How to Buy Your First Home
Buying a house can be a scary process for the first-time buyer. It has been one year since I bought my first house and I’m finally ready to sit down and tell you all about the nitty gritty, good and bad, dos and don’t of buying a home. I bought my house when I was 24 years old. That might seem young to you, but actually the process is fairly easy. Something you need to keep in mind is that what makes home-buying easy or hard has a lot to do with the prep work. If you plan to buy a house in the next 5 years, start to prepare now by checking your credit score regularly and doing what you can to make it go up. Get a credit card and pay it off every month. The higher your credit score, the easier it is to get approved. One of the biggest misconceptions around buying a home is how much you need for a down payment. I always thought that I would need 20% to put down, and I don’t know about anyone else, but I have to trick myself into saving money and so that means that it takes me a LONG time to get anything saved. Thanks to my great credit and being a first-time buyer, I was able to get a mortgage from Quicken Loans with a 1% down payment. Awesome, right? The truth is that there are a lot of different loans to choose from. The USDA loan is a 0% down loan, but it is only for rural areas. Shop for the right mortgage for you just like you’re shopping for a house. Not all loans are made the same.
I got my mortgage with rocket mortgage by quicken loans. I had a wonderful experience with them. The whole process was done over the phone and the internet. I went to their website and filled out the application and got approved within 30 minutes. That was even with problems during the approval process. Their customer service is amazing and helped me every step of the way. I never had to go to a bank or mail any papers. They have a user-friendly website that makes uploading files a breeze. Each file had a due date and I could see exactly what step my loan was in and what were the next steps to take in the process. I was even able to close on my mortgage a week early. I definitely recommend taking a look at quicken loans to see if it might be the right fit for your needs.
After you have gotten approved for the right mortgage for you, start looking for the right realtor. I used a friend’s mom as my realtor. I knew I could trust her to have my best interest in mind. She helped me so much through the whole process. I had no clue what steps I needed to take and she would call me regularly to help me out and tell me what to expect. When it was time to put an offer in, she helped me figure out the right price to offer for considering the seller covered closing costs.
Most loans require an appraiser to appraise the property, but they do not require an inspection. Here is why an inspection is important. When you are looking at the property it is hard to see everything that might be wrong with it. I paid $325 to get my house inspected and as a result, I was able to get the seller to do over $1000 in repairs. It helped me to know exactly what I was walking into and what kind of repairs I was looking at down the road. It gives you the opportunity to walk away if there are too many repairs to handle.
Buying a house can be scary because there are risks in investing in property. Be prepared for the unknowns. Save up a little extra to cover the costs of surprises. Surprises happen and it’s always good to be prepared. The first month after I bought my house I had to have a plumber come out and fix some of my plumbing.
Even with all the hassles of buying a house, I would do it all over again. There is nothing like coming home and know that the house you are entering is your own to change as you please. I have plans to buy a second home by 30. The younger you start, the better off you are. So do yourself a favor and check your credit score today. If you’ve bought a house and have something to add, let me know in the comments.