Wazzup Pilipinas!
Dreaming about owning a condo someday is one thing, but have your musings become a bit more specific (which city you want to live in, what kind of unit you want to get, what color theme to use in the living room, etc.) than before? And do you find yourself constantly calculating your expenses and thinking, “I can actually save up for a property now”? Real estate website MyProperty.ph has formulated these 10 questions you should ask yourself to be certain that now’s the time to upgrade from renting to owning a condo.
1. Do you have a stable source of income?
Buying a property through a home loan means taking on the responsibility of making monthly amortizations. This means you need to have a job that not just earns you enough to make regular payments on time, but also one you’re confident you’ll keep for a long time. If you’re in a career or industry that’s known to be unstable, or if you just started working for a new company, there’s a pretty high risk you might lose your source of income and miss monthly loan payments.
2. Have you saved up for a down payment…
The down payment for a property doesn’t come easy for everyone. In most cases, it’s 20%—an amount that can either be small or large depending on the price of the property and your monthly income. If your income allows you to comfortably set aside a certain amount, then good for you. If not, there’s nothing wrong with waiting a little longer to save; what’s important is that you’re able to put together the amount without it making a sudden huge dent in your current budget.
3. …and still have enough left over?
You don’t want every single centavo going to condo payments. What if someone ends up in the hospital and you have no other resources to tap? You also need to think about the other costs involved in keeping your new home up and running (utilities, maintenance fees, and association dues). Remember that you have to eat, too. You can only truly say you’re financially prepared when you’ve factored in all of these and the payments toward the condo, and you still have some money for a nice emergency fund (worth at least six months).