While buying a home is always going to be a process, trying to purchase a home during the coronavirus pandemic has made things even more complicated. But, if you’re wanting to take advantage of some low interest rates and you feel confident in your financial situation, there are ways that you can still safely purchase a home now.
To help you with this, here are three tips for buying a home in the time of coronavirus.
Be Careful With Your Down Payment
For anyone who was looking to buy a home prior to the coronavirus pandemic, there were quite a few options for where to house your down payment money before you actually made the down payment. In the right account or investment vehicle, you could even make some more money for your down payment on top of what you saved yourself. But with the volatility in the market now, you may want to rethink where you keep your down payment.
According to Kevin Mahoney, a contributor to Forbes.com, you may now want to keep your money just in a normal savings account until you’re ready to use it. This will help to ensure that you don’t lose any money that you’ve worked so hard to save for this purpose due to a drop in rates or further market volatility.
Get Your Loan Pre-Approved First
Because buying a home can be a long and arduous process already, it’s wise to try to make this process as streamlined as possible now that things are even more complicated.
To do this, Ingrid Case, a contributor to Money.com, recommends that you get complete pre-approval of your home loan prior to looking for or making an offer on a house. By getting your pre-approval fully taken care of, you’ll have a loan that’s been through underwriting and is totally ready to go as soon as you find a house. This can make your offer that much more appealing to a seller and can make the entire process simpler for everyone on both sides.
Make It As Digital As Possible
To try to keep yourself and others safe and healthy, Laura Grace Tarpley, a contributor to Business Insider, advises that you try to complete as much of the home buying process digitally as you can manage. In many cases, you can take a virtual tour of the house and even take care of your closing documents online. While this isn’t how you’d normally purchase a home, these are some options to consider as you try to remain socially distant.
If you’re wanting to buy a home as the world is still dealing with the effects of the coronavirus, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you figure out this process.
2018 ·