Before You Buy: Things I wish I Knew Before Buying a Home

Well we have been in our new home for several weeks, and however stressful this ride has been, it has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I wanted to share with my friends the things that I wish I knew before I bought my first home.

A little back story, Alex and I have been looking at homes, and by looking I mean we went to tour model homes. (One of my most favorite things to do growing up). But if you were to ask me if I was actively looking, I would have told you that we must be crazy to look for a new home while planning a wedding. We spend some Saturdays going to open houses in the area, but nonetheless, we were not putting in offers because that was ludicrous. Although I signed up for all the latest realty websites known to man, we just were not there yet. I have to admit, it was so much fun getting emails every morning about homes that we could afford, and even those we couldn't (hey a girl can dream right).

Molly loves her new bed in her new home.

Fast forward 3 months to mid August, we were browsing on one of the websites that I frequented and noticed a home pretty local to where I was currently living and we thought would be perfect. We entered our information to the contact form and set up a meeting with a realtor. Now I'll start by saying that even though this was not the house we actually bought, it was a perfect first home to look at. We arrived to the location early on the last Saturday in August, and to say this neighborhood was "seedy" would be considerably generous.

This home was a quaint little house on a very large plot of land. It was for the most part, the nicest house on the block. We stepped in and it was beautifully remodeled and perfect size for us. This was your run of the mill "flipper house". For those of you that don't know, a flipped house is essentially a home bought at a significant discount, usually buy realtors or investors, and remodeled. It was adorable, and they did a fantastic job, however, I couldn't get over the location. I wanted to be sure I was comfortable staying alone in the house if I needed to. (In case Alex goes out of town for work).

We left feeling really optimistic, but also with the realization that this would take some work. While meeting with the realtor we got set up with the lender that they worked with. (Que eye roll)  Since this is our first home, Alex and I didn't know what to expect. We gathered the information the lender required (usually 3 months worth of pay stubs, bank statements, credit card statement, etc.) and got the ball rolling. I mentioned "que eye roll" as this was my first mistake. We didn't think to contact other lenders. We just thought if we can get pre approved thru this lender, we didn't need to go anywhere else. Well let me tell you rule number 1. ALWAYS shop around to different lenders! We found this lender and definitely got sweet talked into working with him as we didn't know there was an option to shop around. In the beginning the lender seemed really eager to work with us, calling us, checking in to make sure we were still interested in buying a home. Of course we absolutely were, but he was very "salesman-ish". Not to knock salesmen, but I hate the pushy "do it now" attitude.

We kind of backed off for a bit because we felt the pressure from him to buy, and it just wasn't right. So we sat back and just skimmed the websites for homes that had the potential of calling our own. We eventually found a home that we thought was absolutely the perfect match. We contacted the realtor thru one of the more popular home buying websites, and we were off. Alex, his parents and I went on the first home tour after the disappointing first one. This house was adorable, and perfect for what we needed. We were sold, and after looking at a few others in the same area kept going back to this one. What we didn't know was that this home was full of issues. Looking back at the process in its entirety, I am so grateful that we had Alex's parents and my parents with us to go look at the houses because 2. It is so important to know what you are looking for when it comes to buying a house that includes electrical, and foundations, etc. (Before this, I couldn't tell you what that meant) So I would suggest bringing someone that knows what to look for, to help inform you of potential problems, because chances are the realtor doesn't know anything about it.

This was our housewarming. We had such a great time. 

We had to pass on the house because we were informed that beyond the "knob and tube" wiring, there was a slew of other problems that were hidden by the new paint and granite counter tops. Although we loved that second house, we knew it wasn't right for us because the amount of work that needed to be done to bring it up to code. 3. What some people dont know when buying a home, especially their first, is FHA requires a laundry list of items that need to pass inspection prior to the green light to buy. I would suggest sitting down with your realtor and finding out what you qualify for, and what is required from you for the FHA loan. And you guessed it, knob and tube wiring is one of the big no no's. So even if we were able to swing the down payment big enough for to not need FHA, it ultimately was protecting us from future problems down the road. What I didn't know about this old wiring is that it spontaneously catches fire. Although rare, it was something we didn't want to even test because we would always be worried about Molly.

This brings me to the house Alex and I fell in love with, and eventually bought. I cant say enough great things about this petite charming little nest we found. After leaving the second house Alex and I decided that we were going to calm down on looking for a home, because we were so discouraged that we would never find anything. Our realtor sent us an email for the Genevieve st house and the moment we opened it we just had to go see it. So I immediately called the realtor and asked him when the earliest time was to look. Luckily we were in the know before anyone, as it had just come on the market. We scheduled the tour the house as soon as possible. From the moment we walked in, we knew this was the perfect house for us. We asked our realtor to help us find the right price to offer by checking comps in the area. 4. Before offering always ask the realtor for comps of the area, it will help your chances of the sellers accepting. Seems simple enough, but most wouldn't know the protocol. If you have an experienced realtor they will always run comps before you put in an offer. By looking for the comps in the area, we were able to assess the price the sellers were asking for and make sure it was fair for the area the house was located in. 5. Try sending a letter to the seller expressing your interest in their home, and telling them a bit about yourself and family. In the letter we introduced ourselves and let them know how much we loved their home. We included pictures of ourselves and of course Molly. Now I dont know if that was the nail on the head for them to accept the offer, but, after speaking with them they did mention the letter and how much they liked it. They also said that the home was a part of the family for many years, they were so happy it was going to a couple like us.

Now for the fun part, offer accepted and we went into escrow on September 21st. So escrow was another monster that nobody told us about. During escrow you will find out that you indeed have no clue what you're doing. That is ok, for the most part we all fake it right? One thing I'd like to point out is that I expressed my concerns with the realtor prior to opening escrow. My concerns were that number 1 we have never been thru this process before, and number 2 I needed a lot of hand holding. Let me clarify that by hand holding I mean I need him to explain things to me every step of the way, and help me understand the concept of first time home buying. I wanted him to explain what documents we were signing, and the significance of them for our home buying process. This is one of the places I feel the process gave me great stress. I was promised a lot of hand holding, but there was no delivery of it in the end. Looking back at the escrow process I felt like I got the most help from our escrow agent strangely enough. 6. Make sure you are clear with your realtor the things you expect from them. I thought I made myself clear, however, I felt my realtor fell flat on this promise to me. Almost so much that I became a bit neurotic (don't believe me, ask Alex). I cannot tell you how many nights I stayed up, or cried because I felt like I was not given the correct information, or I did't understand the process. It is such a stressful time, especially if you have no clue what you're doing. It will definitely bring you down a couple pegs.

A little communication from the realtor or lender is a huge relief, especially to someone that needs the amount of hand holding I did. Regardless of the company you go with to buy your home, friend and family referrals do go a long way. After we began this process with our realtor, I wished that we would have gone with the referrals from friends instead. We used this process to really hammer down on what we would expect from our realtor next time, including going with our friends realtors instead.

Molly was clearly distracted. 

This process however stressful it was, really shed some light on the way people treat you and how they work. I worked closely with the lending officer from the get go. And although he did get us our loan, it was the worst experience hands down. I would go as far as saying his piece of our home buying process was one of the most stressful things I have ever experienced. At the beginning of this process he was very pushy, almost car salesman pushy. However, as the escrow process dwindled down I saw a change in the way he handled our paperwork and us as clients. He constantly sent over paperwork with incorrect information, and as I repeatedly told him it was incorrect he didn't bother to fix it. 7. If you know anything about the escrow process, you know that during this time you are looked at thru a microscope. It is imperative that the documents are correct, and you really watch the things you spend your money on, where your currently reside, etc. It is equally important that you communicate with your lender about the paperwork being incorrect, and demand they fix it. There was even a payment from an old medical bill that was never known to us, that we eventually factored into the loan. The way we found out about this was during final document signing. Honestly, it would have been no big deal, but this little bump in the road was a big challenge that lead us to borrow money from my mom. And although we paid it back, it was really stressful, because what if she didn't have that money to lend us? We would have had to figure out where to get it from. Furthermore, that fact that the lending officer handling our paperwork didn't bring this to our attention before the final signing really shows that he dropped the ball. The worst thing to happen is escrow closing later than estimated, or even worse failure of funding for the loan. Luckily we were able to receive funding, and close.

After tirelessly sending documents back and forth to the lender, I had to break out the big guns. By big guns of course, I mean Alex. Since I am somewhat of a pushover, and allow people to talk circles around me, I needed to bring in someone that would take a no nonsense approach with the loan officer. Instead of allowing him to tell me one thing, and produce another, Alex was able to hammer down on the lending officer and get him to finally take this seriously.  

It was stressful, and in some instances very discouraging, but in the end we finally got into our home where we have loved making memories so far. The biggest take away I can give to anyone is that if you dont speak up, and make sure your thoughts are heard you will drive yourself crazy just like I did. It is so important to have an advocate in your corner that will help you get the things you need. I love being able to hang pictures, and decorate in our home. This is our place, and we have worked so hard to make this house a home. Until next time friends.