Thinking about buying your first home? Buying a home can be exciting, exhausting, and a little scary. Ultimately, your goal is to end up with a home you love and at a price you can afford. Seems simple enough, right? Unfortunately, many people make mistakes that prevent them from achieving this simple dream. Keep these simple tips in mind to get the most out of your purchase and avoid making some of the more costly mistakes that could stop your sign from being sold. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Not Knowing What You Can Afford As we all learned from the subprime mortgage mess, what the bank says you can afford and what you know you can afford or feel comfortable paying can be two different things. If you don't already have a budget, make a list of all your monthly expenses (excluding rent), including vehicle costs, student loan payments, credit card payments, groceries, insurance healthcare, retirement savings and so on. Don't forget about large annual expenses, such as insurance premiums paid annually or annual leave. Subtract this total from your take-home pay and you'll know how much you can spend on your new home each month. When calculating this figure, use a mortgage calculator to research current interest rates. This will give you a rough estimate of what your total mortgage payments will be. Skipping Mortgage Qualification Again, what you think you can afford and what the bank is willing to lend may not match up, especially if you have poor credit or an unstable income. . So make sure you get pre-approved for a loan before making an offer on a home. If you don't, you will waste the seller's time, the seller's agent's time, and your agent's time if you sign a contract and then find out later that the bank won't lend you what you need, or is only willing to to grant you a mortgage that you find unacceptable. Being Too Picky Go ahead and put everything you can think of on your new home wish list, but don't be so hasty that you end up renting for much longer than you really want. First-time homebuyers often have to compromise on something because their funds are limited. You may have to live on a busy street, accept outdated decor, make some home repairs, or sacrifice that extra bedroom. Of course, you can always choose to continue renting until you can afford everything on your list — you'll just have to decide how important it is for you to own a home now rather than in a couple of years. Lack of vision Even if you can If you can't afford to replace the hideous wallpaper in your bathroom now, it might be worth living with that ugliness for a while in exchange for getting into a home you can afford. If the home still meets your needs in terms of big things that are hard to change, like location and size, don't let the physical imperfections turn you away. Plus, renovating your home yourself, even when you have to hire a contractor, is often cheaper than paying the increased value of your home to a seller who's already done the work for you. Compromising on the important things Don't buy a two-bedroom house when you know you're planning to have children and will want three bedrooms. Likewise, don't buy an apartment just because it's cheaper when one of the main reasons you have.