If you are thinking about buying a home in San Diego in 2019, make sure to avoid THESE 3 mistakes!

Here are the three mistakes you need to avoid when buying your home in San Diego in 2019.

1. Number one on the list is you've got to factor in your commute. Love it or not, traffic is a thing in San Diego and you need to factor that into your decision. I see a lot of people make the mistake of buying homes far away from where they actually work and they end up being stuck with an hour, hour and a half, two-hour long commute back and forth to work. Think about that, if you have an hour and a half commute to work, each way, that's three hours every day that you're sitting in a car. That's 15 hours a week, that's 60+ hours a month, that's 720+ hours a year. You're literally spending days and days and days of your life sitting in a car. I don't know about you, but I've never shown up back to my house after an hour and a half long drive and been in a good mood, so factor in your commute time when you're buying a house.

   1. You can go on Google Maps and you can punch in your house you're looking at, where your office or your shop is, tell 'em what time of day you have to commute and it'll give you a good idea of how long that commute's going to be. Take that into consideration, don't stick yourself with an hour and a half long drive to work each way.

2. Number two, don't focus solely on getting a good deal. People all the time are so fixated on getting a good deal, they forget about the fact that they actually have to live in this house. This is a house you're going to live in, your family's going to live in, you might be raising your kids in this house. Don't go and buy a house just because it's a good deal. Buy a house because it's the right fit for you and your family. When you're buying a house, you're buying more than just the four walls and what's inside of it, you're buying the lifestyle that comes along with it. If you're buying out in East County, you're buying in the suburbs, that's one lifestyle. If you're buying in downtown San Diego in a high-rise, that's another lifestyle. If you're buying a beachfront home in Del Mar, that's another lifestyle. Know the lifestyle that you want, focus on getting a house that fits your lifestyle and if you can get a good deal in the process, that's the icing on the cake.

3. Number three mistake to avoid is putting the cart before the horse. What do I mean by that? We see buyers all the time make the mistake of going out and searching for homes without ever having spoken to a lender. Realtors are always saying you need to go get pre-approved, you need to get pre-approved, but they don't really tell you why you need to get pre-approved. Why do you need to get pre-approved is you got to make sure you're searching for homes that fit within your budget and a good lender will take the time to sit down with you and learn everything about your particular situation and help you nail down the price point that you should target based on the budget that you've set for yourself and for your home. There's nothing worse than looking at $500,000 houses, finding the perfect one, then talking to your lender, and you're lender's like why are you looking at $500,000 houses? Based on your budget, you should be looking at $800,000 houses. Don't sell yourself short.

   1. The other thing that's important about talking to a lender first is that a lot of times they have special programs, there's a lot of incentives out there, some things from different cities, some things from different counties, some things from the federal government. There are a lot of unique programs that are out there that might be applicable to you that could save you a little bit of money and a lender, a lot of times, can help you make a few little tweaks when it comes to your credit to increase your credit score. The better your credit score, the lower your interest rate's going to be. Make sure you connect with a lender first before you go out and look at homes so you know exactly what price range to look at based on your budget.

Those are the three mistakes to avoid when you're looking to buy a home in San Diego in 2019. And if that's you, we'd love the opportunity to help you out. Give us a call here at Whissel Realty Group. My name is Kyle Whissel, 858-699-3895. We look forward to helping you and your family find the home of your dreams.

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