Words of Wisdom When Buying Your First Home

Welcome everyone to this week's edition of the "Sunday Night AP Real Estate Investing's Real Estate Investing Blog" (we'll work on shortening that later). A place where you, the reader, is able to gain a wealth of knowledge on all things real estate investing, and I, the author, am able to fully utilize my university required writing course... At least I learned something in college! I missed last week due to pure laziness, but I promise to make it up to you with this post.

Enough with the formalities. Let's get into it. What should you know when preparing to buy your first home? Having recently gone through this process myself, I consider myself a subject matter expert. So without further ado, here are 5 things to consider as you go through the process.

1. Do Your Research Ahead of Time

As soon as you have the slightest interest in buying a house, start educating yourself. It is a long, complicated and expensive process that warrants your time and understanding. Whether you are buying as your own residence, or as an investment property, you should have a basic understanding of the process. I bought myself a copy of "Home Buying Kit for Dummies" and no longer consider myself a dummy (unless we're talking about women). It would also be a good idea to spend some time on Zillow, Trulia or Realtor.com familiarizing yourself w