Buying your first home is a big decision.

Here are 5 tips for first home buyers to help you with the process.

As we get closer to Winter, typically sellers start thinking about listing their homes for sale in the spring. Sellers are currently preparing their homes for sale in the spring market. If you are thinking about buying a house this spring, you should prepare yourself to buy as soon as they hit the market.

Here are 5 tips for first home buyers that you need to prepare yourself to buy your first home this spring:

Get your credit score as high as you can.

The higher your credit score (along side a pretty clean credit history) the lower the interest rate, is usually a good rule of thumb. If your credit score is lower than you’d like it to be I recommend talking to a credit repair specialist or a financial planner about some ways to raise your credit score.

Save as much as you can.

Sacrifice the little $5 & $10 (and sometimes $50) liberties we all take from time to time. It seems small but the few bucks a day here and there add up over time. Buying a house is not cheap. There are costs that you incur for things other than what most people hear about often; Down payment. Closing costs also need to be paid. But most importantly, home inspections average about $500 and they are usually paid for out-of-pocket at the time of the inspection.

Have a timeline.

Most people rise to the occasion when the pressure is on. Turn the heat up on yourself by creating a deadline to be in your next home. People work more efficiently when they have a deadline they are trying to adhere to.

Once you have the timeframe, get pre-approved.

Now that you have an ideal date to move, it’s time to talk to a loan officer and explore your options. The loan officer will educate you and answer all of your questions about various loan types, products, etc. They can collect some of your financial information and get you pre-approved for a mortgage. Their is an expiration date on pre-approval letters but if you don’t find a house before the expiration date you usually can resubmit some updated records and have a new pre-approval letter prepared for you. The length of time pre-approval letters are valid may vary by loan type or from lender to lender.

Tour properties AFTER you’ve been pre-approved.

Whether virtual or in person, make sure you have talked to a lender and have been pre-approved before you start browsing. Once you’ve been pre-approved you will know how much you can borrow and you can figure out what you feel comfortable spending on a monthly basis. This is important because it saves you time in the long run. Knowing what you can spend will eliminate properties that aren’t in your price range. This is a major reason to get pre-approved before you tour properties.