Buying A Home
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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.
New! Just decided to start the buying process :)
Hi Ladies,
I will probably be pretty active on this board for the next few months - DH and I decided we're ready to become homeowners 
.
We live in Chicago and are planning on purchasing a flat here. We have no debt ATM except for our car, and are planning on purchasing this autumn when the car is completely paid off. We will probably start looking during the summer months.
Is there anything we should be doing to prepare at this point? I feel like we have a pretty good handle on the process. It'll be nice to get some advice from other couples going on the same journey!
Re: New! Just decided to start the buying process :)
Sounds like you're in a good position to do it, having no debt. Other than the obvious things like saving, budgeting, etc you might want to consider starting to visit open houses. We did that for about a year before we got serious. It allowed us to see what was out there and get a feel for what we liked and didn't like. It's also a good way to meet agents so you can eventually choose one.
A big suggestion would be not to apply for any additional lines of credit between now and buying the house. You'll have to get a pre approval for the mortgage and when they check your credit recent inquiries will lower it.
That's awesome on the no debt situation. Good job!
I agree with PP about no new credit lines. That's a good point.
How much do you have saved for your down payment? Also, how much do you have saved in an emergency fund that will stay intact when you have the house and is separate from your DP?
RE: finding an agent. Call the companies and seek out the top three sellers in each office. Phone interview them and then meet with your top 2 or 3 in person. This will help you avoid getting wet noodle.
Find a good mortage broker and start getting pre-qualified now. Even if you are paying off your car, include that. You will need extra room in the budget when you own anyway. DO NOT look physically at homes until you know what you can afford. Notice I said physically; feel free to surf the web. But when you step into a home that you fall in love with it will be hard to let go when you can't afford it.
We have a decent amount saved for a DP (about 20% of what we plan on spending for a house - we were lucky enough to inherit this from my grandparents).
In terms of savings, we have about 4,000 saved. We've estimated (roughly) that because of our large DP, our mortgage will be around $1,000 per month, plus a couple hundred for taxes. We hope to have a little more saved, too, by the time we start looking (summer).
The idea of starting to look at open houses to meet agents is a GREAT idea. I hadn't really thought about that yet, but we will definitely try to carve out some time to go to open houses to meet some people. I'm assuming we should go to open houses of places that are below our budget, so we avoid the situation PP just described?