If you are looking to a buy a home in the near future, stop and ask yourself a few critical questions.
First- where do you want to be? The old Realtor phrase ‘location, location, location!’ truly matters. Most people are willing to spend more money and compromise on the condition of a home in order to get the right location.
Once you’ve determined where you want to be, find out the costs of that area and decide if you are willing to pay that cost.
Utah is landlocked, especially Utah county, with a lake on one side and a mountain on the other, confining the areas where we can build. In areas like Texas, there are bulls-eye style freeways and enough space to expand continually in basically any direction, but in Utah county, we are rapidly running out of land. This makes homes near freeways and near city centers more expensive. All of these factors play into why a certain area will cost more or less to buy.
Once you’ve picked your location and your budget, you can decide on the condition you are willing to pay for. Obviously a home in better condition will cost more, whereas a home in worse condition will be below market value.
In real estate, you can get what you want in two of these three areas- location, price, and condition- but regardless of your price-point, it is almost impossible to get all three. Decide which of the three you can compromise on by going through this order of operations and you’ll be much better prepared emotionally for buying a home.
If you aren’t sure what you think you’ll be able to afford, feel free to shoot me a question about your specific scenario!
