Oklahoma City Real Estate Blog

If you’ve been trying to put together money to purchase your first Oklahoma City home, how do you know if you’re ready to jump into the market and start looking or not? Sometimes fear can hold us back from getting started on something that we are ready for. Here are a few things to consider when you have saved up most or all of your down payment for a first home.

Find out what the closing costs are

Talk to your Oklahoma City real estate agent to get a firm grasp of all the closing costs. They may be less or more than what you expected and having a good estimate written down on paper will give you a clearer view of what you’re in for. You may find that you have overestimated or underestimated these costs, which will have a bearing on the decision as to whether you are ready for your purchase or not.

Pre-qualify for a mortgage

Walk into your bank and let them know exactly how much money you have saved and find out if you qualify for a mortgage. If you do, you can ask for a pre-approval and then you can find out exactly how much home you can afford, according to the bank, and how much your monthly payments would be. This will give you some good solid information that you can use to decide whether you are fully prepared to purchase your first Oklahoma City home or whether you should put it off for a few more months.

Find out about utility costs

Again, you can question your Oklahoma City real estate agent about these costs. He’ll be able to give you a rough estimate of the costs you could expect to incur in a condo, home or townhouse. He can let you know, according to the square footage of the home, how much you could expect to pay for heat and electricity. Of course, this will only be a rough estimate.

Finally, take another look at your budget and see how much you feel you can afford, without taking into account how much the bank says you can afford. A good rule of thumb to go by is to never pay any more than 25% of your monthly income for your mortgage. Although the bank may say otherwise, you are the one that is going to have to reach deep down into your pockets to pay this payment every month and you’ll want to make sure that you can afford to take on this loan before signing any paperwork.

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As people arrive to look at your Oklahoma City home they are going to see the landscaping and outside of your home first. If there is a major problem with the paint job on the outside of your house, you need to get it fixed up pretty quickly so that you’ll have more chance of selling your home fast.

You may be wondering whether you should attempt an exterior painting job on your own or whether you should call in an Oklahoma City professional painter to do the job. There are two sides to this question since you are not going to be owning this home for very long, so you don’t want to spend an extraordinary amount of money on fixing it up. On the other hand, you don’t want to just slap on some paint quickly and then have the homeowners deal with a bad paint job in a year. Morally, this wouldn’t be the right thing to do.

These kinds of questions often come up when a seller visits an Oklahoma City real estate agent. An agent has dealt with all of these situations in the past and knows the best way to approach the problem.

In many cases an agent is hooked up with people that he knows can do an excellent job at a very affordable price. When you are considering putting your house on the market and talking to an agent, find out what he suggests about your exterior painting job and if he knows anyone that he trusts.

Exterior painting is a lot trickier than interior painting since it has to be able to withstand all sorts of weather conditions. Peeling and cracking can occur very quickly if a poor paint job is done. It is a better idea to take on interior painting yourself and leave the exterior paint jobs to an Oklahoma City professional painter.

There are also a lot of different painting jobs that need to get done on the outside of the house. The door may have to be painted, there is trim around the windows and perhaps wood or siding that needs to be done.

Talk to your Oklahoma City real estate agent before going ahead and doing any exterior painting. He will let you know exactly what needs to get done to make your house appear more attractive once it is put up for sale.