With Independence Day here, we thought it appropriate to discuss how buying a home can help you gain financial independence, but making the wrong decision can slow down or even prevent you from getting there!
Buying a home is up there with choosing your partner and having a child with the most significant life changes and decisions you’ll make in your life. And, like choosing a partner, you don’t want to jump right into marriage on the first date! That’s why Detail View Home Inspections is honored to be a part of the process for Roanoke home buyers choosing their homes.
Your Largest Investment
For most of us, buying a home is the biggest purchase we’ll ever make. But that’s partly because it’s not just a purchase. It’s also an investment. Property tends to go up in value.
In 1985, the average US home cost $84,300. Today, the median price of a house is over $420,000! So, if you sold a home you bought 40 years ago, that’s not a bad turnaround!
It’s also the principal way parents pass on generational wealth to their children.
Renting vs. Buying
When you’re getting started, renting may be more appealing than buying a home. Not only do you not have to worry about maintenance, but there’s less red tape, and you may be able to find a better deal. Even if you want to buy a home, not everyone has the ability because of credit or finances.
But once you have the resources to buy a home, you can start investing your money in something you own instead of supporting a landlord.
The Money Pit
Fans of 80s comedy and Tom Hanks completists will remember when he and Shelly Long played a couple who jumped right in to buying a seemingly undervalued estate home in The Money Pit. Being a zany comedy, hijinks ensued, including a tub (with Hanks inside) breaking through the bathroom floor to the next level of the home, and other bits of slapstick which would likely get a real person killed!
Nobody wants a money pit – a home like the one in the movie where you have to keep sinking more and more cash into it in order to use it, live in it, or get any enjoyment from it. The best insurance against that is a home inspector, a luxury the comedy couple on a tight timeline didn’t have!
Our motto at Detail View Home Inspections is we make sure your dream home doesn’t become a nightmare…aka a money pit!
So after you find your dream home, but before you make a purchase, give Detail View Home Inspections a call. Our job is to walk through your house and look for all the things that may cause you problems later, financial or otherwise.
What Do We Look for in a Home Inspection?
When we inspect your home, we look for three main categories of problems: financial, legal, and health.
Financially, we try to spot the items that look good at first glance but will cost you money in the long run. These include shoddy workmanship issues from house flippers.
Legal issues involve code violations that you may have to fix later. And with older homes, updating to modern code, especially, can lead to potential financial issues.
Finally, there are health problems. We don’t have X-ray vision, so we can’t tell if the matter within the walls is hazardous, but we’re always on the lookout for toxic materials, mold, and anything else that compromises your health!
Buying a Home & Financial Independence
At Detail View, we think everyone should be able to buy a home. And we want to make sure that that purchase is a step toward financial independence, not an invitation to sink deep into the money pit!
