First time home buyer advice

[Booger74]

See if you can find a Home Path House. Home Path has a web site. They will pay ALL of your closing cost, and there is NO Appraisal. We did it on our 3rd house and All my out of pocket went towards principle, and not closing cost. It is a great way to buy a home. They don't negociate much on price of home, but they will do major repair found in inspection. Check it out or ask your lender, and Agent about it.

If you don't have an agent interview several. There are many out there that are looking for a check. Find one with knowledge in the area you are looking. Get Pre-Qualified.

Good Luck!

[Johnny Dangerr]

Go in with at least 20% down and finance for 15 years with your payment at 25% or less of your take home pay.

We will pay off our 2nd house in a couple of years. If you can not do a 15 yr note find a cheeper house....

[TXPredatorMafia]

That kinda money, you should love the house, don't settle on "it will work"

[1elkaholic2]

I have bought and sold several homes all over the western US.
I have a couple of rules when i am buying a house.
1. Do not get emotional about a house you like, you WILL pay too much for it. There are hundreds more just like it. move along.
2. Tell your realtor what you want in a house. Price, # of rooms, lot size, swimming pool, 3 car garage, etc. DO NOT look at a house that doesnt have everything you want. If you want a pool, dont look at a house that has a "pool sized lot". move along to one that has a pool. otherwise you will fall into #1 and settle.
3. If the house has ANY issue that you have to ask yourself if it is an issue, it WILL be an issue for future buyers. things that come to mind are street noise, schools too close/ too far, school stats, utilities, stairs from garage, less desireable neighbor hoods close. crime stats, paint color...

4.BEFORE you make an offer, check with Sherriffs dept for sex offenders etc. Go to a local grocery store. That is a great indicator of the local area, and the moms shopping will love to tell you what the realtor wont. Realtors cant discriminate on neighbor hoods (demographics) , so a question I ask is , "Would you want your daughter living here?" if they hesitate, see #1, Move Along.

5. DO NOT go above your budget. period. Sometimes realtors will pressure you just to get the sale done. dont bite. see #1. move along.



good luck!!!

[1elkaholic2]

One more thing. the first house I bought had open land around it. after several years the city rezoned and put in section 8 high density apartments. When we bought it was zoned for single family detatched homes only. DO NOT believe what the zoning is, it cqan change. the last thing you want is that pretty wooded lot to become a Walmart shopping center, strip club whatever.

[Coullion]

Go in with at least 20% down and finance for 15 years with your payment at 25% or less of your take home pay.

Only do a 15 yr if you are completely confident in the monthly payment. The difference in the APR between a 15 and a 30 is not much right now. To be safe, you can do a 30 yr and adjust your monthly payment to pay it off in 15.

[Choppa311]

make sure your cars will fit in the garage along with your tools, kids junk, and other garage stuff too. make sure your furniture will fit as well. make sure you have good attic space to store stuff and make sure your other storage spaces (closets) have ample storage space too. make sure its the neighborhood you like and go by the house at different times to see what kind of neighbors you have that way you can see what goes on around you. other than that see what others have put about schools etc...

have a home inspector check the house out thoroughly. if you can, be there when the inspector goes through the house so you can see what he's seeing and maybe you'll see other things during that time too as you'll spend 4 or more hours combing the house.

if you can do a 15 yr note and put 20% down.

we did a homepath house this last time and we immediately got about $40-50K in equity just by buying it because it was priced so cheaply and in a neighborhood that has higher end homes in a good school district. if you do go this route be the first to jump on it as homepath sits on your offer for 5 business days before they get back to you and during that time they can take other offers. they only countered once on us but it was for $2K more. also, after the house has been on the market for (i think) 3 weeks the institutional investors will be able to come in and buy it.

we also had them pay for a home warranty and so far its been OK to deal with. we got a new microwave but it took 2 weeks to get it (a small price to pay but we got a new $350 microwave with no out of pocket to us). we've also had OK luck with the original home builder and they have fixed some things for us under the old warranty as well with no out of pocket cost to us.

sorry for the long post but i just went through all of this just over a month ago with a 2.5 yr old and a 4 week old kids. not the best time to sell an existing house and then move to a new house with a newborn but worth it in the long run.

[Chasin Bacon]

Find the most expensive neighborhood you can afford even if you're buying the smallest house in it. If buying new, buy when the neighborhood is finishing out not early on, otherwise you will be competing against the builder if you need to sell also you will know what kind of neighbors you're going to have, and you have some trees with a little maturity. Developers and builders are interested in making a profit not your home values, so the neighborhood can start out in th $200's but they may build out the second half of the neighborhood in $150's which will impact your property values. Developers are big on "Site for Future Ammentiy Center" the only issue is that they keep kicking that can down the road, I'm in a neighborhood now that I've lived in for 6 years and the future ammenity center still ain't built.