Buying your first house is scary. No lie. But it’s also the best feeling in the world to be able to call a place your own! Just think…. if you don’t like something, YOU have the power to change it! If you keep an open mind during the home searching process, you’ll be able to envision what the house could look like with some minor changes. Sometimes a little paint and and a lot of patience can go a long way. The next thing you know, you’ll be the new Joanna Gaines 🙂
After 3 years of renting together, Andrew and I were finally ready for a permanent home, and of course, we found it in Chicago (yes we know, taxes – ugh!) From the process of putting in an offer, to signing the official paperwork, it was pretty stressful. But in the end, all of our planning paid off and we were handed the keys to our beautiful two bed/two bath condo. We closed almost a week ago, and we’ve already painted the kitchen cabinets, gutted our guest bathroom and tore out the carpet in both bedrooms (here’s where that power comes in that I mentioned before — 1 week in and we’ve already changed everything we didn’t like.) Keep reading  ——————>
No matter where you’re buying, we have a few basic tips that’ll help you keep calm.
- Find people you trust. Talk to your friends and family about who they’ve used for their realtor, lender, insurance company, inspector, contractors, etc. These are all of the people you’ll need along the way and you’ll find it much easier to ask questions to someone you trust. Questions are SO important – don’t ever feel dumb for asking a ‘stupid’ question. You need to know exactly what you’re getting yourself into, and the only way to know is by asking.
- Know your budget. This is IMPORTANT. You’ll need to know how much you want to spend and CAN spend before starting the search, otherwise you’ll drive yourself crazy looking at places out of your budget. I know this sounds silly because you’re probably thinking well, “duh” of course I knew that! You may think you know your budget, but try talking to one of those trustworthy people we mentioned above (your lender would be a good source) because your idea of a budget might be different from theirs (don’t let this get you down – there are houses out there for every budget.) Â Side budget tip: have 3-6 months of all expenses saved and set aside as your safety money. This money shouldn’t ever be used, unless it’s an emergency.Â
- Don’t get attached. This was a very hard concept for my husband to understand. Every time we put in an offer, he was convinced this was the “one” and we’d be moving in no time at all. He’d get so excited about decorating and talking about our future home, and then we’d get slapped in the face with the news that someone else countered at a much higher price. So, the lesson here is don’t get attached until your offer has been officially accepted. We put in a total of 4 offers on different condos before our 4th offer was finally accepted. Looking back, I’m so glad none of the others were accepted because this one was clearly meant for us.
- Remember – this is an investment. Your money is not disappearing down a black hole to never be seen again (although, sometimes it feels like that.) When you pay a mortgage, you’re paying yourself, so you’re constantly building equity into your property. When you make updates, like painting the cabinets or upgrading a bathroom, you’re also building equity. Eventually when you go to sell and buy a new house, you’ll be able to use all the money you put into your first house, as your down payment for your second house. So if it makes you feel better, this is probably the only time in your entire life that you’ll have to put down a chunk of money THIS big.
- Accept the fact that something will break. Everyone told us that as soon as we bought a house, everything in it would break. It’s like the official way to initiate you into home ownership or something! Not to mention, you just spent so much money getting the actual house, you can’t imagine spending more money to fix things that weren’t even yours to begin with (it’s super annoying!!)Just remember to keep some money in the bank for the incidentals and shake off the stress (I’m waiting for our air conditioner to give out any day now.)
Happy House Hunting!
-Lauren
