Tips for Navigating the Home Buying Process for Newbies

First Time Home Buyer

As you may know from my previous post… we bought a house! This was my first time buying a home and Lockie’s second time. You would think that he would steward the process for me since I was the newbie, but not so much. Here are my tips for navigating the home buying process!

Being a first-time homeowner, I wanted to understand the entire process from start to finish. I read over EVERY document thoroughly from top to bottom. Lockie? He only read through certain documents which he deemed to be the most important. (Or maybe he did that because he knew that I was reading all of them…?)

Regardless, I learned a lot. During the closing process, I was a bit overwhelmed at times but if I look back at it as a whole I think it was manageable and I could see myself doing again. (Yay!) I will add a note that we had a longer-than-normal closing (50 days) which was nice because it gave me ample time to do my thorough reading! If it had been a standard 30 days it *may* have felt a bit more overwhelming.

Tips for managing the home buying process for first-timers:

1. Get pre-qualified and form a relationship with your lender early. Since Lockie and I had been looking for a home for over a year we became close with our lender Kym at Guaranteed Rate. We knew we wanted to work with her and she was easy to work with. Kym understood our unique situation with Lockie being from Australia and I was happy that Guaranteed Rate’s lender fees were on the low side. This lender relationship definitely made the loan process less stressful during closing.
2. One thing at a time. Juggling work and buying a home at the same time can be tough. To get through it, I tackled one task per day. One day I would read and sign our Broker agreement, and the next day I would contact our lender to set up the appraisal. One step at a time.
3. Schedule your home inspection as soon as you can. I do think this is the most important part of the homebuying process. And getting your inspection done by a trusted source is crucial! This was the most unpleasant part of our buying experience. Our inspectors found a ton of stuff wrong with the house and the sellers denied that any of it was an issue. We went back and forth with the sellers negotiating this and ultimately we had to settle for a credit settlement that we weren’t happy with. I feel that this would have been the only thing that could have forced us to terminate our contract, so I think it’s a good idea to do this as early as you can.
4. Get a homeowners insurance quote early. This is an easy thing you can take care of and check off your list. We decided to get a quote from State Farm since that’s where we have our auto insurance. We were able to bundle auto with homeowners and get a reduced rate on both. Highly recommend!
5. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Through the process, I asked our realtor dozens of questions because I wanted to learn and make sure we weren’t missing anything. Don’t assume that your realtor will catch every mistake for you!

Don’t worry, there’s a lot more where this unsolicited advice came from. Since we bought a home under our budget we have funds to make some needed updates to the home. I’ll be documenting our kitchen remodel as Misty Gaines very soon! Stay tuned. 

PS: if you have a specific question about the home buying process I’m happy to answer it!