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The Surprising Truth About
Buying Chicago Real Estate
What Every First Time Buyer Needs To Know
About Real Estate in Chicago Illinois
A very pregnant Maria Billups eased herself into the lawn chair. "Ian and I knew buying Chicago real estate would mean quite a change from renting apartments. And we wanted to avoid the mistakes friends made when buying their first home."
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"First," Maria went on, "we tried to buy smart. We're starting a family and wanted a house that would meet our needs for at least five years. Any of the Chicago real estate without three bedrooms wasn't even considered." "About 15 months ago we sat down and laid out a household budget. Without kids we had gotten sorta spoiled. We decided to get serious and cut back on eating out and new clothes and the winter vacations to Bermuda. What we agreed to do was start living as if we had the home mortgage payment to make each month. The difference between our rent and our projected house note went into savings to add to our down payment." |
"Our goal," she revealed, "was to save 10% to put down. Then once we started looking at Chicago area homes for sale we planned to get the other 10% from my 401(k). While Ian tapped his IRA. That way we avoided having to pay mortgage insurance."
Did You Know? You're allowed to borrow $10,000 from your IRA if you use it for a down payment on your first home.
"Credit was another issue. We got our credit report and cleaned that up just a bit. Enough so that when we started house hunting we could get pre approved for a mortgage. In essence we showed sellers we had financing lined up and as such were serious buyers."
Billups added, "It pays to shop around. Checking fees and such we found out that some mortgages brokers are eager for your business."
"Finally you want to shop for a neighborhood as much as a given piece of property. The location, location, location thing you know? Another couple we knew from work lived in a part of Chicago we both liked. Ian and I visited there often. Making sure to see what it was like after dark and on weekends. Since it was close to the Eisenhower we knew it would make for a decent commute."
Hopefully these tips for first time buyers of Chicago real estate will help demystify the process a bit.
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