Homeownership is on the top of the list of life goals that most adults have, alongside landing a stable job and building their own family. It no longer comes as a surprise considering that most people were brought up in family-centric households. Lots of people can’t wait to settle down and plant their own roots.
But preparing for the future isn’t limited to those who are ready to begin that chapter of their lives; anyone who’s planning to buy themselves a home one day can start learning about the ins and outs of homeownership. After all, it’s never too early to start planning for their future.
It’s easy to go online and research how to be a great homeowner. When you do, you’ll be welcomed by hundreds of guides, tips, tricks, and whatnot about homeownership, but trying to digest that all at once can become overwhelming fast. Instead of jumping the gun, consider taking it slow.
A good approach to this is by learning some facts about homeownership and widening your scope as you go. For instance, you could learn about how the concept of housewarming parties actually began with the intent to warm up a house. The guests were made to bring wood as presents because there was still no centralized heating back then.
Finding about little-known facts at your own pace can make it easier for you to adjust to the life of a homeowner for when you finally want to be one. Who knows? These facts might even help you prepare. To get you started on the right foot, here are three little-known facts that you may enjoy learning about:
1. Most People Move at least 12 Times
Unless your family has lived in the same house that’s been passed down from generation to generation, you’ll likely move at least 12 times in your entire life. Moving is actually pretty common, especially considering that there are far better employment opportunities in bigger cities and countries.
That’s partly the reason realtors are never out of jobs. Every time someone moves to a new house, city, state, or even country, they will need the help of a real estate professional to make their move smoother. Getting the right kind of help is crucial when you’re uprooting your entire life multiple times.
Of course, not everyone moves that often because relocating is hard and exhausting, but it’s usual for people who are still renting to move quite a lot. However, once they find a place they can call their home and handle the paperwork, they might not consider moving at all unless they really have to.
2. Working on Your Credit ASAP Will Be Worth It
Plenty of people think that because they’re not planning to buy a house anytime soon, they won’t have to worry about building or maintaining a good credit score. But that’s where they are wrong because the score makes all the difference, especially considering that bad credit history can haunt them for a while.
By exerting effort into maintaining your good credit score, you can improve your chances of getting approved for a better mortgage plan. This will be even better if you can boost your debt-to-income ratio (DTI). To calculate your DTI, divide your monthly debt payments by your gross monthly income.
You could even go the extra mile and get pre-qualified or pre-approved for a mortgage as early as now just so you can gauge your financial health. By finding out how much mortgage you can actually afford, you can adjust your expectations to fit your budget or increase your income streams so that you can afford more in the future.
3. There Will Always Be Something Wrong in the House
The sooner you understand that no house will remain in perfect working condition for long, the sooner you can readjust your priorities. When you finally become a homeowner, you’ll realize that it’s a full-time job and that it can be a handful sometimes, so you best get a move on while you’re ahead.
Unexpected problems can arise at any time and in the worst ways imaginable, but that’s not a sign to give up on homeownership. It’s just that you have to learn how to anticipate the problems so you can devise a solution before the situations get worse.
No amount of inspections in the home buying process will prepare you for this. However, constant inspections and routine maintenance, once you’re living in it, can. Any homeowner will tell you that maintaining the house can be a handful, but it’s also worth your efforts because you’re doing it for your home, and nobody can take that away from you.
The journey of becoming a homeowner is exciting, but it’s also exhausting and frightening at the same time. If you let yourself get overwhelmed by all your emotions, it may be difficult to climb out of the hole you made. So, never bite off more than you can chew; you have enough on your plate to deal with.
