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NBR- Home buying advice
Hey wise ladies! We are embarking on the buying our first home process. Which makes me feel like a 12 year old wanting to borrow hundreds of thousands of dollars! I was wondering if you had any words of wisdom, things you wish you had known at the time, tales of warning, etc! We already know where we want to buy, have a real estate agent we like and are meeting with loan people to figure stuff out. We are planning to do a 20% down conventional.
I'm terrified! Reassure me! 
Or scare me more?
This discussion has been closed.
Re: NBR- Home buying advice
Yay! This is just my point of view, but I signed up for all of the free sites (redfin, zillow, etc) and was notified each time a house with the amenities we wanted in our location and price range popped up on the market. This way, I could preview the houses and directly contact our realtor the moment the houses we wanted to see were on the market (thus, already crossing off those that we didn't want to see, saving us time!).
We shopped around for our loan, contacting 3 different places (banks and brokers). I would suggest you do the same so that you can get the best interest rate AND closing costs.
If you look at any short sales, remember that some short sales are truly "quick" while others can drag on for MONTHS!
Sometimes it is helpful to have someone who is a homeowner (friend, parent, etc) look at a house you are interested in in order to get an unbiased opinion on the pros and cons of the house.
1. Know your budget. Not what the bank will lend you but what you can afford each month. From there, you'll make the most of what you have.
BTW.. you can have your finance people write the pre-approval letter for what you want to spend (a lesser amount) instead of what they'll actually approve you for. This comes in handy with putting in offers so the seller doesn't try to squeeze more money out of you.
2. The most time consuming part of the process was choosing neighborhoods. Know which schools are associated with the house because if family is on your mind, currently your situation or in your future, this will matter. We did okay but I wish we would have paid more attention to this (unless you already want to go private school).
3. Always see a house twice if possible.... even in the same day if needed. Walk away and come back. The first time you'll see the charm, the next time you'll see what's wrong with it.
4. Make a spreadsheet and itemize "Needs" versus "Wants". Needs are things that you'll be utterly unhappy if you don't have. Wants are something that you want but if it doesn't have, it's not a deal breaker. Bring that list with you and share it with your agent. It will help your agent focus your search better and keep you better focused on what will make you happy in the long run versus making you feel all warm and fuzzy now versus not so happy later.
5. Trust no one!! If they say it comes with something, make them write it down. Everything that is discussed, get it in writing. We heard, oh yeah, sure we'll leave that. We trusted and guess what? It wasn't there or done when we moved in.
6. Don't sign the final inspection paperwork until you really can finally inspect. Our sellers were still moving on inspection day. They promised not to cause damage, and leave behind what they promised. We were stupid and trusted them. Guess what? We were screwed with no recourse.
7. Stay on top of your bank. Ours dragged their feet and almost lost us our sale and our interest rate. The nice way to do this is to call and say, "Hi, I'm calling to check on the status of my loan." If it is on target, cool, have a nice day. If not, escalate!!!
8. Be honest whether or not you need those top of the line appliances and granite counter tops or if that is something you can put in later to your own taste. If you look at how much more you pay for those upgrades, it really is cheaper to make those later yourself and to your taste. Yeah, it is more work but saving money is saving money.
9. Know how much you are willing to take on. We're the roll up your sleeves kind of people so we bought a total dump to fix up. It's taken us years to whip this place into shape but the return on investment has been worth it. If you can't deal with renovation projects and contractors, pick something that is smaller but already fixed up.
10. Do your due diligence. Inspection reports, title insurance, etc. There's a lot of fraud out there. Treat every situation like everyone is out to get you and you should protect yourself properly.
11. Don't be afraid to cut your realtor loose if they don't mesh with you. Good realtor= no nonsense, here's what you need to do, GO!. Bad realtor = makes you scared, wants to do too much hand holding and is interested in becoming your surrogate mother. Yeah, yeah, that did happen to us.
Congrats! It's a stressful process to get a home but you won't regret it.
wow 20% down! That's wonderful!
My advice:
Expect it to take twice as long as you think it will (and as the experts tell you it will) but know it may happen sooner.
Be prepared to do work before you move in (you can get a lot more and get more what you want if you do some fixing...we did a new kitchen).
It may be worth it to look into a lower down to give you $$ to do some work.
Get someone to do a deep clean before you move in (wish we'd done that).
Don't judge a house by its listing
We took pictures of every house we visited so we could look back on them. It's an interesting chronicle of our journey.
Laugh rather than cry...try to have fun!
Have a great agent. When you sign any papers read and re-read trust nobody on what they tell you when it comes to the loan.
One smart thing I did was get a notebook just for the housebuying process. Kept all info and all questions in one place...then once we picked a place kept all my notes and questions in that one place.
Once we moved in I filled it in with all the people we are wrkign with...like who did landscaping...insurance person ...tv/internet...And I love being able to go right back to those numbers all the time.
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I agree with all of the pp. Also, I suggest the following:
--Find out if you will have to pay Mello Roos. We do as we live in a new development and it is a bit longer than most bonds, so check this out if your area is newer here. You could possibly pay around $200 a month for this and will want to be ready for it
--Find out if you will be on water meters. A lot of our areas here in Sac will eventually be on them, but it may change your mind a bit on the yard if you will be on them now.
--Open every cabinet in every room that you find if you are for sure intereseted in buying the house (I tried out every door too
). You never know what might need to be fixed or what damage you might find in there (water, hole in the wall, etc behind each cabinet door). Plus, you'll want to see how much storage space you have for towels, kitchen items, clothes in the closets, etc.
Good luck!
you're received great advice!! I just wanted to say good luck!!
Since I see you're in Sac, you should be able to use the website we used...I found it very helpful when searching for homes to see. www.metrolistmls.com
Good luck!
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