Any homeowners here?

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I'm preparing to buy my first house and although everything seems to be coming together well, I'm a little freaked out. Can anyone here who's been through the process offer any tips on the whole process of picking and financing a house?

ohhh you can probably find basic do's and don't on a websearch. What stage are you at, have you found a property you want to buy?

I bought my first home about 18 months ago, and although it's been fun being a homeowner for the first time, its starting to look like demonlishing and rebuilding is better, there are just too many problems with the existing house to renovate.

Problem is I don't have the money to rebuild so I might have to just put up with it and do a few cheap things. It's not possible to get everything right in this process, you just try and minimise possiblities for errors.

I am in the process of purchasing my own place too (although a major snag has been hit). It is freaky with the twists and turns and all of the papers needing to be signed (everytime you think they are done, there is one more form to sign). Next week, I get to meet with the mortgage officer to sign even more papers.

I hope to get things done in a month though.

Explore all benefits of being a first time home buyer in your state. There could be incentives to provide better interest rates. I got a VA loan and a Texas Veterans Land Board interest rate which was a whole point lower than the going rate. If such benefits exist where you are, it could save you a substantial sum. Thare are other angles to play besides being a veteran, too. Check 'em out.

Thanks! I am looking into first time buyers' programs and such. Don't think I would qualify for anything else, not being a veteran or poor or a parent.

I've read everything I can track down so I think I have the basics down, it's more about not knowing who to trust at this point. Like, is the realtor hiding anything bad about the house in order to get me to buy? Is the mortgage guy giving me the best deal or the one that's easiest for him and gives him the best commission?

Also I'm just worried in general that I'll wind up stuck with horrible neighbors. I suppose soundproofing and good drapes can reduce those problems though.

I bought my house 2 years ago. I'm in the UK, so things are different, but there must be some things that are the same.

The first thing is to make sure that you can borrow enough money to buy it, and that you can realistically afford the monthly payments. Remember to include the cost of insurance here. When I was looking for a mortgage, I approached the banks directly, and chose between the options they gave me. I did not see a financial advisor. You have to remember that they are working for a company, and will sell you the product that benefits them the most - in order to do this, they will tell you about their best product for your situation, so that (they hope) you choose them over another company.

The estate agent (I think they have a different name in the USA, but the company who advertise the house for sale) are working for the people who are selling the house. They will not tell you if there are downsides to the property, and may attempt to hide any issues with it.

In the UK we get a survey when we buy a house. This tells us about any problems. On our house, the survey picked up that there were a couple of loose roof tiles and some dents in the bathroom door. These were very minor problems, so we decided to buy the house anyway, replace the roof tiles, and put a poster up on the bathroom door. It's more important to get a thorough survey done if the house is older.

Do you have a friend or relative who has done this before, who you can discuss this all with? They might be able to point out if you are missing something obvious, which you wouldn't know about.

As far as the realtor, do you have a buyer's agent or are you just working with the guy who listed the house you fell for? Because the listing agent works for the seller. While the seller has to fill out a list of disclosures in every state stating a certain list of things and whether or not they work, this list can be somewhat misleading and disingenuous. Also does it feel like the realtor is trying to steer or guide your decision? If so, he/she could be trying to unload something.

For the mortgage, you can shop around to a certain degree. You should, before going in, know your credit history, and your FICO score. This will tell you where your interest rate will fall. Right now 6.5 is the ballpark for people with decent credit, but of course that changes constantly.

Checking out the neighbors is pretty easy. If you are worried about late night party animals, drive by around midnight on a Fri or Sat night. Ask your realtor if the closest neighbors are renters or the homeowners themselves. If you feel confident enough, ask the mail delivery person. They can be a wealth of information.

No matter what anyone tells you, get a home inspection. And hire your own guy. Even if you get him out of a local free paper, I'd feel better about the inspection than if I hired the guy the listing agent recommended.

Be honest about your own abilities. Don't buy a fixer upper if you have trouble hanging pictures, or if you'll have little resources left after settlement and paying your mortgage each month.

PS I used to have my license in two different states. I also have bought and sold homes.

Good luck.

I was freaked out when we were buying our house, but a book that helped me was Tips & Traps When Buying a Home by Robert Irwin. You have already gotten some excellent advice, so I won't repeat it. The seller's agent works for the seller, but if they misrepresent any material fact on the seller's disclosure, they open themselves up to a lawsuit even after you buy the home. Even so, an independent home inspection and appraisal before you buy would be an extremely good idea. We hired a very good buyer's agent. She was very helpful and she was paid from the percentage of the purchase price reserved for real estate agents, so she did not cost us any additional money. If we had bought a home "For Sale By Owner" it would have been different, but she was really worth the commission anyway. She steered us away from houses that were wrong for us because she really listened to what we wanted.

In this country you get an independent termite inspection as well as a building inspection (mainly structural) report.

It's also good idea to hang around the area (sit in your car) at different times of day/night just to see what goes on and check out the neighbours/nolise levels.

You can get perfectly nice, honest people working as real estate agents too, I think they get tired of the cliches associated with the profession. So you can be 'over suspicious' in this area. Ultimately it's like buying any used (I'm guessing it's not a new house) item, it may be less stressful for you if you compare it with buying a used car, you get your reports, do your homework on it and make an offer/negotiate.

It's a good idea to buy something that will also be reasonably easy to re-sell, if you find that the property doesn't suit you - I mean my property has some problems which may mean I want to sell in the future but it has a water glimpse and is very close to a school - so hopefully it won't be difficult to sell. Things like proximity to transport, schools and shops are always going to be desirable qualities in a property and also having the 'average' size/number or rooms. I guess I'm saying it should have general appeal to the average buyer as well, not just be a property that suits/appeals to you personally. Much as we'd all like to only ever buy the one home and be happy with it, things change and you may find you need/want to sell at some stage in the future.

Buying in the bottom end of the market (the cheapest suburb/area) can be a problem cos there's nowhere to go from there, if you're unhappy with the property/neighbourhood you can only move up in price bracket, so paying more for a better area can give greater options. But aspies being a largely single population, often with employment problems, we don't always have access to the funds for middle bracket housing. Things like possibilities for future subdivision (ie buying a big block) are good too but eh....you can go on forever about this stuff!

Thanks for the advice, all! I looked at a bunch of places yesterday with my agent (who I'm about 80% sure is an aspie, but I haven't asked him yet) and a couple of them would suit me. That's also a lot of really messed up houses! A couple more weeks of this and hopefully I can start looking at making an offer on something.

There may still be benefits available to you. For example, in Canada a first-time buyer can qualify for a lower down-payment and a waiver of the real estate transfer tax. Depending on your municipality, having an AS diagnosis may allow you to claim a discount on your annual property tax bill as well.

The house I'm living in now is the 3rd one I've owned in 20 years. Buying and selling is very stressful, and moving is a PITA if nothing else. The pride of ownership and the significant opportunity for financial growth makes it worthwhile.

You should always get a home inspection from an impartial expert, but remember that they can only evaluate what they can see and are not legally liable for their opinion.

Using a buyer's agent is usually a good thing as then there is no conflict of interest where the agent is representing both the seller and buyer. The one time where a dual-agent is a benefit is if you are shopping right at your financial limits, as the dual-agent will often give up some of their commission to sweeten the deal if it helps sell the house faster.