Buying a home is a challenge and a reward. I just bought my own home for the first time last month, and I am very happy, but I’m also very worried. It’s a big responsibility, after all.
I have always lived with other people, for as long as I can remember. I know that it is a bit silly for a woman in her thirties to never have lived alone, but that was the situation I found myself in. It seemed fine, and I never had a problem with it. However, I finally found myself in a position where I had to move yet again, and I thought to myself: why don’t you have a place of your own? So that is what I started looking for.
I knew I had pretty good credit, and that I had managed to save a little bit of money living with other people. I was also lucky enough to have a steady job. I think all of those things helped me when it came time for me to really think about buying a house. I had watched so many friends go through it that I knew that I was in a good position, and I was grateful for that, but I still had a lot of work to do.
I got my mortgage first, which I had heard suggested many times. I didn’t even bother looking at houses until I went to my bank and got pre-approved for a certain amount of money. That’s when I felt a little more secure about what I was getting into. I think that saved me a lot of time as well. Because I had done the work of getting a mortgage already, there was no point in looking at homes I couldn’t afford.
I finally got a realtor, and I think she helped me a lot. There were so many houses on the market for the area I wanted, that I would have been overwhelmed if I didn’t have her around. I was also really lucky that I knew the neighborhoods well enough to know where I wanted to live and where I wanted to avoid. I came up with a list of things my dream house would have, and the realtor came back with a bunch of houses to look at.
Looking at houses was by far the most fun part of the entire process. I was so excited to be buying a house that I imagined myself in every house I saw. It was hard to pick just one, and I even looked at a few houses twice. It’s a big expense, and I wanted to make sure that I picked just the right house to live in.
Finally I saw the house that is mine today, and I just knew it had to be mine. The closing process was a bit nerve-wracking, but when I finally reached closing day and signed the paperwork I was so happy. Being a homeowner is terrific.