Life with Kelso

This year Christian and I decided to buy a home! We want to get out of renting and own something that is ours. More specifically me; I would like to be able to decorate and make modifications or remodel to our house to make it a home. Renting, you can only really decorate vs make modifications/remodel.

Similar to anything in life, home buying can be nerve wrecking and stressful. Home buying is a lot of work. You need to make sure your finances are in order, know how much you can or cannot afford, find homes and look at them, put in an offer, hope your offer gets accepted vs any other offers, sign the papers to close and then finally move in.

As someone who is currently going through the process, here are a couple tips I have:

• Get your finances in order – figure out how much of a monthly payment you can afford, as well as, making sure you have an emergency fund in place for anything that may need replaced after you close on a home
• Finder a lender and get Pre-Approval – once you have your finances in order and know an estimate of what you can and cannot afford, find a lender and get pre-approved for a homeowners loan. This will help when choosing to put an offer in on a home you like.
• Find and Look at homes – I cannot stress this enough, look at homes, look at homes, look at homes. Searching and finding homes within your budget is one of the first steps to buying a home. Once you found a home or homes you like that are within your budget, go LOOK at them! Looking at homes will give you an idea if you can see yourself and your family living there. It will also help you determine what you do and do not like in a home; as well as, how much space/storage there actually is in the home. Looking at the pictures online can only show so much. Make sure you go and LOOK at the homes you find.
• Things to look for – when looking at homes, make sure you check the basics. Foundation is good + stable, how old the hot water tank, furnace and roof are, do the appliances come with the house? Make sure that if there is a basement, is there a sump pump, any flooding issues or cracks in the foundation? What are the property lines? (I would put this in the offer for the current owners to pay for a legal survey of the property lines). If you are unsure of something, ask.
• Get a payment quote – Now I’m not sure if every lender does this, but our lender is amazing. We have our contact (the person who gave us our pre-approval) and anytime Christian and I come across a home we like or are potentially putting an offer on, we send the address to her and she runs the numbers for us. Meaning, she will let us know approximately how much our monthly payment would be for that home, as well as, how much we would need for a down payment and closing costs.

Obviously, there are more steps than those three (3); however, we have not made it past my third tip yet – looking at homes. We have come close to putting in an offer on a couple; however, the timing just was not right.

Home buying is stressful and can be quite overwhelming, especially looking at houses all the time trying to find the right one. Just don’t get discouraged, because everything happens when the time is right.

Once we find a home and close, I will make another post with more tips! Hope this helps you a little if you are thinking of starting the home buying process or are just beginning like we are!