Potential first time home buyer in search of any and all advice

Is this a can you afford it thread or are you asking about the headaches involved?

1. Talk to your bank, they have all your deposits, they know you.

2. Ask your bank about the steps of getting a pre-approval, they will want paystubs,tax returns, and when they're done with their due diligence will tell you that you are approved for x amount

3. You can get a realtor friend, I personally look up listings on my own and give both sides of the deal to the listing broker in return for a deal on the price + a break on the commission, they'll drop down from 6% to 4.5-5% which the seller pays anyway. If you don't understand your market, then get a realtor who knows the market well.

4.As for your final question.....If you go to the suburbs, don't expect appreciation it could happen but it also may not. The good is you get a bigger property for the same money. My parents old home in the suburbs of houston was huge like 5000 sq ft home and sold for $185k in 1990 when I was a kid, and it traded hands again at $178k last year, I don't know why, but it just did, the property didn't appreciate at all. Meanwhile the home they bought inside the loop was smaller and has tripled in that same time frame, so thats my take on living in the city vs the suburbs. Im not an expert or anything but in my experience, id take prime real estate vs suburbs if you're worried abt investing.

5.If you do use one realtor for both sides of the deal, make sure all inspections get done, sometimes they try to sneak the end of inspection period by you without you knowing bc they want the deal done and once that period passes you lose your deposit if you don't go through with the deal

Its going to be a long,drawn out process, but now is a great time in most markets bc the markets have calmed down and you're not dealing with multiple offers on properties in a few days like you were recently.

Lafayette, La.

Get pre approved, get an agent but not a friend, make seller pay closing cost. Don't be afraid to walk away if the deal isn't right

I am new to this too as we are in the process of relocating. My wife found an agent just by picking one randomly online, DONT DO THAT! This lady, eventho shes very nice, she did not make me feel like she was looking out for me. Yes i know this is a business and she wants to get paid, but she seen a sale and thats all she wanted. On a whim i talked to oldwiseone33 on TD and he has went above and beyond what this other lady had done. Just ask questions, it will def help make the process alittle easier. Good luck bud

Just went through this not long ago myself... Here's my takeaway.

1. Get preapproved. This will help strengthen any offer you make and will make for less headache.

2. Go see at least 3 houses. A lot of people fall in love with the first one. That's OK, but go see a couple more to make sure.

3. When you are looking at a house, be extremely thorough examining and looking things over. It'll behoove you to know exactly what you're getting.

spend no more than 15% of your after tax monthly income on the mortgage. dont buy more house than you need.

my mortgage is less than 10% of my after tax monthly income.

pros/cons of living in the city - you're in a city

pros/cons of living in the country - your'e in the country

again, don't buy more house than you need.

First off listen to the get pre-approved and all the other good comments you've received.

1. If it's too good to be true it is.
2. Don't use a friend as a realtor. Don't overvalue a realtors opinion.
3. Pay attention to the neighborhood and your immediate surroundings. Make sure there are no issues like water backing up for example. Or another good one in a new neighborhood near my place is that a neighborhood is plagued by a water treatment plant making god awful noise in the middle of the night.

If you are looking at suburban neighborhoods, scope out the Facebook groups. We were looking at homes in a particular neighborhood and my wife joined the HOA Facebook group.

Within a week it was very evident that we did not want to live amongst people like that. It sounds weird, but you can get a good idea of the type of people you will be living around by seeing what they are complaining about.

Jesus. Are you a single man? If I spent 10-15% on a home my wife would leave me. I might be able to hold down a Chili's hostess on that amount of my income spent on mortgage.