When you start to look at homes for the very first time, it’s an exciting and exhilarating moment. You find properties that you like and can picture living there, and start to make plans in your head. Once you take a look at the price and determine that you should be able to afford it, that’s the only price you need to worry about, right? Not necessarily.

Buying a home is more than what the listing price says. Multiple costs are easily forgotten about until you sign the papers to take ownership. It’s these additional costs that can cause major headaches for first-time home buyers.

Once you determine what you can afford for your monthly payments (try a mortgage calculator Maine to help give you an estimate), it’s time to think about the additional costs. Take a look at the following five costs that you don’t want to forget.

Property Taxes

Each home has property taxes for the local government. Usually, when you look at a house online, the listing price will have the property tax listed beside it as well. It’s important to remember this tax because it is something you have to pay on a yearly basis.

Property taxes serve a purpose for your community. The money the government gathers goes towards many facilities families utilise, like public schools, infrastructures, and your general community services.

Closing Costs

Another forgotten cost is the closing costs. It is often the most overlooked cost when buying a house. The closing cost is a fee that the mortgage lender and third-party service providers charge for the transaction and documentation of buying the house. Since many aspects areinvolved in purchasing a property, there are people behind the scenes that make this all happen.

Insurance

Did you know that there is a good chance you’ll need homeowners insurance when you purchase not just your first property, but any home? The majority of mortgage lenders make it mandatory that you purchase homeowners insurance.

Just like you have car insurance to help if you got into an accident, you get homeowners insurance to protect you and your property against storms, fire, theft, and other dangers to your house.

Down Payment

It’s easy to forget about the down payment of a home when you’re looking at prices. You may think that you can afford the monthly mortgage when you calculate it from the listing price. However, can you afford to front anywhere between 10 to 20 percent of the cost as a down payment?

Think of the down payment as a deposit on the home. This money secures not just you getting the property, but it secures you on getting your mortgage as well. Although it may seem like a large investment at the start, the more you put towards your down payment, the less you need in a mortgage to cover the rest.

Home Inspection

The cost of a home inspection can get forgotten about because it’s easy to assume that it’s included with the house. However, the home inspection is something you need to ask for. You can negotiate the price of the property to include the cost of the home inspection. That is not something you can always rely on, though.

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