How Home Buying is Supposed to Look
This is what I thought home buying would look like (although after explaining my occupation to a mortgage broker, only to then be asked “What does your husband do?” I have my doubts…)
Step 1) Couple finds dream home whilst drinking organic, fresh-squeezed orange juice and surfing the web on a trendy laptop. (Note fresh flowers and SPOTLESS all white kitchen in the background.)
Step 2) Couple texts realtor to arrange a viewing. (How happy they look! And isn’t it nice how they are working together to send a text?)
Step 3) Couple zooms off to their first appointment.
Step 4) Couple finds that their dream house looks even better than it looked on the internet.
Step 5) Couple signs paperwork. (Obviously I would add champagne to this picture.)
Step 6) Couple gets keys. (More champagne.)
Step 7) Happy, happy couple smiles as they unpack their strangely well-packed and color coordinated boxes.
Step 8) Happy couple buys FURNITURE! What fun!!! (And what practical heels for furniture shopping.)
Step 9) Happy couple buys GROCERIES! What fun!!! (And what a great place for making out.)
Step 10) Happy couple hosts fabulous house warming party, receives approximately 6 dozen bottles of wine at said party, and lives happily ever after. (Note physical fitness, perfect hair, ethnic diversity and ample cleavage of new social circle.)
This, of course, is not the reality. I know this because I went to a four-hour first time homebuyer education workshop over the weekend (where I earned an official first time homebuyer certificate) and at no time during the entire workshop did we talk about house warming parties or bottles of champagne. We talked about escrow and down payments and private mortgage insurance and interest rates and which end of the roof you’re supposed to start at when you’re cleaning a gutter… (the corner by the downspout, if I remember correctly). Nonetheless, I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited about something, especially now that I’m single.
I can buy whatever I want, wherever I want, and I’ve saved enough money to put down a 20% down payment, which means I’ll qualify for a proper conventional loan and won’t have to worry about private mortgage insurance. I’m doing a lot of freaking out of course (what if I don’t actually get approved for a mortgage? What if the underwriters can’t make sense of my multiple W-2s and multiple 1099s? What if I don’t find the right house? And what if I find the right house and someone else buys it before I do?) but when I’m not busy borrowing trouble, I can’t help but feel the tiniest bit of pride. Eventually I’m going to trade that homebuyer certificate for a pair of keys. My own keys. Purchased with my money in my city. Husband or no.
Fieldwork in Stilettos 
11 Responses to “How Home Buying is Supposed to Look”
Congrats, Kat! That is fantastic!!
Our home-buying experiences have never looked like that either, and Justin and I are lucky enough that we look for the same things when it comes to buying property (location, natural light, and something that “feels” like it will appreciate with time). In fact, we put an offer on this current house when Justin hadn’t even seen it! Trust, man. It’s a beautiful, pressure-filled thing. When you’re looking, don’t compromise on location, keep an open mind when it comes to decor, and if an offer falls through, just remember there are PLENTY of other houses in the sea. 😉
Wow! That is a LOT of trust 🙂 But good for you guys! And yes, location, location, LOCATION! Especially because that can mean the difference between arriving home alive and not here in Philly…
Ditto Katie! Spring time brings out more houses to choose from, you WILL find something that fits your needs, it is time consuming, but rewarding.
One more reason to look forward to spring 🙂
You should be so proud of yourself. 20% down is nothing to sneeze at these days.
Thank you! I’ll be a lot more relaxed once I get the actual mortgage approval.
Loved reading this! My husband and I have been looking for a house for well over a year and a half. What. A. Nightmare! San Diego prices alone are enough to discourage but the process itself is just a migraine. I always imagined it’d be fun; open houses, looking at the different styles, imaging how I’d decorate each one. Man, was I in for a rude awakening lol.
Best of luck to you, I hope you are able to find your perfect home 🙂
Thanks! And yeah, I think it’s probably fun the first few times out but by house #73, not so much 😦 Good luck with your search!
You’re also still waiting to hear back from a few different PhD programs in different locales, though, right?
Yes, they said “by early March” so I’m hoping that means sometime next week!
Yay! We are officially in the same boat in the home-buying situation! Now we we really need to talk. 🙂 I loved your usage of photos here, with all the couples. However – don’t believe the hype. Single people do buy and it is a wise decision, I believe, with benefits!
Good for you!