Ready to turn your dreams of owning a home into a reality? If so, then perhaps you've already begun the process of touring houses with a real estate agent. As your agent has likely warned you, however, there are some common obstacles you are likely to run into during the home-buying process. Fortunately, there are also ways around these obstacles!

Lack of Substantial Down Payment

For first-time home buyers especially, saving up enough money for a 20% down payment (which is the "norm" for a conventional mortgage) can be very challenging. After all, even a $150,000 home would require a $30,000 down payment--and that's not even counting closing costs and other related expenses! Fortunately, there are plenty of loan options available to first-time buyers that require a much smaller or even zero down payment. Consider, for example, an FHA loan (which requires just 3.5% down) or even a VA loan (0% down) if you've served in the military!

Competing Offers on a Home

Even once you've figured out your financing, getting into a bidding war with another interested buyer on your dream home can really take the wind out of your sails. If you end up in this situation, your real estate agent will be the best professional to defer to. He or she will be able to help you determine the maximum amount you should offer on the home and provide you with additional tips for gaining leverage over other buyers, such as writing a heartfelt letter to the current owners or sweetening the deal with a quick closing.

Mismatched Appraisal

So, you've gotten an accepted offer and the home inspection came back relatively clean. All that's left is the home appraisal, which your lender will require as a means of verifying that the home is worth at least what you've agreed to pay for it.

Unfortunately, if the appraised amount comes back lower than your agreed-upon sale price, this could cause the deal the fall through. Before that happens, however, explore your options with the seller. See if he or she is willing to drop the sale price to reflect the appraised value, or if the difference is relatively small, see if you can come up with the difference yourself.

More than likely, you'll run into some hurdles here and there when buying your first home. The good news is that there are often ways to overcome these common obstacles!   

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