Buying Your First Home in Atlanta

One of the first things you should know about buying a home in Atlanta is that if you work and plan to put down roots here, there is a home for you. This has got to be one of the easiest places to get a mortgage - even if your credit is not the best (in fact, even if it's terrible).

That being said, here are three things you want to make some definite decisions about when purchasing a home in Atlanta. NOTE: I was a loan officer in Atlanta for about a year. I moved here from New York, buying my first home ever. So, this is first-hand advice.

1. Decide if you want this to be your first and last home: In a city like Atlanta, because housing is so affordable, you can move up to a larger home/better neighborhood in a few years time.

To put my personal business out there for your benefit, my house was just over 200K (lake community, 5 bedrooms, 3 full baths, deck, 4,200+ square feet (including the basement)). For most of us, this is a home you retire in.

However, just this past weekend, I looked at a neighborhood where the homes started at 370K (looking at new home construction is kind of a hobby of mine). If I wanted to stretch my budget, this home is not out of reach.

Again, a lakeside community 5 bedrooms, 3 baths, two story deck, basement, 5,700+ square feet. This home happened to be in one of the best school districts in the state, and the fixtures were second to none - marble countertops, iron and dark cherry wood banisters, wood floors, floor to ceiling windows in the living room, etc.

NOTE: Because Georgia has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation, there are tons of practically new homes (usually lived in less than 3 years) from which to choose which are great deals.

Many who move to Atlanta find the for what the city offers, the type of home you can purchase for the money is phenomenal. So, look at a lot of neighborhoods.