1. Renters don’t believe they can afford a home of their own. Many renters continue paying rent year after year. They live pay check to pay check with little or no savings with little hope of ever buying a home of their own. There is hope! There are many first time buyer programs available to help with closing costs and down payment. Programs like the Texas State Affordable Housing Corporation offer 3-5% grants for down payment assistance. Loans such as VA and USDA allow the borrower to rolling all of their closing costs and come with a no down payment requirement.
2. Bad credit keeps rents from owning a home. Credit issues plague many renters and so they keep renting. What they may not know is there are ways to raise your credit score. There are typically two options to choose from. Hire a company or do it yourself. If you hire a company make sure to check them out on the Better Business Bureau (www.bbb.org) website and don’t hire a company that charges a monthly fee. Monthly fee companies may take their time fixing your credit and continue to bill you month after month for years. Stick with companies who charge a flat fee. If you do it yourself, don’t go looking for information on the credit bureau web sites. They don’t want the process to be easy for you. Go to your library and look for credit restorations books or purchase one from your local book seller. Either way you go you must follow the process exactly. Failure to do so will jeopardize your ability to clean up your bad credit.
3. Renters are afraid of home maintenance. Like your automobile, houses require maintenance. The grass must be mowed and things can break. No worries there are easy and economical solutions to this. The first of these would be to hire someone to do the work. Hiring a repair man is easy, but it is the most expensive way to go. For peace of mind many home owners purchase a home warranty. Home warranties are a type of maintenance insurance where the home owner purchases a plan and the warranty company will make repairs if something stops working. My favorite of many is do it yourself. Do it yourself is big and easy to do. You don’t have to be mechanically inclined either. There are many books available to walk you through any repair. Home improvement stores are another fantastic resource. They have specialists throughout the store to help you with your home improvement projects. The best resource is YouTube. There are hundreds of thousands of video showing exactly how to repair items around the house. If you can’t figure it out there is always the option to call in a professional to get the repair completed.
4. The process of buying a home is intimidating. The process only appears intimidating because non-home owners are not familiar with it. That is exactly why there are professionals helping future home owners every day. Real estate professionals know the process and break it down to simple steps. The professional is there to walk future home owners through the process step by step.
5. Renters enjoy the freedom of not being tied down to one location. Renters have more flexibility because they are not tied down with a home and a mortgage is a myth. Home owners sell their property and move just like renters. At the time of this writing the current average days on the market for a home is 23 days (source NTREIS). Home owners have the ability to convert their home to investment property by leasing it out to renters.
We are dedicated to promoting home ownership. If you want to join the ranks of happy home owners across the DFW area we are here to help. We have partnered with lenders who offer first-time home buyer programs to help future home owners get into a home of their own. Credit problems are no problem. We partner with reputable credit repair companies. Don’t wait, let’s get started today! Give us a call or email now. We real estate and we love providing real estate solutions for our clients. Call us now.
