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Cost of Buying a House Spreadsheet: 3 Super Handy Templates

Finding the right house can be a huge undertaking, and one of the biggest factors to consider is whether or not you can afford to buy the property you’ve fallen in love with. One way to make this process a little easier is to build a cost of buying a house spreadsheet and simply enter the details for each property you’re considering.

In this guide, we’ll show you what you need to put into such a spreadsheet, how to build one, and provide you with 3 ready-to-go templates you can use. Read on to learn more.

Cost of Buying a House Spreadsheet Templates

Here we have 3 different templates you can use to figure out the cost of buying your dream home. We’ve included different templates so you can find one that fits your needs without having to edit, but we do recommend making changes to the sheets when required.

Home Affordability Spreadsheet Template 1

This template takes into consideration your other debts as well as the actual costs involved with buying a house. It’s also the one we use in the rest of the guide, so use this one if you plan on following along.

Cost of Buying a Home Spreadsheet Template 2

This template works out the gross and net cost of all the aspects of the initial purchase and ongoing home ownership fees.

Cost of Buying a House Spreadsheet Template 3

This template does not consider any other debts you have and only has the costs involved with home ownership. You’ll find parameters for mortgage costs, housing payments, tax adjustments, and expected maintenance costs.

Related Reading: Google Sheets Expense Tracker

Expenses to Consider When Creating a House Buying Spreadsheet

Here are some expenses you should consider adding to your home buying budget template.

Calculate Upfront Costs

When you purchase a property, you will have a certain deposit you will need to plan for in addition to any ongoing monthly bills. Make sure you have sufficient funds in savings to cover each of the following:

  • Initial Payment: The initial expense that most purchasers are mindful of is a down payment. Depending on the sort of loan you’re asking for, people should save aside between 5% and 20% of the cost of the home as a deposit.
  • Closing Expenses: Lender fees, deed recording fees, points, and other one-time expenses are included in closing expenses. These costs, payable at closing, can be in the tens of thousands.
  • Home Examination: Before making an offer on the house, you should probably have it inspected to determine its condition. Depending upon the home’s size, location, and condition, a home visit should cost between $400 and $700.
  • Commission for Real Estate Agents: If you’re working with an estate agent, you probably signed a contract to pay a commission to that person. This is normally 3%, yet it’s common for many buyers to have their commission paid by the seller.

Related Reading: Google Sheets Reading List Template

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Determine Yearly or Monthly Expenses

You can now focus on recurring annual or monthly expenses after closing and after paying all the initial costs related to purchasing a house.

  • Household Services: The size, features, and location of your property all affect how much your average utility bill will be. Before you sign on a home, you may typically phone the local utility companies to obtain the property’s 12-month average utility bill. In this method, you can plan your budget based on what it will cost you.
  • HOA Fees: There will probably be ongoing costs associated with a homeowners association if you purchase a house that is part of one. Your monthly mortgage payment could or might not cover these.
  • Repairing and Maintaining: Being in charge of everything that breaks is one of the benefits of owning your own house. The 1 percent rule, which argues that homeowners should set aside 1 percent of their home’s purchase price each year for repairs, is a reasonable general guideline.
  • Real Estate Taxes: Taxes are commonly evaluated annually or semi-annually and vary by state, district, and municipality. Many loans have an emergency fund where you pay a set amount each month, and the borrower uses that money to pay insurance and taxes when they’re due.

Related Reading: Spreadsheet for Rental Property

How to Create a Home Buying Spreadsheet Template Google Sheets

There are a lot of factors to consider when making a home buying spreadsheet template. We are going to take a look at the steps you need to follow to create a Google Sheets home buying spreadsheet:

How to merge cells for a title
  1. The first thing we will do is add a label to our buying a house budget spreadsheet. You can do this in your spreadsheet by making the font size larger and merging cells to accommodate the larger font. Feel free to change the color to distinguish your spreadsheet better.
Data to add for a basic cost of buying a house spreadsheet
  1. Now, add a rough outline of the data you wish to have in the spreadsheet. Don’t worry about the formatting of the data just yet. Make sure that the elements make sense in the spreadsheet.
Changing the formatting on your Data to add for a basic cost of buying a house spreadsheet
  1. You may have noticed by now that the elements in your new home budget spreadsheet don’t look visually appealing. You can add colors to the cells and borders to ensure your data looks well organized.
Finding monthly costs
  1. The last thing to do now is add formulas to the spreadsheet, allowing you to automate the spreadsheet. In this example template, we have just used simple formulas to divide by 12. This will save you from the hassle of converting yearly figures into monthly ones, as you can add a formula that divides the yearly figure by 12 and adds that value into a new cell.

You can, of course, add more complicated formulas to work out certain factors, such as interest vs principal payments, etc this will just depend on how in-depth you want your sheet to be. You could even add a dashboard.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Expenses Should I Budget for When Buying a House?

One of the most obvious expenses when buying a house is the mortgage payment. You will most likely need to get a loan from mortgage lenders to make the purchase of your new house. The next expense you need to have in mind is the property taxes which you will have to pay every year. Maintaining homeowners insurance is usually a requirement if you have a mortgage on your home.

How Do You Create a Budget for Buying a House?

When looking to create a budget for buying a house, first, you will need to determine the money you can afford on a home and also start to figure out how much you need to save for your down payment. Start setting aside money for closing costs and account for ongoing and new expenses. You can track these expenses by using a buying-a-house spreadsheet. Use it to calculate a budget and start to save.

What Are Hidden Fees When Buying a House?

When budgeting to buy a house, you should consider some hidden costs such as home appraisal, inspection, loan organization fees, property taxes, escrow accounts, school taxes, closing costs, and moving costs. You will also need to account for costs like utilities, home repairs, maintenance, and insurance.

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, one of our cost of buying a house spreadsheet templates fits your needs perfectly. We also have plenty of other useful templates you can use. Check some of them out below.

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