Home Size Factors: Family and Time at Home
There are several important considerations to be making as you hit the home market to purchase the home of your dreams, and one of the simplest — but often most important — is the general size of home you’re looking for. While you certainly don’t need to have a precise square footage in mind, as that would be unrealistic, it pays to have at least a general idea of the space you need why you need it as you head into home tours and other parts of this process.
At Primary Residential Mortgage, we’re happy to assist a variety of clients with all their mortgage and homebuying needs, with home loan programs ranging from fixed-rate and adjustable rate options to several specialty programs like FHA loans, jumbo loans and more. We’re also here to answer questions and help you with many of the simple ins and outs of this process. What should you be thinking about when it comes to the size of home you’re looking for? This two-part blog series will go over several basic factors.
Current and Future Family Size
One of the single most important variables impacting the size of home you’re looking to purchase is your current and future family size. Obviously, a family of four is going to have different needs than a single person or couple just starting out — more bedrooms, more bathrooms, additional storage and so forth.
However, you shouldn’t just be thinking about your current needs. You should also have an idea of any potential changes on the horizon, such as whether you expect to have children in the near future or if elderly parents may need to come live with you at some point down the road. Planning for these kinds of contingencies now can save you a lot of headache (and expense) later on.
Time Spent at Home
Another element to consider is how much time you actually spend at home. If you work from home or have small children, you’re obviously going to be spending more time in the house than someone with a 9-to-5 job and no kids. This means that factors like square footage per person become less important, as there will be more people using the common areas of the house at any given time.
On the other hand, if you’re rarely home or have older children who are out of the house more often than not, you may be able to get away with a smaller place. In this case, it may make more sense to focus on factors like lot size and location rather than overall square footage.
In part two of our series, we’ll look at some additional areas to cover. For more on this, or to learn about any of our mortgage rates or home loan services, speak to the team at Primary Residential Mortgage today.
*PRMI NMLS 3094. PRMI is an Equal Housing Lender. Some products and services may not be available in all states. Credit and collateral are subject to approval. Terms and conditions apply. Programs, rates, terms, and conditions are subject to change and are subject to borrower(s) qualification. This is not a commitment to lend. Opinions expressed are solely my own and do not express the views of my employer.
