Boy Do I Have News For You!

...We bought a house! We are officially in contract! After several weeks of looking and a week of inspections we are hopefully (fingers crossed) done with that part of the process for a long while! Now we are looking forward to signing our life away and having cramped hands at closing. 

We are beyond excited yet slightly stressed at the same time. There are a lot of thing we don't know about owning your own home yet so it will be an adventure for sure! 

House Hunting Blues

This past weekend my husband and I went through every house in our price range in our desired are we want. Talk about exhausting  We fell in love with 1 particular house and ask the Realtor if we could come back on Sunday to take a second look at it. With in an hour of being home from house hunting we got a phone call...and disappointing phone call. The house we had fallen in love with went into contract. Were we upset? Yes. Were we disappointed  Yes. What we did know is God knows what he is doing and the house he has planed for us will come. We only seriously started looking this past week. Here are a few tips on how not to get the house hunting blues.

Don't fall in love with a house on the internet. What we have learned is houses look much different in person. You are up close and can see all the flaws the pictures didn't reveal. It has been very disappointing at times but just move on in a positive attitude. That's all you really can do. 

No house is perfect even if you built a custom home you will probably compromise with something. So go in knowing most things can be changed and altered to your style. Cosmetic changes are obviously the easiest and budget friendly compared to a structural change. Remember the paint color can always be changed!

Be positive when looking at house. Don't get hung up on one thing wrong with the house...unless it serious and a costly fix. Just remember the perfect house that God intended you to have is out there and in the right timing he will reveal that. 

Jesse and I are constantly praying for that house. We pray often to that this house will not only be to provide shelter for our family but to be a welcoming place for friends and family. A place where we can share Gods word. 

Happy House Hunting!

House Hunting: Pre Approval

If you are like most people buying a home, cash is not the easiest thing to do this day in age. Although it would be nice and if you have the means to do that...go for it! But Jesse and I do not. We are newlywed below average income people. So we had to go the mortgage route and the mortgage route starts at getting a pre approval.

A pre approval does not guarantee we will be able to get a house but it shows the real estate agent that we are serious and gives us a general idea of what we can afford based on our income and credit. The pre approval processes doesn't typically take long. Just make sure you submit all the paperwork you need and the lender will get back to you with in a few days.

When getting pre approved there are several factors they look at. income and credit are probably the big ones. Thankfully Jesse and I were raised similar when it comes to credit and have been on the same page since day one or our marriage. That is a credit it card is yes in fact used to purchase things for the month but the balance it not to be carried over. Meaning we don't put anything on it we know we cant pay off right away. This is huge because we don't make "bank" income wise but having good credit is helpful. But don't think only having a credit an hardly no income will get the house of your dreams.

Before we went to a lender to get pre approved I went to a few mortgage calculators online. The best one I have found so far is bankrate.com. Just make sure you do your research. Not only will the mortgage calculators not be 100% accurate but also every situation is different. So even if you think you wont be approve, give it a try!