Monday, June 22, 2015

Instant Equity...

Earlier today, my agent called to inform me that my contract offer on a recently viewed property, had been acccepted by the seller! Now I just have to pay for it… lol. 

But seriously, my financing is already in place & my closing costs are all lined-up as well. The sale is now contingent upon the property passing inspection & appraising for a specified amount. It's not a done deal just yet, but the hardest part is over - finding the right home & getting a contract offer accepted by the seller. Now I can shift my focus toward maintaining (or even increasing) my current credit score between now & settlement, so that I can try & lock-in an even better interest rate at closing.

After months of preparing myself financially & searching for homes, I'm so very excited to finally put down the listings & start pricing home furnishings, electronic components, so on & so fourth. I've got some great ideas for what I'd like to do with the place - I'm SO very blessed & happy to have finally reached this milestone. Nothing but smiles around here today...

Friday, June 12, 2015

First Time Home-Buyer...

I'm well into my 30s & for years, I've simply put-off buying a home of my own for various reasons - chiefly, I just didn't want to deal with the painstaking process of securing financing & then of course, there's finding that perfect home. But one day I woke-up this past February & for no reason at all, decided this would be the year I finally put myself on-track toward homeownership.

Since that time, I've taken several home buying & competitive market courses, selected a real estate agent, secured pre-approval from a lender, set aside money for estimated closing costs & have recently been touring properties that have grabbed my attention. I don't have a whole lot of amenities or features on my must-have list, but the few I've come-up with have significantly lowered the number of viable properties available to me.

Still, I've indeed been seeing the types of homes I'm looking for hit the market over the spring & summer, so I'm fairly confident I'll get an offer accepted & be able to close by the fall or early winter, when the market is a little less competitive. Early on, I was discouraged by what I saw out there, but things have definitely picked-up in terms of inventory, so I'm certainly gonna hold-out for the perfect home, not just settle for something with an attractive list price.

I'd be a liar if I said this entire process hasn't been entirely consuming though... no matter what I'm doing, home shopping never seems to be far from my mind. Quite frequently, I find myself immersed in online home listings at work, watching house hunting shows on HGTV at home & driving through desirable neighborhoods while out & about.


One thing's for certain, I'm gonna breathe SUCH a sigh of relief once I'm done with the forthcoming inspections, appraisals & document signings - just put the house keys in my hand already & be done with it, lol.