Are there other essential matters that engaged couples have to think about other than their wedding day preparations? Plotting homeownership plans before and after the wedding are as important as ticking off items in the Wedding To-Do List. Woodland Hills Family Church Founding Pastor Ted Cunningham shares that for marriage to flourish, adults must prepare to leave their homes and live together. Engaged couples wonder about when is the best timing to buy a home. Instead of buying a home either before or after the wedding, it is best to view homeownership as a process wherein one’s financial personality, and the couples’ money management plans and priorities contribute to successful homeownership journey, which is a process that ideally starts before marriage.

Home Buying Preparations Before the Wedding Day 

There is no universal rule that dictates the best time to buy a home for couples. Although this decision is relative to a couple’s circumstances, there are prudent reasons that point to homeownership planning before the wedding day.  Homeownership is not an overnight process. Engaged couples can start deciding together the type and location of the home to buy, identify home must-haves, and come to terms with their financial personality.  These will help in house hunting and in limiting unhealthy spending habits and instead cultivate good money habits individually and as a couple.   Having good money habits will lead to finding the best mortgage and loan programs fit for the couple’s lifestyle and needs.  

Executing Homeownership Plans  After the Wedding Day

When a couple’s dream home needs some financial assistance, the loan application can be made. In qualifying for a loan, the loan terms and approval criteria are the same regardless if you are applying as a married couple or as two unmarried individuals.  However, both your and your partner’s income, credit, and assets will be used as a basis for loan approval and credit decision. Plans that have been set before the wedding can now be executed. Mortgage and property tax deduction from a joint tax return can be made after the wedding.  As a married couple purchasing a home, you are allowed to take the mortgage and property tax deductions from your joint tax return. At this point, your dream home will be a joint property which entitles both parties equal ownership of the property.

Homeownership journey encompasses before and after the wedding. Foresight is an engaged couple’s advantage. Identifying one’s financial personality, money habits, and family values to grow before the wedding sets the stage for home buying steps to take as a married couple after the wedding.  Housing and Real Estate companies that share a newly wedded couple’s set targets can be a reliable compass.  Consulting real estate and mortgage advisors can help couples who are in their wedding preparation stage or are newlyweds or couples/families on home expansion.

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