If you're purchasing a house that you intend to stay in for a long time, reducing the cost of your mortgage as much as possible will save you far more money tha

If you're purchasing a house that you intend to stay in for a long time, reducing the cost of your mortgage as much as possible will save you far more money than the Realtor commissions will cost. The interest on a mortgage can easily double the cost of a home, and for the first ~third of the lifetime of the mortgage your monthly payments will be more interest than principal. You reduce the cost of a mortgage by making a larger down payment, especially if you pay more than 20% in cash. You also want to avoid 'points' (which are just more interest) and to get the lowest interest rate you can. (A very good credit score helps a lot.) If you go for a variable-rate mortgage, read the fine-print very carefully; you want to make sure that the rate can't go up more than a reasonably small amount or more often than a reasonably long period. You should also consider a lot of the non-purchase costs involved in home ownership. I wish the commissions had been the most significant expense I faced. Remodeling, repairs, improvements, decorating, re-decorating, and general maintenance added up to a large multiple of the commission I paid over ten years. And living in NJ, my property taxes have rising to nearly as much as my mortgage payments after a decade! I had never planned for any of that when considering what I could afford to buy.