First time home buyers - help needed!

DH & I are about to start looking to purchase our first home on LI. What do we do first...realtor? Get a mortgage? Look in the paper? Attend advertised open houses?

We are clueless and need any help out there

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

we've been looking for over 6 months and narrowed down the area we wanted, then we got pre-approved.

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

DH and I are about to get serious also. So far, we've been scouring mlsli.com, the paper and attending any open houses we see.
In the next month we are going to get pre-approved for a mortgage. So, while we are looking if we see something we love and want to make an offer on we can.

ETA: You should figure out how much you want to spend and what neighborhoods you want to look in.

Message edited 1/8/2007 2:30:37 PM.

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

first talk to a bank or brooker about getting pre-approval for a mortgage

also do some indepent reserch as to your price range and what you can afford- I would add up ALL your monthly expenses and see what you can comfortably pay for a mortgage

next I would drive around- decide where you want to live-

then contact a local real estate agent

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

I would suggest figuring out what you can afford and then start going to open houses so you can explore different neighborhoods, etc...

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

Look around at areas,school districts, etc...
Then if you see places you like I would call those real estate brokers who are handling the listing
similtaneously you can get pre-approved or the real estate agent can put you in touch with a broker.

Best of luck, we are starting this process and its time consuming but really fun!!

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

I would start thinking about towns you would want to live in, or think you might want to live in. Next, think about what you want in a house, what you really need and what is just on your wish list. After that, take a look at MLS and see what the prices are for various towns you are considering.

After that, I would go to some open houses in the towns and spend some time driving around. You may want to make appt.s with realtors also and ask them to tell you more about the town.

Finally, check your credit and clear up any messiness before you start applying for mortgages. You can get a pre-approval, but you will also need to sit down with your SO and figure out exactly what your expenses are each month, what you take in, and what you can afford to spend. We got approved for an amount that was really too high for us. We could make our payments and pay basic bills, but we couldn't save or do much else.

Good luck!

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

I would start the process like this:

1. Go to various banks and get pre-approved for a mortgage. One - you'll know what you can afford, what the interest rates are like, etc for each bank instutition. Two - being able to tell a realtor that you're preapproved will show the seller's that you're a serious buyer!

2. Find a R/E agent your comfortable with - usually thru recommendation; OR go the route we went - dealing directly with the listing agent on a home.

3. Start looking at www.mlsli.com and search the available homes in the areas you like.

4. Ask questions on the boards - many of us have seen these homes, or can offer advice on the area you're looking.

Good luck!

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

Hey Kelly....Happy House Hunting!!!

We started out by working with a RE agent, whom we loved! Then we took all the necessary steps to get the mortgage. She helped us ALOT.

We looked online. We were on mls all the time!!!!

Re: First time home buyers - help needed!

In addition to all the info above, I also recommend making an appt with LIHP - speak with Lynn Law. She's so helpful in letting you understand what type of mtg programs are out there...and what you can afford.
We went to many banks and tons of different loan programs were thrown at us...including 80/20 and of course PMI. With speaking with LIHP, we found out about a 100% financing with no PMI at a normal rate...we also decided that putting even 3% down is a huge benefit to us. She ran a lot of different scenarios, etc.
I highly recommend them.