Home buying shows

I like to watch shows on first time home buyers, and HGTV has plenty of them.  Some of my favs are My First Place, House Hunters, and Property Virgins.  Last night Jeff and I were watching an episode of My First Place, and I couldn’t help but think these first time home buyers didn’t know what they were doing.  Now I’m not saying that I’m an expert on the subject, but I certainly feel like I’ve done a lot of research!  The particular couple on the show last night looked at several houses and fell in love with one that had a list price at the top of their budget.  Their realtor convinced this couple to make a FULL PRICE offer because someone else was interested in that house and also writing an offer!  I could not believe this realtor.  I felt like she was taking advantage of the young couple who didn’t know any better.  For all I know, the realtor could have been just telling them that another offer was being written and it may not have been true.  Well in the end the couple’s full price offer was accepted (surprise, surprise) and they got the house.

I don’t think that most people actually pay the asking price on a house.  I certainly won’t be!  This is a buyer’s market and we have to take advantage of it!  I plan on bidding below the asking price as well as asking the seller to pay closing costs.  To all first time home buyers: you do not have to offer what your realtor suggests!  You decide the amount that you want to offer and stick to it.  (but also take the comparables into account)  If your realtor tries to pressure you to offer more then find someone else!  The seller may not accept your first offer, but that is ok.  Go back and forth until you are both happy or just find a different house.  There are plenty of them out there!

Starting the process

Hello everyone!  I am officially starting up my first time home buyer’s blog.  My husband Jeff and I are hoping to buy a home this year and I plan to document the process.  Below I am re-posting my intro from our wedding website, jeffandkimwedding.com.  Enjoy!

Jeff and I have now been married close to six months and everything is going great. The latest with us is that we are hoping to buy a home this year. We have been doing our research and reading books on the home buying process. We’ve also been saving up for a down payment.

On our “must have list” for a house is 3 bedrooms, 1.5 bathrooms, finished basement, dining room, and recently updated.  We definitely don’t want a fixer-upper! So far we are considering Westlake, Rocky River, Fairview Park, and North Olmsted. Jeff and I have been looking at houses online to get an idea of what is out there in our price range. So far the best houses in our price range seem to be in North Olmsted! I have found so many there that I am interested in! A lot of split levels too.

The next step for us is getting our loan pre-approval which we should be doing this month. We’ve already gotten rates from a couple of lenders. Once we’re pre-approved we are actually going to start looking at houses in person – not just online! I figure we’ll probably end up buying a house sometime between July and October. Luckily we don’t have to rush because we are renting right now, and our landlord just asked us to give 45 days notice before we are going to move out. So we aren’t currently under a lease. Basically we can move whenever we want, but we want to do it before the end of the year so we can get the first time home buyer tax credit.