Life requires changes and perhaps you are in a situation where your existing home no longer suits your family, your lifestyle or your wallet. Purchasing your second home can be a crucial step to long-term prosperity. As you know, a home can be a wonderful investment that provides enormous financial gains as well as additional benefits, and a good home purchase can truly provide a savings plan that you simply cannot get when you are renting. Whether purchasing your second home means buying a bigger house, acquiring a condominium or simply moving to a new area, as a seasoned home buyer you know the importance of making the right choices now to save you money in the future.

Should you continue to rent or consider buying your own home? Deciding which is right for you requires careful consideration. While apartment living may have become tiresome, and you may be sick of paying out money to live when you could be investing in a nice home, the freedoms and joys associated with home ownership need to be weighed against the financial costs or gains. The truth is that purchasing a home is probably going to require going into debt. And, it is also going to mean taking all or part of your nest egg and using it to make a down payment.

To make a sound financial decision on whether to continue to rent or to buy, the first step is to determine whether you have enough cash on hand to make a down payment of at least 5%. Next, you’ll want to calculate all the additional fees and costs associated with purchasing a home. These costs include origination fees, property taxes, closing costs, maintenance or association fees, sales commission costs and if applicable, mortgage insurance. Once you have this information gathered, you’ll want to combine it with the purchase price, interest rate, the term of the loan, expected home appreciation and inflation rates. Once you have a clear picture of what buying a home would mean in terms of financial gain, you’ll want to measure that against the cost or gain of staying in an apartment. In other words, if you took the same amount required for closing and down payments and invested or saved them instead, how would your financial gain look when compared to making an investment in a new home?

As time has gone on, the value of your home has probably gone up, and this gives you access to equity that you can use when making your new home purchase. This means you are in a solid position to purchase a new home. And, if your income has also increased during this time then you can also look at accelerated repayment options to additional savings to your purchase. So, depending on your circumstances, now may be the time to consider purchasing a new home to ensure you are getting the most value for your money.

While there is probably never a bad time to buy the right house, it is vital that you take the time to careful consider your finances if you want to make sure that you do get the best buy. One of the keys to making a good second investment is finding the right mortgage to fit your circumstances. Whether you are looking at a fixed, variable or convertible mortgage, what you want to know is that you’re getting a competitive rate from a reputable agent or broker .