Pittsburgh Nesties
Mrs.Cheri
member
Cheri & Dave
October 6, 2007
Dear Community,
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
First-Time Home Buying Tips?
DH and I are starting to actively look into the whole home buying process, and we've looked at several different houses. Does anyone have any experience with a first-time home buyer (FHA) loan? Any tips for this whole process? It's all so exciting, yet very overwhelming!
Cheri & Dave
October 6, 2007
Re: First-Time Home Buying Tips?
Congrats! We got our home 5 years ago through FHA - it's a bit of extra work in that you may need to have more things done like railings installed, etc. And the seller usually won't make those changes b/c it's your choice to go through FHA for a loan. But the only extra steps were having them come out to assess the property and see what work needed done. If they find anything that needs fixing, they will come back to ensure it was done. We had no problems!
Tips for buying - shop around for underwriting / closing agents! They really vary and can impact your bottom line.
Hi CHeri! We just closed on our first home with an FHA loan, so the first step would be to call a mortgage broker and get pre-approved and examine you income and figure out what you can really afford. DH and I bought on the low, low end of our pre-approved rate because its our first home in our neighborhood we live in now and we didnt want to give up our life style.
2. Make a list of things you have to have in your home, things you want, and things you dont.
3. Consider a few different neighborhoods to look in or move too. Or just figure our an area to buy in.
4. It takes a while and please dont get discouraged if when you make your first offer and its rejected.
5. If your buying in the south hills I HIGHLY recommend John Conti with Coldwell Banker, he is fab and super super patient.
Good luck andd please email me if you have any questions. samanthasuljic@gmail.com I literally JUST went through the whole process.
Im excited for you and your H. Its fun.
We closed with a 15 year FHA mortgage last year and were very pleased. The guidelines are a bit more stringent for this loan (no chipping paint, rails on stairs, etc), but this is all stuff that benefits you. Our seller had no issue at all with us going through FHA. Advice:
1) Definitely get pre-approved (and not pre-qualifed). This is where they pull your credit and debt to income ratios to determine how much they would lend you. You get a letter and that is what you can use in putting an offer on a house (it shows that you already are approved for a mortgage). On this note, remember that you don't have to spend what you're preapproved for. We were set for a much higher amount and asked for a lower amount on our letter because we only wanted to spend what we were comfortable with.
2) Have a realtor your are comfortable with! We had some issues with our first realtor and were pretty upset. We switched realtors and it made a world of difference. (like Sami, if you're looking in South Hills, I'd recommend our realtor).
3) Ask questions, even if they seem silly. I asked questions on anything and everything. In one instance, it was a really good thing I asked (a wall looked funny...and it turned out to have major termite damage).
4) Definitely shop around on your mortgage and your home owner's insurance. I was set on going with our normal insurance company. Our mortgage company also did insurance and offered us a quote. At first I didn't want to take it at all, but finally did mainly to get them off our back. It ended up being the same (if not better coverage) for almost 1/2 the money.
5) Check out different types of mortgages to see what's the best fit. This is how we wound up with a 15 year. We were able to put down less than 20% w/o PMI by going this route. Our payment is $100 more than it would have been with a 30 year and we're saving a bundle overall!
6) Don't sweat the cosmetic stuff. Our house had some yucky cosmetic issues upstairs. But a couple of weekends of work and everything was cleaned up and we got a steal on our house.
Mainly just have fun and follow your gut instinct! If something doesn't feel right, there's probably a reason. Enjoy your time and if you have any questions at all, please feel free to let me know:)