What do you wish you knew before you began the home buying process for the first time? What would change if you could go back to the beginning of the process?

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This is even more important if you have a partner, but seriously sit down and think about what you want out of your first house, and what purposes it'll serve for your family/yourself besides shelter. I would even make a bulletin board or collage of what you think you want before you start looking at all. We did not do this, and ended up having to start over once we realized what we'd asked the agent to show us homes we didn't like. A lot of time we paid for that could have been avoided!

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Did more research on upkeep/ maintenance costs (yard/ tree trimming/ HVAC cleaning/ pest control etc). It wouldn’t have convinced us not to buy the house but it would’ve been nice to know the cost/frequency of all of that ahead of time so you’re not learning on the fly

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How expensive is to maintain Custom made homes. Example: if a window needs to be repair or replace is a lot more expensive to do it that standard ones.

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