When should you start looking to buy a home if you live in an apartment.

Question

We are wanting to buy a home after this apartment lease is up. I’m just kinda unsure when to start looking to buy. 
We were debating on getting one this last year but decided to pay off a little more debt and save more money. We talked to a realtor a couple months before and she said 2 months was plenty of time to get us into a house, but I was unsure if she just wanted a sale.
My friend said it took her 3 months to find a house but it was because of them not liking the houses not the paperwork or anything like that.
I also don’t want to look too soon and not be able to get a house I fall in love with... is looking 6months ahead too soon? 4 months? 
If you lived in an apartment when did you start looking? Even if you didn’t do you have a suggestion on how far ahead we should start the process?
Thank you so much ❤️

Answer

It can really depend on your area. My mom moved last year and was looking for a year, not much was going up around her. In my area, our realtor told us about 2-3 months before our ideal move-in date, as the houses around us are going up on the market and coming down just as quickly, so most of the time for us will be legalities and paperwork, rather than looking. We’re moving from an apartment and buying a house, our lease is up in March, so our realtor said we’ll get together and start looking around December or January.

Answer

Well we started really looking in may (looked at websites and such in April but actually talked to a realtor in may) and we moved in September 4. The paperwork and stuff for us took a month. Finding a house took the longest as well as getting our offer accepted. We put about 4 or 5 offers on different houses before we got one accepted. The market is very competitive right now. It is good to look at houses even if they’re not exactly what you want because you find out what you absolutely must have and what you hate.

Answer

I'm in the same boat.
I started looking last year but decided to wait to pay off more debt.
Unfortunately, with leases and homebuying there isn't a definite time unless you know for a sure a house you want will close when your lease is up and you'll avoid any additional fees from the apartment but that's very rare!
Try talking with your complex once you do find a home and make an offer. Some apartments are willing to negotiate you breaking your lease or may be kind enough to waive any fees and freely let you out of the lease. Don't assume this. Always talk to them first.
 Looking for a home is fun and don't rely so much on timing. 
♥️

Answer

I would think it would depend on what you want out of a house (in addition to your market like someone else pointed out). If you want a fixer upper, I'd start shopping around sooner rather than later so that if stuff needs to be fixed BEFORE you can move in, then you have the time to do that. 
Like my house doesn't have heat yet, or running water, or a toilet. And we just had our first snowfall. Thankfully my apartment is month by month and I just need to give thirty days notice to my landlord, but I wouldn't have been able to move into the house when I started working on it back in July.

When should you start looking to buy a home if you live in an apartment.

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