Five and a Half Lies About Buying a Home

You know whats terrifying?

Buying a house. 

Whats worse? Buying a house for the first time.

Scared yet? 👻👻

Of course not, you know they're just myths.

Here's Five and a half lies about buying a home. Enjoy!

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Lie #1 - You need a huge Down payment

Straight off the bat with one of the biggest misconceptions. You do not need a 1%, 2% 5% 10% etc.. down-payment on a house. If fact, there are SEVERAL 0-Down programs that you could possibly qualify for in the next hour. If you can make a phone call that is. 

USDA and VA loans are a example in this. These loans are specifically for low to moderate income households. How do I know what I come under? Low to moderate varies on what the median income is for the area. E.g, what everyone else makes. 

Moderate income is 80% of the Medium and below, and Low Income is below 50% of the average.

⬇️Breakdown below⬇️

Lets say the average in Conroe is $40,000 a year (It is currently $39,271 But lets keep it simple).

Lets breakdown that into Moderate and Low incomes.

Income Medium	$40,000	Average Joe Income
Moderate Income	$32,000 and Below	80% or Below
Low Income	$20,000 and Below	50% or Below

So you probably qualify. You learned your thing for the day. Better yet, our friends over at AmCap (who only finance new construction btw) can help you out with these, and they will not affect your credit when you apply. Regardless of the outcome. They're super nice as well. Especially for lenders.

Does having a down-payment help? Absolutely. It lowers your monthly payments of course, and it can help you get approved easier. But is definitely not required. You already have enough expenses moving home, so don't let this keep you up at night.

Lie #2 - You cannot have a co-signer

Has someone ever told you something that you didn't know. Not necessarily unbelievable, but you just didn't know? This is one of those things. Yes, you can have a co-signer on a mortgage. Just like a car. 

The difference here is that, the co-signer will not be on the deed to the home/property. Which means they have no rights in-regards to the decision on the property. Unless this is specifically requested/the property has split-ownership. 

The co-signer cannot sell the property unless their name is on the deed. Of course this is a bond of trust between the Owner, and the co-signer. Usually parents or some family member helping another with bad credit or who's having difficulty getting a loan. 

All in all, this is a great option. For people that can make the payments, but they're just not quite there yet with credit.

Lie #3 - You need an understanding on construction

WRONG.

It doesn't matter if your reaction to a floorplan is "Where does the septic connect" or "Ooo thats pretty!" Knowing about construction is not a requirement for building a home. And why would it? Who's building the house? Us or you? 

The new-build process is pretty simple, not too confusing, and honestly? Pretty fun. Ever been to a build a bear workshop? Its kinda like that, but you live in it.

Before we actually start construction on your new home, your construction superintendent will have a meeting with you going over everything with you. This make sure we're on the same page, and you know exactly what is happening. That, and we send daily updates on what is happening, and photos every week on the progress. You will literally see your house built from the foundations up. Pretty neat ehh?

What if you're worried about what we build? You are MORE than welcome to bring in a 3rd party inspector to check the house. They are all inspected anyway - and we pay for that. But for a fee you can have peace of mind that another professional can re-assure you of our quality work.

Tldr; you don't need a background in construction. You just need a favorite color!

Lie #4 - You can't build Equity with New Homes

Never has a statement been more wrong. It is literally the opposite. 

Now if you don't know what equity is, I'd either google it, or read a breakdown on it right here. But we'll sum it up pretty quickly here, with a picture. Because the words are hurting my eyes too.

Behold, Specimen A.

This is a graph of the value of SqFt per community, over the past 5 years. 

Now we have Arrowhead and Frontier (which ASGI build in), and Royal Forrest which is similar community. Bent Water is a slightly "above average" community. Think April Sound, if that gives you a idea.

ASGi started building in 2017 and as you can see, the prices of our communities shot up. Frontier, which was a quarter of what bent-water cost 2 years ago, is now worth more.  From an investment standpoint that is insane.

So what does that mean? If you bought a house in Frontier Lakes for $100,000 in 2017, its now worth $180,000.

Horay!

Now we're a extreme example, why? Because we can put people who are renting in actual homes. We essentially turn communities around, and the low come families, - they become the average. This is FANTASTIC If you ever plan to move and relocate, which the majority of people do. In fact, over 14% of all Americans relocate a year.

You basically made a long-term investment while getting your own home. And boy, did it turn out good.

Lie #5 - Its a Painful process.

So there's a saying that all myths and legends have some truth behind them. That's how the story started right? Well, this much is true about building a home. Sometimes, it can be a painful process, - for us. 

You see, building a home is a in-depth, complicated process that has to live up to rigorous code standards. And that's how it should be. The problem lies, when a Home-builder isn't particularly the "best" in customer service, Or they don't communicate things. Because of this, sometimes the buyer can feel in the dark. And obviously with a significant investment like a home, not knowing whats going on can really make you panic. 

Thankfully, ASGi Homes is in the 21st Century. We use a system called BuilderTrend. You can read about our process right here. But essentially what BuilderTrend is, it allows us and our buyer to communicate freely and they understand EXACTLY where we are up to with their Home.

To help better understand what I mean, take a glace at this article. We're currently building a Home for some of our Overseas Vets in Europe, and they can see exactly when the Frame goes up, Drywall, etc.

We ain't here to play. 

Lie #5 1/2 - It takes over 6 Months to Build.

Yeah ... No. Maybe for a 8 Bed, 7 Bath, Multi-million dollar home.

But a normal house? Absolutely not. 

Our build time is 90 Days from Clearing the land to walking you through the house to check everything.

I can't stress enough on how much you need to read the article above about our process. That will truly open your eyes on how our company, and processes work.

Well, that's 5 1/2 Lies about building Homes for you. I hope it covered some of your more process-side questions, and if I missed anything, we're always happy to get you answers and help you understand how this works. If you enjoyed this wall of text, please share on Social Media. I'd be most appreciate. 

Until next time,

-ASGi Homes Team