Most important things to know when you buy a real estate

What are some very important things to know when you buy a real estate?

In any field, having experience and /or having a mentor saves time, money and frustration.

I want to put down some important things that I learned while buying real estate either for primary house or for rental purposes.

When you get pre-approval for loan from a bank, they may give 60 day interest rate approval. After that, they can change it. So, make sure your pre-approval is valid until the day of closing.

I missed this and they increased the interest rate on the day of closing.

If it is for rental property, do not buy if the property is more than 150K so that rent to cost ratio is higher. Basically, keep the cost of the property as low as possible if you want good return on investment.

Do not upgrade too much on any property especially carpets as you may have to replace them sooner than later.

You can place the blinds yourself if you want to save some money and time. I bought 2 inch white blinds [strong and difficult to damage easily] from HomeDepot and installed blinds myself in both my rental properties. I needed to buy drill for that.

If you decide to give rental property to property management company [I prefer], join a group and negotiate a lower management fee.

I am part of a group and it is only 5% instead of 8-10% of monthly rental that we need to give for property management.

You should do what you are comfortable with but this is my experience. See if these points help you in anyway.