After years of saving, you are finally ready to purchase a home. You are excited, and have mustered up the courage it takes to make the big step of buying your first home. However, you are nervous because you aren’t sure you know everything you need to know. Here are 7 little known tips that will help you out when purchasing a home for the first time.

Title Insurance - If you’ve worried about insurance when you were renting, you should worry about it even more now that you’re going to buy a house. Make sure that the property you’re eyeing has proper title insurance, or get one immediately. It will let you gain rightful ownership of the place.

Property Survey - A property survey will let you know what you own and what you don’t. Even if you are planning to move into a well established subdivision, learn how to read a property survey, study it, and make sure there are no unclear areas.

Home Inspection - Even if you know a lot about homes, any real estate professional would advise you to get a full home inspection. 95% of the time the inspection will come up with nothing out of the ordinary. But you don’t want to be that 5% that end up with hugely expensive unseen structural damage, or mold issues. Get a full inspection and thank the inspector for the service he or she provides. Its well worth it.

Environment - Just as important as your new house is its location. Go around the neighborhood and get a feel of the place. Do you like your neighbors? Do you feel safe there? Is it near your workplace or the kids’ schools? Of course, included in the things you have to consider is the cost. If you’re thinking of buying a house in a popular or upscale area, you may want to look into the most affordable houses there - for instance, a property off the main street.

Minor Details - Its common for prospective homeowners to be unable to see past minor details like carpet or paint. These things can be changed relatively easily and inexpensively. Instead focus on the major factors and use the minor details as leverage to negotiate on price.

Major Factors - If you are not to focus on minor details such as paint or carpet, what are you to focus on? Things such as the floor plan, or number of bedrooms. These are things that are a lot more expensive and difficult to fix. Homeowners always talk about how they can knock down a wall here and place another there. Upon closer inspection, they find that it costs a lot more than they anticipated and takes much more effort. Do yourself a favor and make sure the major factors meet your needs from the beginning.

Duration - Try to predict how long your intend to live in the home for. Believe it or not, there are times when it is best to continue to rent. For instance, if you are purchasing a home at current market value and you plan on moving before two years, the numbers usually don’t add up. When considering purchasing a home, try to make sure you are in the home for an adequate amount of time to be able to recoup you investment (tax free if you roll your profit into your next home).

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