1. Diaries of a Mad Homebuyer

Buying my first home has always been a dream of mine. Even when I was a young girl I would get so excited when my parents would suggest a "Sunday drive" (yes, we were one of THOSE people) where we would drive around various neighborhoods. I remember always picking a favorite and then I would dream of Joey Lawerence or one of the New Kids on the Block being my husband and we would raise our children in this beautiful home. I wonder what ever happened to that dream?

Fast forward to today. I was a hopeful home buyer ready to make my first big purchase. I went to a Mortgage Broker and fairly painlessly got myself prequalified. For those not in the know, this should always be the first step in the home buying process. If you don't know of one or you are frightened by the process of not choosing a trustworthy broker you can skip to the next step where you choose your agent. They often have mortgage brokers that they use often and know their track records.

Once I knew how much I could afford I picked an agent, which was easy considering I was married to one! Now don't worry, this is Josh's house too, but I figured my experience was a little more easy to relate to since he is an agent and does this all the time. Now if I wasn't married to such a great agent (what? I'm not partial or anything!) then this would have gone differently for me. More on this another time. I talked with Josh (ahem my agent) and we discussed what I was looking for in my first home. I had my list of "must have's" and "wants" and he in theory would then show me houses that matched that list as closely as possible. Now, my experience was different in that aspect because I see the houses on the market all the time and already knew that none of them fit my needs. We actually came about finding the house we wanted to put an offer on due to one of my random searches. Trust me, I know the second that houses go on the market because I am just that obsessed. Josh and I saw the listing for the perfect house and said right then and there "let's make an offer!" (Disclaimer- we do not recommend this to novice home buyers!) We did in fact see the house before we made the offer, but we used it as a time to take measurements of each space, inspect all the nooks and crannies, and get pictures of every aspect of the house. Again, our experience is extremely different than most.

 
We finished this part of the process by making an offer. We will go into that part along with the rest of the process in another chapter of the diary. Josh and I have also been putting together some information that we hope is helpful for those of you that may be looking at purchasing a home in the near future. Home buying is a daunting process, but we are aiming to help you out as much as we can!

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