The list is forever long but I was able to narrow it down to the top 5 Things We Learned About Buying A House!

(a house we looked at during the process)

Our house buying process was quite involved. We spent about a year looking at homes when we found one that we both loved. We put in a bid and it was turned down immediately, but the process of putting the bid in was eye opening for it. It was the first time numbers by a mortgage company had been crunched for us. We quickly learned that the numbers we thought we had been crunching ourselves were completely wrong. Which brings me to our number 1 thing…

1. Crunch numbers with your mortgage company BEFORE looking at a single house
It is so important to know right off the bat exactly what you can afford. Save yourselves and your realtors time. This way you’re not looking at houses that you think you can afford but the mortgage company actually tells you is more expensive after all the extra little details you forgot about.

This brings me to number 2…

2. Find and work with professionals in the industry that you trust, are knowledgeable, talk you through the entire process, answer all your questions and match your personality. 
This process is incredibly confusing, especially for a first time buyer and so to have professionals that are 100% in your corner, fighting for you in the way you would fight for yourself (since you can’t talk to the seller realtor) and you know is giving you all of the information and guiding you through the process is the most important part of the process.

Our awesome incredible amazing super trustworthy team consisted of:

Realtor: Todd McGill from Keller Williams 
Lender: Bridget McGee from Corridor Mortgage 

3. Take a first time home buyers class early on.
We took a class about 2 months ago…it was pointless for us because it discussed all of the things we had learned through trial and error. If we would’ve taken it two years ago, we would’ve gone into the process more knowledgeable and better equipped. We would’ve known the process, what happens when and what we as buyers need to do to give us the best fighting chance.

4. Trust your gut and follow your heart. 
This was something we both really struggled with and something that caused a fair number of arguments to be completely honest. The hubby easily and quickly fell in love with multiple homes. It fit the budget, it fit the needs and he was sold. I however, didn’t feel the same. I just never got the feeling. Yes, don’t get me wrong, I loved the homes we put bids on. They were beautiful homes. They fit the budget, they fit our needs and our wants. But my heart wasn’t sold. I didn’t walk into the home and know this is where we were are supposed to live. Where we are supposed to start our family. But for those 3 homes that the hubby was completely head over heels for, I followed his lead and said yes. We put in bids. The first home the bid was immediately denied, it was too low and they just didn’t even entertain it. But we learned from the process and moved on. The 2nd home, was a lot more involved. The 2nd home we put in a bid and it was accepted! We started the process, we went through the home inspection with no real hiccups (of course something needs to be watched or fixed no one is perfect). We were told we were good, everything was moving forward wonderfully and we could inform our apartment complex that we were breaking our lease and would be moving out in 60 days. A few short weeks later the bank appraisal happened and it came in $20,000 LESS than our contracted price. Sadly we couldn’t come to terms with the sellers and all parties decided to cancel the sale and move on. But now we’re out of a house and out of an apartment, so my wonderful parents let us move into the basement while we continued the hunting process. We took a break over Christmas and the New Year and picked back up. In February we found out that my job situation was changing and I would no longer be employed full-time, meaning that we were taking a significant pay cut! Finally all the other houses not working out and falling apart and not falling in love with. This feeling of not being able to fully commit made all the sense in the world. If they had our financial situation would be very stressed. God was taking care of us.
We changed our budget, we added town homes to our searches and the doors opened for us. We found this one town home that was beautiful. The budget was incredible. We loved it. But there was just something holding me back. But we put in a bid and another person’s bid was selected(I was slightly relived- remember trust that gut!). So the hunt continued.

5. You will know the house when you walk into it. 
Everyone tells you you’ll know. You just walk in and you get this feeling. You immediately fall in love. It was the first town home on our list of about 6 town homes to walk through that morning. We pulled up, walked up to the house, walked through that door and I fell in love. I felt at home. I felt at peace. I hadn’t even seen the whole house and I knew this is where we are supposed to start our family. This is the house we are supposed to purchase. I know it sounds kind of crazy, the hubby thinks I’m crazy. But I think he got the feeling as well. We looked at the rest of the town homes but honestly at that point it was just a formality for me, I was sold. After looking at them, Nick and I didn’t even need to discuss it. We just told Todd, yes lets move forward with the first one. So the process began. Our bid was accepted. The home inspection went well. We only feared the appraisal. But yet that fear, was never a real fear. I knew this was our home. This is where God was blessing us to be. This was His plan for us. So He would make it happen. And he did.

So now here we are, homeowners and loving every single second of it (stress, confusion, expenses and all).