Thomas

Examine school systems. Even if you don't send your kids there it will increase value of home to be close to a decent school. Come up with 10 percent of downpayment for house price, maximum, you may be willing to buy. Examine your debt load and find tool to amortize what your payments would be for house on 30 years fixed interest rate. Your credit may be good and some may even push a sale on you that your debt load may not support. A good rule is to never allocate more than 50% of your monthly net income to bills. Make sure any deals "Too good to be true" are not in flood zones. You may find websites that can give you the elevation of the property a potential house is on. From Zachary area, be mindful that getting closer to the Amite River brings some flood zones. Call an insurance company and see what they will give quotes on for house insurance for the home you may be looking at. Sales agent aren't always going to negotiate price down as far as owner will go easily, They, generally, get a six percent take. Therefore they want to keep it as high as they may. When you are looking at a potential home, do more than look at the house and property. Go speak with neighbors, you will have to live with them as neighbors and after you move in is a bad time to find out they are bad neighbors. Don't put yourself in danger but ask the neighbors if the knew former occupants. Ask them why they moved. Sometimes it is due to divorce and the sales agent will not disclose this. If it is due to divorce both parties are living on less means and you can negotiate down pretty far, especially if it has sat a while. The house I am living in was listed at 160,000 and I got them down to 134,00 because I did the things listed. It will be a constant back and forth between your agent taking your offer to seller and seeing if they will accept. You should start out low and only inch up slowly, allowing them to sleep on it a while or until they declare their bottom price. These are a few things to consider. Write me if you want to talk about it more. Best hopes, TFree79665@aol.com - Sat Jun 7 2008, 23:20