One of the first mistakes first time home buyers make, is to try and buy to MUCH home. As a first time home buyer you may qualify for a lot more home than you need to buy. I advise my clients to buy a home that fits their needs and still allows them to have a quality of life. You need to have a balance between monthly payments of your new home and the quality of life you want to live.  Take into account all of your monthly outflow of cash of all of your bills.  If you the max amount you where qualified for you might not be able to have cable TV, Internet, new blinds or be able to the furniture you want in your new home... You need to ask yourself "how much do I want to afford" and come up with a plan BEFORE you start looking for that new home.

Check out these sites: http://nhl.gov/buying/index.cfm#afford https://www.har.com/usearealtor/dispWhyRent.cfm

Whether you're interested in buying your first home, your next home, or just want to know more about home-ownership in general, I encourage you to check out a couple of great online resources: http://www.texasrealestate.com/ or https://www.har.com/ and for all of your Pearland TX and Northern Brazoria and Galveston County real estate needs, please visit my site at http://www.danfrankrealty.com/. All of these sites offer tons of useful, real estate-related information geared specifically for Texans.

Danny Frank is a local Pearland TX Real Estate expert! You can see my entire blog at http://www.pearlandrealtyblog.com