Hi friends!! What an amazing few weeks it’s been, living in our very first home. Honestly, it’s one of the happiest times of our lives! For background, my husband Jesse and I just bought (well built) our very first home. Before this, we rented for years in both New York City and Scottsdale, AZ. In 2018 we started to seriously talk about purchasing our first home, but all we knew was that we needed to save money and have good credit scores. I really wish we had known more than we did, but that’s why I’m here today taking the mystery out of how to prep for being a home owner. Today, I’m sharing everything you need to know before buying a house!
Check out the details of our tile in our new home HERE.
Before House Hunting Steps
1. Hire A Realtor
Before house hunting begins, we wanted to be sure of a few things. First, we hired a realtor! If you’re local, our good friend Jenna Marsh was our real estate agent. We knew we could trust her and that she had our best interest. Make sure whoever you hire is someone you trust and who will be 100% honest with you. What I mean by that, is you want a realtor who will point out the good the bad and the ugly! We went to look for houses for over a year before finding our lot, and I swear every single one had downsides and Jenna pointed them ALL out to us! A good realtor cares more about a long term relationship and happy home owners, who will refer them and come back when they’re ready to buy/sell, than just a one time commission.
2. Get Pre-Qualified
Second, call a mortgage company and have a loan officer get you pre-qualified. The pre-qualification process essentially tells you what you can afford to purchase. Your real estate agent can refer reputable mortgage companies. We got pre-qualified by a mortgage company that we didn’t wind up getting our mortgage through. You just need to take the first step and this step is 100% free. Getting pre-qualified also helps eliminate wasted time looking at houses out of budget. We knew what we could afford and didn’t want to try to go over!
3. Write Down House Non-Negotiables
Once we got pre-qualified, we talked to Jenna (our realtor) and chatted about our non-negotiables. These are things that were must haves in our house (that we either couldn’t or didn’t want to have to change later on). Basically we made a short list of things that were absolute must haves for us. For example, we wanted an open concept layout, high ceilings, a safe neighborhood and 4 bedrooms. Once we nailed that down, we had Jenna start looking for houses for us.
4. Save Money
This should also go without saying, but we saved a ton over the past few years! We wanted to put down 20% to avoid PMI (private mortgage insurance, which is a fee you pay if you don’t put down 20%, but drops once you get to the 20%). We also knew that once we cashed the down payment on the house, the first few months would be rather expensive. We still have a ton of projects, but we want new furniture, light fixtures, hardware, and so much other random stuff! Obviously we can do it slowly, but there are things (like landscaping or painting) that can’t be avoided.
That’s It!
I hope this helps you when you are ready to shop for houses. We had such an awesome experience, and I think these steps are what really helped us not be stressed through the home buying process.
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