Sponsored by Lifelock. As always my comments and opinions are my own. Mama Latina Tips Information Purposes Legal Disclosure
Over the years, we’ve talked about many ways to help protect ourselves from all kinds of things. Protecting is one of the cardinal duties of motherhood.
We’ve covered ways to help stay safe from phishing scams, phone scams, and online shopping fraud. We’ve discussed how to help protect our credit, our kids when they go off to school, and ourselves when traveling for the holidays.
This month I’d like to talk about helping to protect ourselves during one of the most important and, almost certainly, the largest purchase most will ever make: Buying a Home.
Here are five tips for helping to protect yourself before, during, and after buying a home:
- Talk to your realtor about including a home inspection clause in your offer.
A home inspection by a reputable inspector can help protect you from unpleasant and expensive surprises. Regulation of home inspectors varies significantly from state to state, so find out who the reputable inspectors are in your area.
- Shred old credit card documents and close old credit card accounts.
Once you’ve bought your home and checked with your loan officer to be sure your financing is secured and it's ok to do so, but before you pack up and move to your new home, make sure you shred and close old, unused credit card accounts (Careful here, it can be a bad idea to open and close accounts during the financing process as any change can affect your credit score).
- Monitor your financial accounts and credit card statements closely
Recent home buyers tend to use their credit cards both more often and in more places than usual as they organize their new homes.
As a result, their credit card statements will be longer than usual and it can be easier to miss unauthorized transactions. Also, monitoring your accounts closely will help you to know if a bill is missing.
- Consider changing the locks on your new home
How many keys for your new house are floating out there? Do the previous owners still have one? How about the owner’s before them?
- Keep track of your important documents and secure them in a safe place.
This may seem obvious at first, but keeping track of all your important papers can be a challenge when moving, especially if others are helping you to move or you are moving a long distance.
Spend some time thinking ahead of time about how you will manage your important docs during the chaos of packing, moving, and unpacking.
So there you have it. A few things to consider, if they are right for you, when buying a new home.
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