Buying your own home is a huge investment and aside from the humungous finances involved, you also need to be emotionally committed. A lot of time, stamina, stress and desire are needed to navigate through the process of buying a home. For most people, it is the single largest investment they will ever make, so before you jump into the privileged world of home-owners, you have to be sure you are prepared to take on this major responsibility. It’s a little like having a child, you have to invest in its future, and take constant care of it to keep it in optimal condition.

So if your job scenario is secure and you are not thinking of making a move out of your current city for the next few years, you could be ready to settle down to the joys of owning your own home!

Whatever the situation, you have to be sure you are financially and emotionally sound to make a move into property ownership. It’s not as if you are going to be ‘dating’ your new apartment, you will be ‘marrying’ it for keeps, so the commitment towards buying your apartment has to be of the same caliber. But before buying a new home, there has to be some ‘pre-flight checks’ where you have to make a checklist of your financial requirements:

• What’s the magic number that you can afford?
• Capital for down payment and other costs
• Build healthy savings.
• Are you eligible for a preapproved loan?
• Strengthen your credit scores.
• Find your dream home!

As most people don’t have enough cash to buy a home without the help of a loan, realtors would prefer you to first have a chat with your loaners before finalizing on an apartment. Timing is an important factor as a time frame that takes too long for a home ownership to materialize isn’t very practical. But then, a very short time frame could also lead to problems as you might not be ready to move from your rented home.

In reality, dreams have to come in the currency of money, otherwise you can’t really dream of owning your own home. You have to have a substantial nest egg saved up to accommodate the down payment on a home first. And that’s not all. Along with the down payment, you should also have enough saved up as personal emergency funds as well as some amount for moving into your new home and taking care of new additions.

Once you move out of the somewhat dubious halo of being a renter and graduate to becoming a home-owner, expenses are only going to rise. There will be maintenance costs to look into, which even if you chose to do yourself, you will still have to invest in the supplies and equipment.

So potential buyers shouldn’t believe that buying a house is as simple as getting a loan approved followed by smiling selfies taken in front of your new home, as shown on TV. No Sir, home buying involves lots of finances, lots of patience, a few bumps to iron out on the way, and only then can you truly enjoy the enviable, blissful pleasure of owning your own home!