The Beginnings

In the last month I’ve been seeing many Utah IDA Network savers purchasing affordable homes with affordable payments. I’ve seen several with mortgage payments around $600/mo. I currently pay $525 in rent for a one bedroom apartment.

As much as being a single woman makes life more interesting, I decided to complicate everything by looking into purchasing a home. I started out thinking it was a crazy idea, but did some more thinking and realized it could be very doable. Who can resist when mortgage rates are so low and affordable housing is out there! Thus I began to ponder the idea of owning a home. What would it look like? What would I do to make the payments? What other items would I need to purchase just after buying a home (lawn mower, etc.)? After thinking for quite a while I realized I could potentially reduce my overall housing cost if I purchased a two bedroom for less than $700/mo. and charged at least $200 in rent. GO FIGURE!

At that point I decided to take the HUD Approved first time homeowners course offered through CDC Utah. I took it in a one day format. We covered budgeting, searching for homes, what a realtor does, loan documents, what we can expect time wise, etc. I found it informative on the particular documents related to purchasing a home. They stressed that your Realtor is your employee and if you don’t like them, fire them. They also said to shop around and get three banks to pre-qualify you within a 14 day time period. This will help you before you get started to know what the bank says you can afford. In all likelihood you should probably buy less than they qualify you for. Once you have a price range go look at homes. One suggestion was to make a list of 10 important items to have in your home. See if each home has those items. If it has at least 7-8 make an offer because you will likely not find one with everything you’re looking for.

Once you make an offer you will be highly reliant on your real estate agent to do the paperwork. Make sure that your offer includes anything you want in the home. If you want the refrigerator or washer/dryer make sure this gets listed. They can always choose to not include them, but if you want them give it a shot.

The analogy that they used to describe the next portion was a volleyball match where one side sends an offer then the other side sends it back either with a counter offer or a rejection.

Once all is said and done and your offer is accepted you begin all the inspections and appraisals etc. Then the paper work begins and you “sign your life away.”
Be sure to get your final settlement statement before your closes (you’re entitled to it 24 hours in advance, but may not get it that far out) and compare it with your good faith estimate to see what fees or other items changed. If all is good, sign the documents and close on your home. Interesting side note, you probably won’t walk away with the keys until a few days after your “closing.” The home is not yours until it’s recorded with the county.

I do have a one on one housing counseling session to attend still, so I might learn more there. I know they cover budgets and credit reports more extensively during that time.

Now I will see if this process is at all like they talked about….

So after learning all this I know of two Realtors that I will interview and see who will be the best at finding a home for me.