Points to Remember for House Hunting

Know Your Limits

• Avoid purchasing a home that is beyond your means. Calculate your monthly income and your average monthly cost of income. Calculate how much mortgage payments will cut into your money. Never buy a home that you can't afford or that leaves you with too little left over. A loss of a job or even a medical emergency may make it impossible for you to make your mortgage payments. Failure to pay these payments can damage your credit, and can even cause you to lose your home through repossession.

Expense Research

• Research all the costs you may not consider before purchasing your home. Investigate home tax cost in your area, including local, state and national if applicable. Research the cost of home insurance. Ask about heating and electrical prices and any other expenses. Some neighborhoods may require an annual fee for homeowners. Fees such as these may not seem like a major problem, but they can build up into hundreds of dollars extra to your living expenses.

Neighborhood Watch

• Take a walk around the home neighborhood to get a feel for the type of people that live there. Check for abandoned buildings, spray painted areas, long uncut grass or loud music playing from windows. These signs aren't necessarily signs of a bad neighborhood but it's useful to consider the type of area you'll be living in. Check your newspaper for crime reports and call the local police department to find out about the crime rates in your potential neighborhood.

Inspect Every Cranny

• Make sure you have access to every room in the house while you are house hunting. Don't let your real estate agent try to hurry you or encourage your to overlook certain things. Get down on your hands and knees and inspect floor tiles. Peek between walls to see the insulation. Open all the doors to see how easily they open. Flush the toilet to check its volume. Listen to stairs for creaks as you walk up and down. Write a list of these potential problems as you look so you won't forget to ask the owners for full disclosure. Be polite to the real estate agent, but make sure you lead the way through the home -- not vice versa.