Those of you who have bought houses or have looked into buying a house - please please give me your advice!

Matthew and I have toyed around with the idea of buying a house. I mean, now's the time to do it, right? That's what they tell me.

I think our first step should be going to a bank and seeing what they can do for us as far as financing. Is that pretty much correct? My credit is "okay". I've got debt but I'm paying it off (student loans, one credit card). I just got a promotion at work, so that should look pretty decent to a bank, right? I'm a shopkeeper (manager) of a store - so I'm the person in charge!

So say we get approved for financing and we have the green light to start looking for a house. What's next? The one I'm currently looking at is being sold by the owners - so do I work with a real estate agent? How can we lower the price (says they're willing to negotiate)? How do we get it inspected and make sure that there's nothing super wrong with it? Or if there is, can that be applied to the cost of the house?

We don't really have friends in Columbus that have bought a house and we don't know anyone who is really handy and could check out the house for us.

Please offer up any advice, not just for us but for those about to start the same journey. Advice, cautionary tales, things you wish you would have done.

And anyways, here's the house we've been eyeing!

http://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2417-Indiana-Ave-Columbus-OH-43202/33852337_zpid/#{scid=hdp-site-map-bubble-photos}

Dunno if you saw this, but we already have a thread that had some tips! http://otakubooty.com/...mp;tab=1&page=1&action=st

I hope everything works out, and I wish you and my hubby the best of luck lisa!

Well that thread is old and on the seventh page and we've made it clear on this site that we can make new threads if we can't find older ones! I totally did a search first and it kept breaking on me if I tried search for "a million years".

BUT THANKS!

Anyone have new advice? I know things like interest rates change so fast these days. Maybe someone has some serious up to date information for us poor folks!

The more you have down the more it shows you are financially stable. Getting another loan to cover a down payment is not a good idea. For the bank it means to them that you personally have more money invested in the house so you are less likely to miss payments and lose the house/you investment.

The bigger the down payment the better!

Hey, guess who just bought a house and knows how to type things up and post them online?

LeeChan said:
I think our first step should be going to a bank and seeing what they can do for us as far as financing. Is that pretty much correct? My credit is "okay". I've got debt but I'm paying it off (student loans, one credit card). I just got a promotion at work, so that should look pretty decent to a bank, right? I'm a shopkeeper (manager) of a store - so I'm the person in charge!

Yes, it's good to have financing lined up beforehand. Instead of going to a bank, you can also work with a mortgage broker. This may cost you a little more money up-front (unless you make a deal where the seller pays your closing costs) but it could save money longer-term by getting you a better deal / interest rate. In any case, it does make the process a lot simpler because you don't have to shop around or work directly with banks. I went with a mortgage broker because I like it when things are easy and I had less time to deal with stuff like shopping around for mortgages.

LeeChan said:
So say we get approved for financing and we have the green light to start looking for a house. What's next? The one I'm currently looking at is being sold by the owners - so do I work with a real estate agent?

You can certainly work with a real estate agent, and again, this will probably make things easier, especially in the search phase. A real estate agent can help you understand all the steps and answer all the questions you've asked in this thread and all the ones you haven't thought up yet.

Somebody said:
How do we get it inspected and make sure that there's nothing super wrong with it? Or if there is, can that be applied to the cost of the house?

Generally, how it works is:

- You decide you want to make an offer. In doing so, you sign a real estate contract and put up a bit of "earnest money," like a thousand bucks or so. This money goes into escrow and will either go towards the down payment, or be refunded to you if the deal is canceled for any reason and you have met all of your duties as far as the contract goes.

- The contract will stipulate what has to happen and when. This is where you get the chance to have the house inspected, usually within ten days or two weeks. The inspector will give you a full report of any problems with the house; at this point, you can just decide not to move ahead and get your earnest money refunded, or negotiate repairs from the seller. If the seller declines one or more repairs, again you can back out and get your money back, or move forward if you decide it's worth it. You will also have to have your financing locked down by a date stipulated in the contract, like a week or so.

That's probably about all the help I can be, because in my case, the house was a short sale and short sales are a different animal; they are a little trickier but you could end up with a really amazing deal. I can post more about that if you're curious!

Bank situation has been covered.

I'll move on to the credit situation. When you say your credit is "okay", I see red flags. I'm guessing around the 650 area, Additionally both you and Matthew are going to buying the house right? As a married couple, your credit will be based off the two of your scores. Hopefully both of your scores are in decent shape.

To get the best interest rate possible, it depends on value of the house, your credit score, your combined monthly income, and how well you are with your overall debt.

As you mentioned, you only have 1 credit card? What about Matthew? 2 years ago, I leased a car. I had to put an additional 2k down because though my credit score was 700, it wasn't enough to qualify or the 1.9% financing. I offered to pay more on the down payment which made things more favorable.

I guess what I'm saying is, if your credit sucks or is okay and you want that really good interest rate, you may have to pay more for the down payment.

Best bet, is to check with a mortgage broker, and also check with your bank. At least it will give you an idea of what your limits will be.

Since this is your first house look into a FHA loan

http://banking.about.com/od/mortgages/a/FHALoans.htm
Since I would suck at explaining it

are you absolutely ready and willing to pony up money for a house? There's no rush to get one..! Once you're in, it's for the long haul.

Besides having money saved up for a house, when all is said and done you want a bunch of extra money in savings for repairs you have to make, and any unplanned expenses like something breaking (like air conditioning!)

It looks like a nice little place, I wish you good luck in your house hunting. I wish there were moderately-priced places in my area.