Buying a home, especially your first, can be one of the most exciting and also one of the most stressful experiences of your life. I know this all too well. The last home my husband and I bought was the singular most stressful event of our marriage. At the time, we had a 7 year old, a 2 year old and I was 8 and a half months pregnant with our third. We hadn’t really planned on moving, but our dream home came on the market, so we quickly made an offer, contingent on our current home selling. Since we had no idea we were planning on moving, we now had to get our current house prepared to list and sell as soon as possible so we could purchase the new home. Although we knew we had great credit and had enough saved for a downpayment, we were unsure about getting financing because we were now both self-employed. Needless to say, all of those things combined made for quite a stressful few months. Now that I’m happily on the other side, I can share how we survived.
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Start with Gratitude. A mentor told me once that if you start with gratitude, you have a better chance of finding things to be grateful for. Throughout the process it can get tough to find things to be grateful for, but start with being grateful that we live in a country where you can own land, that you can purchase a home and you have somewhere to call home.
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Hire a Realtor®. Sure the Realtor says hire a Realtor. Even though both my husband and I are Realtors, we hired my dad, also a Realtor, to negotiate the offers and repairs for us. We knew we were not able to treat this purchase as a business decision or an investment because it was our dream home. We knew we needed an almost disinterested third party to look out for our needs and wants and negotiate for our best interest.
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Create a Plan. What’s that saying? “Do what I say, not what I do.” We did not have a great plan laid out on when we wanted to sell and buy, but I highly recommend it. If you have time to plan, think through the best time of the year for your family to start looking for a home, research areas, school zones, neighborhoods, etc.
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Financial Health. Start now looking into your financial health and call a mortgage broker to help you determine the best time for you to buy. They will also be able to help you determine the amount of downpayment to save and how much you can afford.
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Be Open Minded/Flexible. There are going to be several things throughout the process that may not go exactly as you planned. Count on it. Be open minded and flexible to other options for outcomes that will still get you in the home you want.
Purchasing a home can be a stressful experience, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many moving parts that go into buying a home, from finding your home, getting qualified for a loan, inspections, appraisal and closing. It’s important to have a team of professionals ready to assist you every step of the way so nothing falls through the cracks.
The DeSelms Team has a passion for bringing people home. Let us #bringyouhome
