Buying A Home
ashleyjesse1112
member
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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.
Just Starting
My husband and I have been saving money since our wedding last August. We rent a house with my mother-in-law who is pretty cool and works long hours. I have been getting for a while now because I just want my own space. Now we are finally at a point where we can start looking for a house! I am so excited about the idea of finally owning my own home! My mother in law actually just put an offer on a house last night because she is trying to buy a house of her own and my husband told me told we are going to do the loan application today! After months of looking we have finally narrowed down the area and price range (around 175k) we want to buy a house in. We are getting the loan based on 1 income because I will stay home when we have children. I think I will ask my mother in law (who is also an awesome real estate agent) if she can show us houses on Saturday. Anyways, I just wanted to share my excitement! Anyone else in the beginning stages of buying a house? How has it been for you?
Re: Just Starting
Now we're still trying not to get our hopes up - we still need a good appraisal and inspection, but fingers crossed that everything works out. It looks like our closing date will be May 2nd which is perfect because our current lease is up mid-May. The hardest part is the waiting! Hopefully everything is pretty smooth for you! :-)
We got lucky with the house we're under contract for - It had only been on the market for 7 days when we went to look at it. Plus it was a First Look eligible home, which meant that cash buyers and investors couldn't put an offer on it for 15 days after it was listed, giving normal folk like us a chance to snatch it up! We literally made the decision to put an offer in while we were standing in the driveway that day, because even as our realtor was showing it to us, a couple walked in off the street wanting to look at it too!
Don't be discouraged! You'll get the house you're meant to have and five years down the line you'll be like "How could we have considered anything else??" :-)
@flyster I hear ya about stalking Zillow! At one point Zillow as listed on my laptop as one of my most visited web sites LOL. Even now I get the urge to see if anything new has popped up!
Our inspection was today - it went pretty well! No structural or pest damage at all which was the main thing I was worried about. Even the pool pump is in working condition. The only major issue is the AC doesn't blow cold air - could be a simple fix, could not be. But it's certainly not a deabreaker for us.
TTC Countdown to 8/2015
Wow! I'm surprised to hear about the difficult preapproval process for some of you. It must really vary by bank/region. When I got my preapproval, it was a 5-minute phone call and I was e-mailed my preapproval letter about 10 minutes later. During the phone call, they checked my credit and asked about my income, but didn't require proof.
Of course, once I went under contract, then all the intense paperwork had to be provided, but not before then.
Good luck, ashleyjesse! It is a really exciting time to be looking for your first new home. Just try not to get your hopes up until you are literally at the closing table. There are a myriad of things that can go wrong and through off a deal, even after you find the perfect house. I was under contract for many months on a house that ended up falling through and was just devastated afterwards. To be fair, the delay was on my end (though not my fault) because I was buying my house under a SWEET government program that couldn't get their act together.
I had to stop looking for a couple months because I just couldn't stand it anymore. But, when I returned to house hunting, losing that house ended up being a HUGE blessing in disguise. I found a house I liked almost as much that was less than half the cost and bought it with a traditional loan instead of dealing with that program again.
Personally, I wouldn't recommend buying (or even putting in an offer on) a house that you wouldn't want your children going to school near. Not to be negative, but my parents bought a home a couple years after they married, thinking it would be an okay starter home... over 20 years, two children, and a divorce, my mom STILL lives in that house she never truly loved (with no chance of moving in sight). Just some food for thought
As far as buying a home, we're there! John and I just won an online auction last week for a $140k home that we got for $83k
we go to sign some papers at the lender's office in the morning! Good luck to all the other 1st time buyers out there!