By visiting the bank and knowing how much you can borrow you’ll be able to decide what you need for your current home; especially if you’ve already seen your new one. This can help you to be more flexible when it comes to negotiating the price on both the one you’re selling and the one you’re buying.

The line for whether to rent or buy depends on how long you’ll stay in the home. If you plan to move after five years, renting is better if you can find a comparable apartment or home for $863 a month. If you can stay for 10 years, you’d have to find a rental for $733 a month to make renting the better scenario.

If you’re currently renting and aspire to purchase a home, a rent-to-own agreement can help you achieve your goal. Also known as a lease purchase, rent-to-own homes may be attractive to borrowers who have the income, but not the credit, to buy the home of their dreams. These hybrid lease/purchase agreements allow you to lock in the price of the property today while renting the home out on a “test-drive” basis. Rent-to-own agreements can offer a path to homeownership even if you have a low credit score or haven’t saved enough for a standard down payment.

Real estate agents (some of whom are Realtors, members of the National Association of Realtors, or NAR) are licensed professionals who work on your behalf and advocate for your interests. In most cases, sellers have a real estate agent working for them — a listing or seller’s agent — so you’ll want someone on your side, a buyer’s agent, who also has your back in negotiations and can help you understand how to make an offer on a home.

A buyer’s agent helps homebuyers in a host of other areas, as well. Here are some of the tasks you’d have to do yourself if you were to buy a home without a Realtor:

• Find homes that match your budget and needs. Real estate search sites give you a sampling of what’s available, but you’ll have to research whether asking prices are justified based on comparable home sales in the area.
• Dig up facts on a neighborhood, including ones that a seller might not disclose that could be important to you.
• Negotiate an offer, including the price and other clauses and contingencies in the purchase agreement.
• Navigate the home inspection, and negotiate repairs or credits with the seller.
• Decipher paperwork that could be filled with complex jargon and terms you don’t understand.
• Request and review seller disclosures. You might not know what to ask for or what sellers in your state are required to disclose.

 
The bottom line: Unless you’ve been through the process of buying a home before, it can be better to go with a Realtor than not.