When you start thinking about buying your first home, you get a lot of advice. I heard everything from “So, what’s the big deal? It’s easy!” to “Buying your first house is the hardest thing you will ever do.” I would say that my experience buying my first home equated best with the latter.
First, a little background as to how I even decided to buy a home. I have always rented and saved every penny I could. People call me frugal and tell me to “splurge” on myself but I knew that I worked hard for my money and didn’t want to spend it on silly things that I wouldn’t ever use. Once I graduated grad school, I gave myself 2.25 years to pay off all of my student loans and my car and I made it happen. After that, all that money that I was paying towards loans went into savings.
My previous job that I just finished was definitely not a career; it was more of an awesome stepping stone so I rented for the three years at that job. When I received a job offer for my dream job on March 22nd (the day after I turned 30 – it was a remarkable week!), I had to start thinking about moving. My new job is two hours away from where my old job was. I immediately started looking at rentals because that’s what I always do. But, my new job is located in a college town and to rent anything decent and not in the middle of the student district, you had to pay upwards of $800-950 a month. Ouch.
My parents suggested I start looking at houses to buy. It is after all a “buyer’s market” and “when else are interest rates and home prices ever going to be this low?” It took me quite a while to warm to the idea as I am a single girl and it seemed like a lot of responsibility. However, my new job is what I hope my career will be for a very long time and I am ready to put roots down. So, I started looking.
I only looked at three condos and one house. I decided that buying a condo is the best choice for me as I am frequently out of town and I hate spending full days of lawn care (though I don’t mind shoveling that much). I did a ton of research. I researched everything from who my neighbors were to who the seller was, the community, home prices, the HOA, sidewalk availability, property taxes, how much the seller paid for the condo five years earlier, how much other people had paid, etc., etc., etc. I was ready and made an offer a few days after looking at a condo that I loved and, after a little negotiation, I reached a really great deal. I contacted my banker who preapproved my mortgage and sent all the documents and loan initiation paperwork to the bank.
The bank told me they were on it and they were on board with closing on June 15th. We had a home inspection that went wonderfully – only a few very minor issues with the condo. A few weeks later, my relator contacted me saying that the bank had yet to contact anyone about the appraisal, which had to be done in a week to meet the appraisal contingency of my contract.
I was in the middle of the last week of the spring semester and packing to move out of my old apartment and was stressed to the max to begin with. When I contacted the bank I was “working” with, they said they had never received any of my materials via e-mail (even after my mortgage person sent a reply e-mail confirming that he received the documents) or the loan initiation paperwork, which I FedEx’ed twice, and which included all my credit card numbers, social security numbers, and other very important person information. After a major freak out (as you can imagine), my mortgage guy told me to resend everything, not tell my relator about the mix up, and just push back closing until July.
Obviously, this was not the path I was willing to take. Any banker who loses all my information and acts like it’s no big deal is not someone I want to deal with. I contacted my relator immediately and she got me in contact with a new banker who was absolutely amazing. I had four days to get my entire mortgage together before my half marathon and embarking on my three week work trip.
There were a few hold ups during those four days, like my previous bank not actually confirming that my new condo was able to accept FHA loans (which they were not). This meant that I needed to put more money down. I also learned that interest rates on condos were higher than single family homes. Interesting, huh?
After filling out an amazing amount of paperwork (some of it for the third and fourth time due to the problems with my previous bank), signing my name a bazillion times, scanning hundreds of pages, and a whole lot of phone calls and e-mails, my new banker had my mortgage off to the underwriters and everything was good to go before I left for my field course.
I left on the trip and only had a few small things to deal with – namely sending off the financing commitment from the banker to the seller. When I got home, I had one week until closing. It was at this point that I found out that the seller (who is living in South Korea) was mailing paperwork and it would take an extra week to close on the condo. Closing at that point was pushed back to June 22nd.
During that week, I found out that my HOA did not send all of their financial documents showing their reserves. This meant that if the HOA didn’t have enough reserves, I had to put down about twice as much money to cover the risk that the HOA posed on me. Luckily, the HOA came through a day before closing and this didn’t happen.
Finally, on June 22nd, I was able to close! I am officially a homeowner. It was a very stressful process and my left eye twitched about every five minutes for five full weeks (I wish this was an exaggeration!). I love and owe so much to my banker! And my relator. And my parents who were so much help and let me vent no matter how annoying I got.
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| Opening my door for the first time! |
Between the end of the semester, moving twice, my half, the three week field course, buying my condo, and getting ready to start my new job, it has been quite a crazy 1.5 months, which is why I have been MIA lately. Now, my condo is painted, I am all moved in and settled with only a few things left to do, and I am starting my new job on Monday. I am very, very much looking forward to being settled and back into a routine!
My health goals for the past few months were to maintain my weight and keep up with my workouts and I’m happy to report that I have done just that. I have been bouncing around with three to five pounds, but I am okay with that. I have started running as my joints have been doing well and can now run 5 miles straight and ran a 5k yesterday in under 30 minutes. I am working on weight training, which is something that I let fall by the wayside while training for my half. I am out of town for the 4th of July but officially get back to my condo and move my cat in on Thursday so I will be planning to start attacking the last 20-25 pounds I need to get off.
There are a few things that aren’t going so great, namely my sugar addiction. Oh ice cream and frozen yogurt, you are my nemesis! These will not reside in my condo as I have no self-control! Also, I am a little sad as I have had to cancel my plans to sign up and complete another half marathon this year. With putting more money down on my condo, it’s just not the time. That doesn’t mean that I can’t stay fit and perhaps do a couple of smaller races that are cheaper (assuming I have time with my new job).
With that long-winded story, I will leave you to enjoy your 4th of July! Have a great holiday! J
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