April 2010 Weddings
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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.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
s/o house hunting
So, DH was playing around online last night and happened to find a house that is *well* within our price-range. We are planning to drive by it tonight to see what it looks like on the outside.
Here's the thing, we haven't even really sat down to figure out what we can afford. We also haven't talked to the bank about loans or a realtor or anything, this is just so random and spur of the moment. We have been talking for a while about wanting a house, we just need to get the money for the down payment.
So, I guess my question is, where do we start? Do we talk to the bank first? Find a realtor? I'm really pretty clueless about all of this in case you couldn't tell.
Re: s/o house hunting
I found a loan officer who was recommended by my realtor (who I know from a board I'm on) and he looked at our stuff and told us what we could afford and what range to look in.
The plus of going to a loan officer and not one bank was he could get us the best rate. For us it happened to be Bank of America but it could have been anything.
I would say first start at home... Make sure you are in the clear of not having a credit card balance, car loans or anything of that sort. Then I would go to the banks to find out what you might qualified for. At the end seek for a realtor. Good Luck!
First we talked to our banker and she put us in touch with their mortgage broker. He gave us a pre-approval letter. That was in August. We kind of sat on the whole thing for a while.
Then I got in touch with a real estate agent around Thanksgiving, who happened to be the one my BFF at work used. This agent had us talk to the mortgage lender their agency works with, who, like Laurie's could canvas all banks and get us the best rate.
In the interim, we did some personal finance number crunching, and looked at what kind of a monthly payment we could afford, given that a mortgage payment really includes the principal of the loan, PLUS taxes and insurance. When we did that, we found that our pre-approval letter from the bank didn't mean squat. We'd be foreclosed on in about six months because they approved us for a loan about $100k more than we could actually afford. It didn't factor in your actual monthly expenses, just our credit rating and assets.
Then we started looking at listings in earnest in January. We go back to the mortgage lender affiliated with our realtor from time to time to get numbers crunched so we can see the monthly bottom line.
And you know the rest! Good luck, it's a great ride, with a wonderful destination!
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When I bought my condo, I started by crunching all of the numbers to know what I could afford. Leave yourself some wiggle room in your budget, there are always expenses you don't expect. I would suggest pulling copies of both of your credit reports if you haven't done this in a while so that you're not in for any suprises. I called up a highly recommended realtor in my area, and she referred me to a mortgage broker to get pre-approved. Like Laurie, I was pre-approved for way more than I was comfortable spending - that's one reason why this country's RE market is such a mess, I think a lot of people thought "cool, if I'm approved for this amount I must buy a house that costs that much!" even if they couldn't really afford it. Just use some common sense.
Once I was pre-approved we went out looking at places, found the place I bought a few weeks later, and voila. My realtor was able to guide me through the whole process and referred me to a home inspector and an attorney.
The process can be stressful, but is also fun. Good luck!
I haven't bought a house yet but I agree w/PPs it totally makes sense to start by figuring out what you can budget with all your other expenses factored in.
I don't know about the rest but I'm so excited for you and sending you tons of good luck vibes that you can find a beautiful home for you and DH!
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1. Budget (and like Lori said, leave room for unpleasant surprises!)
2. Google. You may be surprised as to what is actually in your price range bc you have to add in insurance, taxes, and HOA dues, etc. If you look around the internet and realize everything in your price range is less than desirable, you may not want to waste a realtor/bank's time.
3. Lender. My mom works in mortgage so she just referred me to a friend, but def get references! You should get a pre-approval but remember you probably dont' actually want to spend all that you're approved for!
4. Realtor. Again I got lucky and had a realtor friend. Just make sure you are VERY clear on your "deal breakers" and your wish list.
5. Have fun!!!!!
Thanks for all the tips ladies. DH did a little research last night when we got home. It looks like we are going to try to find a HUD counselor or someone like that to see what kind of help there is for first-time home buyers.
When we drove by the house last night it looked like it could be something we would be interested in looking at. I can't believe this may actually happen. I'm trying not to get too excited about everything, but eek!!
That is so exciting Julie! Is the house in your same area or are you looking to move to a different area?
When DH bought his house, he first met with his buddy who owns a financial group to figure out how much house he could afford. Another one of our good friends is a real estate agent so then we connected with him to start looking at houses in his/our price point.
I hope everything works out! I'm sure your friends have referrals, but let me know if you want me to message you the names of the folks we used.
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Jacqui, right now we are planning to stay in North/West County. With DH working near the airport and needing to be close to work, we can't move too far from where we are. Last night we were looking in the Bridgeton area. Ideally, we would stay in the Hazelwood/Bridgeton/Florissant aread.
If we stay on this side of the river, I would love to live in the Kirkwood school district, but that's not a possibility right now. I also wouldn't mind moving back to IL, but that won't happen for awhile.