After much debate, Kevin and I have decided we are ready to buy a house. This is a huge, scary move for me. Owning a house is the biggest responsibility a person can have, other than having a kid. Once we buy a house, we can't back out of it. We can't whine to a landlord because the A/C broke and we can't just move because we don't like our neighbors. It's a big deal.
BUT.. I think it's a huge step that we've thought about very thoroughly and I think it's something we can handle financially and mentally.
There's so much to learn about real estate, credit, and mortgages. It feels like I'm back in school with all the terms, rules, trends, and choices we've had to research. Every day I'm learning more about the different options out there for potential home buyers to choose from.
There is nothing fun about shopping for a home.- Step number one: get pre-approval and find a lender.
We thought we had this one nailed down. We got our "good faith estimate" and decided who we were going to have our mortgage with. But then, something nasty turned up on my credit. The people who put that nasty mark there admitted they were wrong and agreed to remove it from my credit, but now I'm stuck dealing with that and trying to push for it to get done quickly so that we can put an offer down on a house.
- Step number two: find a house.
Here's where the real problem stands. For some bizarre reason, I thought it would be fun to visit different homes and find the one that's perfect for us.. that is not at all the case. So far we've found three homes that we like, but it takes me too long to realize that I like them. By the time I make up my mind about the house, it's already off the market. This is a serious problem for me.
Competition
I feel like a life-changing decision shouldn't be made overnight. I can't just walk into a home and say, "yes! We'll take it!" It takes me several days to go over all of the pros and cons. It takes several visits to the neighborhood at different hours of the day to see whether it's the right spot for us to call home. It takes second, third, and fourth looks at the floorplan to decide if it's what I want.
Our realtor (who we love by the way) says the reason the places are getting bought-out from under us is because the market is flooded with investors. He tells us these people are sometimes buying two or three houses a day...CASH. How can we compete with that? Even if we offer asking-price for the home, there's a really good chance we won't get it because someone has else is willing to offer MORE than asking price. And these homes are often leaving the market the same day they get posted to the MLS. It just isn't fair to the average first-time home buyer.
So today, I'm waiting to hear back from our realtor. We found a home we want to put an offer on, but I'm expecting a phone call from him saying its already off the market or there are already ten other offers on the house.
I just get so attached to things, and I wish I wouldn't. When I've made up my mind about something..then that's it.. I'm attached. And I am unfortunately, very much attached to the home I'm pretty sure he's going to tell us "no deal" on today. :-(
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