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Psst - need some NER advise
I'm going to pretend my husband wont see this, even though he will, but he knows.
So we've finally hit the magic number in our savings account where we're supposed to start house shopping. This happened two weeks ago, but we haven't made much progress yet. Mr.P just forwarded me an email to make an appt to see a house, and texted me to email our potential agent.
I feel like I'm being shoved into the deep end of a pool. I'm terrified, physically terrified. I feel very similar to the day in college I discovered when I was graduating - I went home and went to bed at 7pm that day because I couldn't physically handle the pressure.
There is absolutely nothing to be afraid of. Our credit is perfect (I had freaked myself out about that for no reason, but checked last night). We have plenty of room in our budget; I've ran and reran the numbers a zillion times. We don't have a glut of down payment money, but we've been saving and paying off debt for 4 years. We both have stable jobs.
It's just a big scary grown up lot of money and it makes me want to find a hole to hide in. And I've tried every rational argument with myself and I still wake up in the middle of the night freaking out, and I still walk around all tense during the day.
I'm sure Mr.P is going to start pushing me soon - that's good, it's better than coddling me, but I don't handle it well if I'm a nutcase. And I feel like sometimes my rational arguments aren't getting through because he knows I'm being an irrational nutcase (this is bad, 'cause I'm the only one who's read Home Buying for Dummies, and I can't tell if I'm bringing up rational concerns, or crazy lady ones, and neither can he).
I'm open to any advice short of perscription medication.... or maybe that's not such a terrible idea.
Re: Psst - need some NER advise
I'm not really sure what kind of advice you are looking for. Sounds like what you need, based on the financial info you've presented, is some reassurance.
Assuming everything you've stated above is accurate, I think you're in a terrific place right now. Much better to be a buyer in this market than a seller. I imagine, there are some good opportunities out there, depending on where you live and your price range.
You will want to look at loan possibilities prior to finding your dream house. Because of the mortgage crisis, loans may be more difficult/expensive (rates) to obtain, even for those with perfect / good credit. I'm not a mortgage broker and I haven't researched mortgages for quite some time so I won't even pretend to be an expert, just telling you to look before you leap (should be common sense but given the recent past, I don't want to assume anything in that regard).
It sounds as if you've planned quite well and are being smart about this. If I were you, I'd see what's out there as far as loans go and then start looking. You've got time to find something terrific so take your time and enjoy yourself. And remember, just because you are looking at houses, doesn't mean you have to buy right away.
Congrats on making it to your goal! I know it's a HUGE step, but you will be comfortable once you find "the house" for you and Mr. P. Take your sweet time looking and enjoy the process, it is truly a buyer's market out there. Use more than one RE agent as well. Some people feel the need to be "loyal" to their agent, but you simply want as broad of a reach as possible. Different agents can be experts in different parts of the city.
I don't have any specific advice, but if it makes you feel any better, buying a house was one of the most stressful things I've done in my life. To compare with other life events: it felt like a bigger commitment than getting married and I'm relatively unfazed by the prospect of attempting to squeeze a baby out soon without drugs.
The day we put some good faith money down on the house, I woke up in the middle of the night (unheard of for me) thinking WTF are we doing?! And the house closing threw off my monthly cycle (also never happened to me before). But here we are over 2 yrs later and everything is ok. I look at it one month at a time... as in, hey I just made a mortgage payment and we can keep our house another month
It's been great to have some space and know that the work we put into it is an investment, plus someplace that's home for many years to come.
Good luck! You sound more prepared than we ever were and it seems like a great time to buy. Still, I understand how it can feel like "taking a plunge."
You guys are smart to start building equity now while you are young (I'm thinking you are fairly young, no?). I absolutely love being a homeowner, but wish I hadn't wasted so many years being a renter. I would also think having your money invested in property makes a fair amount of sense right about now.
Great advice so far. I just want to add that you don't HAVE to buy a house. You're just shopping. Don't feel pressured to buy just because you feel like you 'should.' Take your time looking and don't settle for less than The Perfect House. Some people take months and months to look before even making an offer. A friend of DH actually looked at over 700 houses before buying one - sounds insane, but they got an amazing deal and their house is every single thing they wanted. ?
That's so exciting!
Do you know the area where you want to buy a house? If you don't, I would definitely recommend talking to people that live there or live near there. You will get a more honest answer than from real estate agents or from the internet.
My biggest advice probably won't apply to you since this is a buyer's market, but maybe it will still help. We bought during the bubble in a seller's market and we really settled on our house (luckily the real estate has been good here). We did not have a big budget and we were just glad to find a home and not an apt or townhome. I really regret getting this house. The layout isn't good. It just does not give us much room to grow at all. I had reservations before we bought but since we didn't have many other options, we bought it. Make sure you feel like it is the house. Keep looking until you find the right one that fits you. That may seem obvious but we just really wanted to get a house and we didn't take our time like we should have.
GL!
I am gonna ditto TTT - you are just shopping. You most likely will not buy the first house you see. Not to get your hopes down, lol. You just gotta get over the hump, you know? Once you see a few crappy houses you'll be chomping at the bit to go out and find that one good house!!
just keep telling yourself "this house will be crappy, this house will be crappy..."
What works for me: Asking myself, "What exactly are you afraid of?"
What if we can't afford it?
Well, you have run the numbers, right? You've been living on x amount of dollars for this long so you can do it.
What if one of us loses our jobs? Well, what if? You'll have savings, right? What would you do now? Go job hunting, collect unemployment, look at a retail job in the meantime.
Just get specific with yourself on your fears and come up with some concrete steps you can take or have already taken.