markets, St. Louis real estate is down right affordable. ValueList actually works with real estate investors in California who come to St. Louis in order to buy investment property because their home market has become so expensive!

So, how do you get started? The first step is to look yourself in the mirror and ask yourself if you are truly ready to make this step. With home ownership comes responsibility. You can lessen this responsibility by buying a condominium, but even with Condos, you are still responsible to make the payments and for interior maintenance.

Single-family homes require a bit more responsibility because you will also be responsible for the exterior maintenance of property, in addition to making your payments.

Some first time home buyers opt to start with a multi-family property. This option has it's advantages in that you have other people paying rent to you, which in turn can be utilized to help make the payments. It also comes with a host of drawbacks in that you have the additional responsibility of making sure that their units are maintained. Also, the ultimate responsibility for making the mortgage payment rests with you. Even if the tenant doesn't pay their rent in a timely fashion.

If this happens, you can also run into difficulty getting them out of the unit. Missouri Real Estate law generally favors the tenants, at least to the point that it's not the easiest thing in the world to get a deadbeat tenant out of your property.

After deciding that you are ready for the responsibility that owing your home brings with it, then your next question should be if you're economically stable enough to purchase. How secure is your employment? Do you have reserves in the event that something breaks? Are you ready to settle down for at least the next three to five years? If you can answer these questions in the affirmative, then you are ready to start the process of buying your first home.

The next step towards owning a home is to start saving your money. While there are mortgage programs where you can buy a home with zero down and even zero out of pocket, generally you're going to end up paying a premium in your interest rate. That's not to say that you have to wait until you have a bunch of money to put down, but remember that generally speaking the more that you put down the lower your interest rate will be and the easier it will be to purchase the home.

 There are also programs that you can utilize that will assist you with your down payment. Some of these programs are government based and come with income restrictions while others are operated by various organizations (some profit based and others non-profit based) and don't have income restrictions. It doesn't matter if you are buying a $50,000 condo or a $1,000,000 home, as long as you can jump through their hoops, you can utilize these programs. An outstanding website that I came across is called DownPaymentSolutions.com . They have a ton of information regarding the various programs available to assist buyers including a link to a list of organizations specific to Missouri.

will be happy to assist you! The lender will take a loan application on you and will request the following documentation: Last 2 years W2s (complete tax returns will be required if you are self-employed or on commission) Last 30 days worth of Paycheck Stubs Last 2 months worth of account statements (Savings, checking, 401K, IRAs etc.  some investment account are issued quarterly, so the lender will need your last quarterly statement) Any Previous Divorce Decrees And an application fee. (For a pre-approval you can expect to pay $50.00 for the credit report) Please be sure that the lender is pulling a 3 bureau tri-merged credit report with public records check. Be wary of free pre-approvals because generally they don't pull a full-blown Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, FHA/VA acceptable credit report.)

 Once you've met with the lender and the credit report has been issued, your loan officer will work with you to gather any additional documentation required to get you Pre-approved. Pre-approval letter in hand now is the time to pick a good real estate agent (again, your ValueList Associate will be happy to assist!). Selecting a Good Real Estate Agent can be difficult.   Elsewhere on this site you might have noticed the following statement, If you are too ill tempered, Ill mannered or Irresponsible to hold down a job anywhere else, you too can go to school for three weeks, take a test and call yourself a real estate professional! Unfortunately the above statement is true. That said, my personal opinion is that if you were to put all of the St. Louis real estate agents on a boat and send us all to sea and only half of us were to return, the market would be better served!

 Once your selected the agent that you are going to work with, buy a blank notebook to keep notes in. You will be amazed at how quickly the homes that you are viewing begin to run together. Was that house on Birchwood the one with the walkout basement or was it the one on Primrose?

Notebook in hand, you are now ready to start looking at property. The best advice that I can give you here is, He or she who cares least, always wins! That is, never fall in love with a home until you close on it! Don't be in a hurry.

That said; don't be afraid to make an offer either. If you come across a property that meets all of your needs and is priced right, chances are it wont last. Take a deep breath, have your agent run the comparables so that you are comfortable with what a good price for the property is and shoot them an offer. The worst that is going to happen is that they are going to reject your offer. If they do, reexamine the comparables, consult with your agent again and if you feel that your offer was reasonable, maybe bump it up a bit, but don't be afraid to walk from the transaction. There are more fish in the sea!

Once you've selected a home and have it under contract, your real estate agent and lender will help guide you through the rest of the process to get you through to closing. Its natural to be stressed out during this process, but keep things in perspective. While you don't buy a home every day, if you've made good selections with your agent and lender, they will help you overcome any obstacles that you encounter. In the event that you encounter an obstacle that cant be over come, then so be it. Remember my advice above, he or she who cares least always wins! If it wasn't meant to be, then it wasn't meant to be. If the obstacle was something about you or your finances, then go back to the drawing board and fix whatever was wrong. If the obstacle was something about the property, then let it go and go find another property! In my opinion, buying a home should be fun! I hope that you found this article informative and helpful. Your feedback is greatly appreciated. If you have any questions or I can be of service in any manner, please do not hesitate to give me a call or to drop me a line.

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