Hi I am Chris Wells and I am with Martha’s Vineyard Savings Bank. I have been in banking for over 20 years and you can access the bank’s website at www.mvbank.com.

Hi I am Chris and I am here to talk to you about buying your first home. Buying your first home would be the largest single investment that you can possible can make over your lifetime. And, when you get into that investment, you should really have a list of must haves or wants.

You should have the area that you think has a potential for growth or no area that has a decline in potential values. Then, think about your budget. If you had been renting before you are buying, which most of us have and you need to take a real estate look at how much home you can afford.

First thing that you should do is take the amount money that you earn on a gross basis each month and take that number and compare it to what you outlay currently before you own a home and what you are doing is trying to figure out how much rent or how much mortgage that you can afford. Most often people needs some help in buying their home and they tend to need some financing, so sooner or later a bank is going to have to get involved or a mortgage broker.

Going back to the house, first thing get your self a very solid professional real estate agent. The real estate agent does not need to be a buyer’s broker or a selling broker. The one who will have all of your best interest at hands and the other will have the seller’s best interest at hand. You may get someone who can represent both sides, find someone that you can trust because they are the persons that you are going to have to lean on to know about this whole system in that area, the tax situation in that area, and the future growths or declining values in that particular market.

Then back to how much home you can afford, you need to have a calculation in mind for what the value of the house is going to be. So, if you know all of your debts compare that to you income, your gross income and your gross debts. And then, realistically step back and say, if you are paying $900.00 for rent for example, can you afford $2,000.00 a month in mortgage; principal and interest. The likelihood is that probably you cannot. So, be realistic about what you can afford and be realistic about how you approach each market situation.

The second most important person in the transaction is going to be your mortgage broker or banker on deciding how you are going to finance this home. As you look at the home, think about the timeframe that you are going to be there. Is it going to be one to three years or is it going to be greater as far, as you know. If it is one to three years that could determine the type of mortgage financing you put in place. A variable rate loan might be something that works for you for a three year period or a fixed rate loan might work for you for a longer period of time.

Over the most recent history, the fixed rate loan has been actually been a higher monthly payment than the variable rate loan, because interest rates has trimmed it down over the last 10 years. So, you need to have involved in the transaction, an experienced mortgage broker or banker to go over your various options. In the end, seek people that you know, seek people that you trust and make sure that your must haves and your wants in the home are met and good luck.