First Time Home Buyers - Advice Please!

ericres1

So I recently went though a first time home buying experience...  I don't know if I am alone here, so I was looking for some advice:

What difficulties did you experience?

What was hard that should not have been? 

What was the most painful part or most frustrating?

What can I do to help my friends who will be going through the process in the near future?

 

I have been talking to several friends...  Buying a house shouldn't be hard, right?

LittleLady77

Is this a joke? Buying a home is notoriously one of the most stressful things a person can do. It's right up there with losing your job and having a kid. 

It takes thousands of dollars and months if not years of looking for a house. You are dependent on other people and often you experience downright heartaches when you lose a house you love. You need to be seriously disciplined to stick to your budget and not dig into your emergency fund to buy. All of that aside, the stress of picking your house for the next 10 years is big in itself. 

Read "home buying for dummies" and get realistic.   

vpine

I thought home buying would be a happy and exciting experience but we were stressed almost the whole process. Our realtor was great, the nerve wracking part was counter-offer process and waiting for everything to be signed by all parties (labor day holiday caused a few days delay on their end). The home inspection went smoothly, the approval and underwriting went pretty smoothly (they only bugged for explanations on a few deposits in our bank staternent) but closing day was stressful. The seller didn't sign his paperwork because he wanted changes made the night before (taxes and his realtor fee was incorrect) and I was told on way to closing that I had to take another bank certified check for $500 because of the changes made, had to pull over and find a bank. The closing process took about 45 mins, that went smoothly as well as getting keys. 

LoveKiss

The actual buying part (e.g. getting the loan, doing the paperwork) was easy. As long as you do your homework, save your pennies, ask the right questions ahead of time, etc., that part is a cake walk. But finding a house to buy is 50% luck and 50% realistic expectations. The luck part you just can't control. You can't force the right house to come on the market. All you can do is be patient and emotionally detached while you wait.

ErinO21

Our home buying experience basically sucked until the day we went and looked at the house we purchased. 

First house we made an offer on was a short sale... and pretty much all short sales from what I've heard are nightmares.  We didn't get a counter from the bank until about 60 days later.

We found another house that had much more land, but the house needed a lot of renovating. We thought the ground that was with it made it worth it and pulled our offer on house 1. We made an offer about 20 minutes after someone else. When we heard we were second, we increased our offer to FULL asking price but the seller accepted the first offer because it was the "right thing to do"

Took a break, went on a vacation, came back and went to look at a house that we had been avoiding because it was in a certain part of town. We fell IN LOVE! We were already pre-approved from the 1st house, it was less than what were willing to pay, and had the perfect amount of land all on a dead end road so we have plenty of privacy.

From my experience, when its right it will happen and work great.

ericres1

So I am hearing several different difficulties:

finding the right location/house

bank / loan / underwriter process

closing

fear of the unknow

others

If you had to rank them the most painful to the least, how would they be listed?

R.Wilsonny

I'll add one thing to the list....having the inlaws try to involve themselves in every aspect of the home buying process, attempting to derail any house you consider making an offer on, then the house you do eventually wind up buying, turning the final walk through and closing into an absolute circus. My home buying experience was actually not bad with the exception of those things. Don't ask lol

BrittP10

We are still in the process of buying. The approval was fine, no stress there. Right now though, there is nothing on the market that we are even slightly interested in. We put one offer in, but the sellers were unwilling to negotiate ( they wanted to live there 60 days after closing for free), and we could not accommodate that. That was upsetting, because the house was perfect for our family. So now we are just waiting. I hate it.

atlcatlover

The #1 rule in real estate is location, location, location.  Def the most difficult for us was finding the right house in our preferred location.  We didn't settle though, we just kept looking until we found it.

We didn't have any trouble with the rest, but I think we are the exception rather than the rule.  As for fear of the unknown, that is why everyone here will stress over and over the importance of a healthly emergency fund.  There are so many things that can go wrong in owning a home.

LoveKiss

ericres1:

So I am hearing several different difficulties:

finding the right location/house

bank / loan / underwriter process

closing

fear of the unknow

others

If you had to rank them the most painful to the least, how would they be listed?

If I had to rank them, with #1 being the MOST difficult, this is what I would say:

#1 finding the right house in the right location at the right price (aka finding the sweet spot)

#2 managing the emotional rollercoaster. it was such an emotionally draining experience

#3 fear of the unknown. even with a 6 month emergency fund and then some left over after closing, it was still hard to pull the trigger because financial security is such a huge deal for us

#4 the loan/underwriting process. ours went off with only one minor glitch that was resolved in an afternoon, but we never did get our formal commitment letter, which made us nervous. Our lender was swamped with loans that month, so our loan guy just called the seller's realtor directly and let him know that our loan was good. Fortunately the sellers and their agent were cool with a phone call rather than the official commitment letter. but we were still nervous.

#5 Closing. While it's not fun to see your bank account drop by 6 figures, actual closing day was fun and exciting. Honestly, all of those fears of the unknown were replaced by pure, giddy joy. We were so happy that it was finally happening. Our realtor was there to guide everything, our loan guy popped in just to make sure that all of the paperwork was perfect, and our title agency rep was a total pro who clearly had everything under control. We talked with the sellers for more than an hour. They gave us the skinny on all of the neighbors, brought us a binder filled with owners manuals and warranties for everything in the house, etc. When it was time to say goodbye we hugged and let them know that their beloved home was in good hands. It was truly a wonderful experience.

ericres1

So friends of mine are attending an educational seminar on home ownership.  It sounds like an in depth program that will help them avoid typical problems in the process.  I look forward to hearing from them! 

Thinking back, I think it would have been worth attending.  It sounds like there was a cost involved.   

Do you all think it would be worth shelling out a few bucks to attend a seminar held by industry professionals to help with the process? How much would it be worth, $25 - 150?  It might have saved us all a little headache...