Tips on Home Buying

Well, we are moved in! It's been a lot of work and at times I wanted to pull my hair out thinking about all of this junk that we have to organize, but we are slowing chipping away at it. I'm hoping to have some pictures to show you soon! Even if it's not totally "finished" I would love to do a tour of the house here on the blog. I took some "before" photos on my phone the morning before we moved our stuff in, and unfortunately those photos are gone. I accidentally washed my phone in the washing machine (don't ask) and anything after my last backup on iTunes on October 1st was lost. In better news, I think I have a little more knowledge on the iCloud now, so hopefully this won't happen again.

Anyway... back to the point of this post!

While it's still fresh on my mind, I wanted to share some tips we picked up on buying our first home. This is our first go-around with this whole process, and I know we're not experts. And this list is by no means exhaustive. But I thought I'd share some of the experience I've gained during this whole thing!

1. Research first, online and by driving around. Look at location, different price points, different styles of homes, etc. BEFORE you go out and look with a Realtor. Find out if price, location, or size is most important to you. For us, we wanted a very specific area, limited to only a few neighborhoods. Once we figured that out, we were able to see what type of house we could afford in our price range. I wanted a single family home but quickly realized that what we could afford was a townhouse, and that was okay because the location was more important to me. Use the internet and go drive around. It's worth it before you start touring homes!

2. Make a wishlist. I would actually say make two lists - one list of things that your house MUST HAVE, and another list of things that would be nice, but aren't deal-breakers. I gave these lists to our Realtor as well. Some things on our "must have" list were: garage, 3+ bedrooms, price, and the location we wanted. On our "would be nice" list we had: hardwood floors, updated kitchen, outdoor space, neighborhood pool. There is no right or wrong way to do this, it is totally up to you what's important to you (and your spouse or partner!).

3. Save. This might be obvious, but even if you are not doing a full 20% down payment, you will have so much to pay for and it's wise to have a good amount of savings on top of the amount you've saved for a down payment. Things like closing costs, the home inspection, moving costs, installation fees for moving your cable or satellite service, etc. are all extra costs not included in the purchase price and they can add up really fast. You also have no idea what may happen in the first few months (AC unit breaking down, water heater leaking...). Even though buying a home is technically better in the long run, it's expensive beyond just the cost of the house, and it's good to be prepared before jumping in.



4. Find a Realtor you trust. I went with a good friend from college who has been doing real estate for years now, and has had a lot of first-time-home-buyer experience so I knew I could trust her. When we went to our first showing, she gave us a great overall picture of what the market is doing right now and what the interest rate trends were doing, and I just knew that she knew her stuff and we could trust her to do a good job. Go with a recommendation from someone you know who really liked their Realtor. I would not advise picking a Realtor from a random ad you've seen.

5. Talk to a lender you trust and get pre-approved for a loan so you know what you can afford. Before we toured any homes, I asked our Realtor which lender she recommended and started with her. I called her to give her some information about us, and asked her if we had this much to put down and we wanted our monthly payment to be $XXX, how much could we afford? She was able to give me a price range to narrow in on. She also gave me a few scenarios for higher prices, but that increased our monthly payment significantly, and we knew we didn't want to do that. They will always approve you for MORE than what is financially smart, so it's best to know how much you want to spend per month before looking at houses. And make sure that number includes insurance and taxes! (Also keep Homeowners Association dues in mind when you're calculating your monthly housing cost.)

We also looked at a few other lenders just to check rates and it ended up that our Realtor's recommendation was the best. However, don't feel bad telling your Realtor or lender that you found a better rate elsewhere. This is a huge purchase and you have the right to get the best deal! Don't worry about hurting people's feelings - your overall finances are what matter most in this situation as you're the one who is stuck with this mortgage at the end of the day. And you'll likely be stuck with it for a long time.

6. Once you put in an offer and it's been accepted, stop looking at houses. My Realtor told us to do this, and it was great advice. I caught myself looking at other homes afterwards and it always made me feel a little uneasy. Did we make the right choice? Is our house as good as this other one? What if we could have gotten a better deal on something else had we waited? All of these questions will drive you crazy, and it's best to just focus on the house you chose and choose to be happy with your decision. (That being said, if you find something majorly wrong during the inspection, don't be afraid to walk away from the house. Things like that happen and you have to look at those things objectively. But your overall attitude should be set on the house you put the offer on.)

7. Do as much as you can in the house before you move. If you have some lapse time between the old place and the new place, do any major work on the home before moving. We closed on a Wednesday and moved on the following Saturday, so we had a very short turnaround but in those couple days we cleaned the carpets, did an overall cleaning, and painted the master bedroom. It was so much easier to do all those things without our stuff in the place! Our motivation to do it quick was to be out of our rental house by the end of October to avoid another month's rent. However, our first mortgage payment was wrapped up in the closing, so technically we don't owe our first mortgage payment until December 1st. If the house needed a lot of work, we could have delayed our move and had more time to get projects done without having to pay double (rent and mortgage) since the November mortgage payment is covered. We opted to do it quickly since the house was in good shape, but it's totally up to you and your circumstances. It takes a bit of the pressure off!

8. Wait to make big purchases until after you've moved. Resist the urge to buy every new thing you want for your new place, because a) you're going to have to move it from your old house to your new house, and b) it might not fit in the new place the way you're picturing it, or you may realize that you don't need that piece of furniture. It's really hard to wait, but it's so worth it to do so. You can move into your new place, set up your things you already have, and reassess what you actually need right away vs. what can wait. And you can pull out the tape measure and know for sure that what you're buying will fit. Trust me, you do need to measure!


So those are my tips on buying a house! I probably could add another 20 but those are the biggest ones I can think of right now. I really think they need to offer courses on this in college! It's such a complicated process and it's easy to get really overwhelmed.

Do you have any home buying tips to add that I forgot?