Thinking of buying your first home? Congratulations! Buying property is a milestone event worth celebrating, but before you pop the champagne - there are several things first-time homebuyers need to know before signing on the dotted line. If you educate yourself on each of these items below, you’ll put yourself in a good position with your first ever home purchase.

1. CLOSING COSTS:

Unfortunately, there is more to consider when purchasing a home than just the listing price or your offer.  That’s not a small sum of money, so you can see why you need to keep closing costs in mind when creating a budget for yourself.

Banks suggests that you’ll want to budget between 3% and 4% of the purchase price (assuming it’s not a brand new home) to cover closing costs. That means that on a home that costs $400,000, you’ll be looking at between $12,000 and $16,000 in closing costs alone.

2. KNOW YOUR CONDITIONS IN OFFER

The most common subjects/conditions you’ll see on a offer of purchase or sale include the following:

• Subject to obtaining satisfactory financing
• Subject to receiving and approving a property disclosure statement
• Subject to receiving and approving an inspection report
• Subject to receiving and approving a title search
• Subject to receiving and approving all status documents (In case of condominium)

While these are the most commonly used, an offer can really be subject to just about anything you’d like, just don’t expect sellers to adhere to anything unreasonable. Talk to your Realtor about which subjects you should include with your offer, and study the most frequently asked questions about subject removal so you can bring your own ideas to the table.