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On the second episode of Real Life House Hunters: Long Island #RLHHLI…
Plenty has happened since I wrote out the first episode of this series {read it here}, we thought we found “our” house, we went through the inspection and realized how much we didn’t like the house, just the price….and that was it. The area that it’s in wasn’t the safest for us, and as we were going through everything, we realized we still didn’t LOVE this house. Nothing was particularly wrong with it, we just didn’t love it, and the area being “unsafe” sealed the deal. We backed out and our process re-started once again, we were a little deflated but knew that this was for the best. It’s a huge investment and we didn’t want to buy a house just because and not love it. Now that you’re caught up on the most recent things, onto what this post is really about. Where do you start?
When we first started looking for houses, we had no idea what we could afford, what our mortgage would look like, down payments, closing costs, inspection fee, lawyer, and compromising.
First…
Find a realtor that you want to work with. We got Denis from my two cousins who bought their houses from him. They highly recommended him, as do we, even though we haven’t bought a house yet. Some people didn’t use a realtor or said a realtor didn’t help them, but for us, it’s a different story. Also, try and find one that has the entire package deal, Denis has a mortgage broker, inspector, and a lawyer that he closely works with. Which brings me to Frank…..
Second…
A mortgage broker, like I mentioned we use Frank. He helped us get the most we can afford within in our budget, told us what our budget was, and helped us pick the right loan to go with. Well, actually we have 2 different loans, one for a regular house, and another for a rehab loan. This has helped us immensely Frank works closely with Denis so when we needed numbers Denis reached out and Frank could tell him. He also helped us get a pre-approval, which means it’s a step right before the loan papers, so you know the exact number for your budget.
Third…
After you find out your budget, your realtor or you will start searching for houses. Zillow and Trulia are owned by the same people and we use both to determine if we like the house and if the area is safe {Trulia gives that information}. We also use MLS, it gives the most accurate information, taxes, updated information, such as: is the house still available? Denis sounds us houses about once a week, and CA and I do our own searches and keep a running log of the houses we find and send to Denis.
Fourth…
Wants & Needs… I’ll go more into depth into this one on episode 3, But I’ll suggest what Denis said… make a list of 10 top things you want in your home. If you can cross off 7 of those 10, the house is a contender. Between CA and I, we have two lists which are similar since we’ve been doing this since April we both know wants/needs, and what would be a definite…. HELL NO to any house.
Fifth…
It can take a while or it can be a short process. It depends on so many factors, budget, the area you are located, the inventory (houses on the market), competition, wants/needs, time of year, and anything else. Also, patience… lots of patience. Especially if you are in a competitive bracket like we are. It’s a long process and requires all of the patience you can muster. The end result will always be worth it, just know that your house is out there, and you’ll find it when you’re meant to. After looking for 7 months, I’ve realized (I’m the impatient one) that being impatient and losing my mind won’t help the process.
Sixth…
Don’t settle, LOVE the house, LOVE what it can become, what YOU can make it. Picture yourself IN that house, throwing a party, bringing home children, a puppy, a LIFE. Just make sure you can picture everything you’ve wanted to do in your future home or forever home. That is SO important, it’s an investment and if you want to one and done on a house, you need to love it. We learned from this mistake and won’t make it again.
And that wraps up episode number two of Real Life House Hunters: Long Island. I am hoping I can have episode three next week with an in-depth of Wants versus Needs on a home, and how to compromise if you have two varying opinions and styles on a home.
Have you recently bought a home, what were one of the first things you did?!
