While now is a great time for first-time homebuyers to be entering the market due to low interest rates and high home affordability, it’s not something to be taken lightly. There are a number of steps to buying a home that fall outside of any other purchase process, and first time buyers may especially miss out on required steps or be unprepared to get into the process, but the Equifax Finance Blog’s wealth of wisdom has a new article specifically aimed at helping new buyers get a handle on the situation.

In the article, “First-Time Homebuyers: The Four Mistakes You Need to Avoid,” Equifax maps out the pitfalls and helps you succeed with tips like:

• Buyers don’t understand the pre-qualification process. Rather than jumping right to looking at houses or coming up with lists of requirements for their dream homes, first time buyers need to go through the pre-qualification process to understand where their finances stand. This provides a place to start at for affordability and keeps them from wasting time with homes outside of their possible price range.
• Buyers are overwhelmed by prices. Every buyer, first time or not, should make sure that they do the research before hitting the road. Knowledge of the average home values and real estate prices in the areas in which they’re thinking of buying can be invaluable to understanding just what they are getting into. Thankfully, this is easier than ever due to a great number of real estate websites which are frequently updated. Be sure to check the pages of local brokerages, where numbers are often updated more quickly.

Great information provided by Atlanta Real Estate Forum