Are you in the market for a new house? Sometimes the process moves super-fast. I know the inventories can be low, interest rates high and bid wars are real. But it’s important to pause and think. There could be some important things no one is talking about.

Here are three important things no one tells you when buying a house:

  1. Location – Location is everything! Is it convenient for you to live and work in the area? How’s the community? Does it have a good school system? These are some of the questions you may want to consider.

Just because it has a low price doesn’t make it the best buy for you. My friend got a steal of a deal on a new home. It was a lot of bang for the buck, but the commute was awful. It took her about an hour and a half to get to work. Then came high gas prices, which made keeping the house impossible.

We learned this lesson ourselves with our last home. Our daughter was one and we figured we’d only be in the house a few years. And we didn’t put much emphasis on the schools in the area. Only to find out they weren’t the best and we ended up paying for private school in the short term. This eventually made the house less marketable when we sold it.

  1. Homeowner’s insurance – One cost that isn’t always top of mind is – how much will the homeowner’s insurance policy cost you? The location of your home and the flood zone could factor into how much your policy costs. Or if you even qualify to get insurance?

We sold our home in Tampa, FL during a very active hurricane season. Insurance rates were going up. Our homebuyer added a special clause into the contract stating that if he couldn’t get a homeowner’s policy under $3,500 he could get out of the contract. Who would have thought?

One time I befriended a nice lady at a Notre Dame football game. She told me she lived in the Tampa Bay area. She and her husband had bought a beautiful condo on the water. However, her insurance company dropped her. And she couldn’t find another company to insure her condo. She was unhappily uninsured and just hoping for the best.

  1. Property Taxes – Property taxes are not fixed. The calculation can be difficult to understand. But it’s always a good idea to understand how much they are. Keep in mind new developments may be misleading for a variety of reasons. For example, the property taxes may have only been calculated based on the total land value.

 A friend of mine called me in panic mode one day because her mortgage shot up $500/month due to her property taxes. Can you imagine that kind of an increase? It’s highly unlikely to see that kind of jump. But she lives in Florida, and it was a new development.

 If you are buying new in an area, you may want to take a look at other comparable properties in the area to have some idea of how much your property taxes will be. When we sold our last home, many people asked about the property taxes in advance. And sometimes it’s a real show stopper!

Best wishes to you!