6 mistakes you should not make when buying your first home, or it’ll ruin your marriage

Last Updated on 2017-04-25 , 10:08 am

Buying a home is always one of the beginning joint decisions you will take as a married couple. However, sometimes, mistakes are made and financial mistakes are one of the most detrimental factors that would affect your happy life together.

Not planning ahead

Mistake number one is always not thinking about the future properly. Buying a home involves you thinking about any factors that will incur you cost such as renovation, having children, getting retrenched and so on.

Most couples do not think about this and are just focused on getting a flat and only the current cost. This would then explain why these couples then get financial burdens, start fighting and blaming each other. All these can be saved if you and your partner think about 3 to 5 years ahead of all the different possibilities you might come across.

Excessive spending on wedding

Weddings are a joyous occasion and yes, it is perfectly understandable to want one that is beautiful and perfect. However, couples these days hold over-the-top wedding just to “show off” and also set some form of standard. Besides the fact that it is ridiculous, it results in unnecessary spending on things that could be done without.

This then leads to the couple incurring debts and not having enough money for the future, let alone buy a new home. One couple spent over $50 000 on a wedding dinner and thus, started off their married life in debt.

The advice here is to keep it simple. The money can definitely be spent in more useful ways and will help when you are buying a new home.

Paying more than necessary

Checking is a very important thing to do when you are buying a new home. It does not pay to lose money just because you were careless.

Many couples make decisions based on one or two property agents and end up overpaying.

Do remember that property agents are trying to make money. Then, when the couples find out that they paid more than it’s worth, they become unhappy and blame each other for being careless.

So it helps if you keep checking the latest housing prices and the property market. That will give you a good idea of what you should expect and you will be surprised at the amount of money you can save.

Not checking for defects

Many couples, in the excitement that they have a new home, forget to check the house properly to see if there is anything that is not up to standard.

This leads to finger-pointing and fights that could have been prevented when these couples come across defects in the house. There are a number of horror stories such as leaky toilets and cracked walls.

Thus, do remember to check for cracks, stains, floor evenness and so on. For resale flats, you can get a professional to check the house for anything that might have escaped your eye. So do remember to conduct a thorough inspection of your house before you sign off on the house.

Not knowing the real cost of owning a home

The listed price is just one out of the many. Application fee, booking of flat, downpayment, stamp duty fees and so on and so forth are all part of the cost of the BTO flat.

Many couples do not know all the figures and thus, when they start incurring more costs than what they had in mind, it becomes tough.

A number of these couples turn on each other and blame each other for having the wrong information. This can lead to serious arguments and some of them break off the marriage before even buying the house. Do remember to check all the processes involved and the amount that you would require to pay for each of these processes.

Trusting verbal agreement

This is a costly mistake that all couples should avoid. There are cases whereby the seller verbally said that there will be certain unique fittings and fixtures which are included in the cost of the property.

Yet when the couples get the property, they realise that these fittings were removed. It is hard to bring a case against the buyer because there is no contractual agreement.

So, if you are buying a house and paying more for that fancy Italian doorknob, you should confirm these in writing.

Better so, if there are pictures included. So there, with many young couples getting married this year, do remember to check and ensure that you are financially ready. Also, scrimp on the wedding, simple really is better.

Top Image: Twinsterphoto / Shutterstock.com

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