Last year on Cinco de Mayo, we closed on our first home. After living in small white-walled spaces in major metropolitan areas, it was a change I was excited for. A space just for us, much more room for Quinn and so many other things. Our home search process spanned around four months and was a stressful time for us. Before we started, I did not look into home purchase tips. There were many unknowns and several months crammed into my parent’s basement. We realized though how lucky we were to have that option and for the time to spend with family.
Going through this process once by no means makes me a pro. However, below are some helpful tips for others going through this for the first time.
Planning
Know your must haves – and what must haves can go to nice to haves if necessary. We had a lot of absolutes (decent backyard, central A/C, more than one bathroom, minimal updates required, proximity to the train station). For us, a garage ended up shifting to the nice to have column.
Do your research. Before we began searching, we reviewed tons of information. We looked into commute routes into Manhattan, train reliability, public school rankings and crime rates. Trulia is an excellent site to use to look into crime rates. This helped to steer us away from some cities we had been considering. We also looked into the feel of the towns themselves – whether they have a true town area or not.
Get serious with your finances. Before you start looking, know how much you want to spend per month and keep to that. You might be approved for more than you actually want to spend (we were), so take that approval and balance it against your monthly take home. Talk with your lender, as you may want to put more down to be able to get that monthly mortgage down. It may make sense to hold off purchasing for a bit longer to make that work
Be ready to move quickly. I don’t think we realized just how fast these properties would go. It seemed like an investment of that magnitude would require time for most people to be ready to commit. We were so so wrong. We went to an open house for one home and people had stopped by before it was even open and tried to come in! There ended up being nine offers for the house on the day of the open house. Nine! That means you need to be pre-authorized with a lender and ready to start moving.
Assemble Your Dream Team
An experienced realtor is key. Take some time to find a realtor that knows what they’re doing and that you can trust to give you expert counsel. It’s also important to find a realtor who will give you a slight touch of their honest opinion. Our realtor had over ten years of experience. When the sellers of the house we purchased made an absurd ask before accepting our offer, she helped us understand we should push back. In doing so, we were able to better advocate for ourselves and end up with what we wanted just the same.
Read everything and ask questions. The volume of paperwork was a bit overwhelming, and it used terms and references processes we weren’t familiar with. I felt silly sometimes with the questions I needed to ask, but I finally realized that with such a big commitment as this that it was important to ask them all. Our attorney and lender might have been frustrated by the frequent calls, but the peace of mind was worth it.
Remember, you can walk away. We had one lender who was awful. We wanted to put in an offer on one home and he went home on Friday without delivering us the updated approval letter we needed. It ended up not holding us up, but it was very unprofessional. We chose to withdraw from that lender and choose someone else to support us. You can always do the same when it comes to your realtor if things aren’t working out.
It’s been quite a year. There’s of course all of the adventures that come with owning a home – all the things that need fixing that you aren’t expecting. But I still find myself sometimes walking around in our backyard in awe that it’s ours. Smiling. Looking up. And yes, occasionally twirling!
Any additional tips to share? Add them below in the comments.
Congratulations on the new home! My fiance and I aren’t quite there yet in our process but it’s something we’re constantly daydreaming and planning for.
Dreaming is an important part of the process! I wished I had thought about it more in advance. Was so much to process at one time.
Friendly bank compliance officer here. I have 2 tips. If you are a dual income household, never get a mortgage payment for more than half the total monthly income of the lowest wage earner in the house. You will, as pointed out be approved for much more than you should spend. Second, use the CFPBs website to know your rights but also learn a bit about mortgages and the legal rules behind them. What is ability to repay, what are the different kinds of mortgages, does my mortgage require flood or private mortgage insurance? It will help you negotiate the right mortgage for you.
Thanks for your expert comments! So helpful. And good point. Forgot we had the flood insurance issue pop up for us, and we chose to rule those properties out. Adding in flood or private insurance adds a whole layer we didn’t want to take on!
I am looking for buying a new home these days.. Thank you for your helpful tips or generally we miss out various important matters to look into before finalise a deal.. These tips will be helpful for me…
I would suggest having some cheap labor to help move. When my husband and I moved, I had just started a new job and wasn’t able to get a ton of time off. He hired some kids from the gym and they did 90% of the moving for us.
That’s definitely one way to help cut some corners! Those little savings can really add up at a time when you can use it the most.
Home buying is definitely stressful. You bought right before summer time too, so that might be why there were multiple offers. But you are so right. Get all your paperwork in order before you even look! These are excellent tips.
Thank you for sharing such useful guidance on your blog. I am eyeing to buy a new home so it will be easier for me to take note on every necessary thing required to notice before buying a home.
It is great that you recap the best tips, because buying a home is not an easy task! I agree with all of these and also think that getting a good councel is key!
Great tips. I’m looking to buy a home in the next three years. I’ll definitely save this.
These are all truly fabulous tips to help a new homebuyer! I am currently building my 4th new build and so many of these tips apply to that too…
This is such great advice for first time home buyers. It can be such a stressful time so its nice to have help like this out there.
We’ve got out first house last April. And it’s true now we have to be strict with our finances. Getting a house is a huge responsibility, but so worth it!
Finances are the ones that are going to eek me out but nice post with these tips.
Home buying can look like a nightmare at times. From saving to buying a good home in a nice location. Thanks for the tips
Congratulations on the new home. Great advice for anybody looking to buy their new home.
Great advise, we have purchased two homes and both process were difficult.
I just posted about our home buying experience. I totally agree with you!
Amazing tips. I’ll surely be back for more
We are in the stage of looking for our second home. It’s exciting but also nerve racking. Things change in an instant and you have to be ready for it emotionally. Congrats on the purchase and new home buyers will sure be prepared with these tips.
We already own a house but wish we knew some of these tips before buying.
A good realtor can actually make or break a deal within seconds.
This is well written and very helpful. Buying a home can be a daunting and tricky experience.
Lord I remember buying my first home. STRESSED. These are great tips.
This blog will surely be going to help me out as I’m searching to buy a house and that too for the first time. Thanks for posting.
This post helped me a lot as I am planning to buy a new home. Thanks for sharing it.
So many first time buyers don’t realize all the preparation and work that goes into the purchase of a home. This was great information!
Congrats on the new home! It’s definitely a tough process. My hubby and I bought the first house we saw. (We then saw another 30 homes!)
All relevant information for the first time home buyer. We are on house number 5 now, and you are never too experienced to learn something new in this important transaction.
I went through all of this recently when I purchased my first house. Congrats!