A year and a half ago, my wife and I closed on our very first house. As I shared before, this came about rather quickly — as we went from thinking maybe we’d missed our chance to deciding to hit up an open house… to buying only a few weeks later. Ever since it became clear that we were going to become homeowners, I’ve been writing a series of posts on the topic over on Fioney. But, today, I’m excited to announce that I’ve also compiled some of the highlights of my entire homebuying and homeowning experience (so far) into a handy guide called So You Are Thinking About Buying Your First Home. What’s more, it’s totally free to download right now!
I wanted to create this guide because, as my wife and I went through the process of buying our house, we discovered plenty of things that I honestly hadn’t heard anyone discuss before. Another reason I wanted to highlight my experience in particular was due to some of the strange quirks we ran into as (at least partially) self-employed workers applying for a mortgage. Heck, I even learned a thing or two about navigating Zillow — and how listings can subtly lie to you!
In addition to covering those topics, my guide will walk you through starting your journey, what to do when you become a bit more serious about buying, and who I’d recommend you look into working with. Of course, as mentioned, we’ll also cover the mortgage application process and, more importantly, how to understand what all goes into your monthly housing payment (hint: it’s more than just your principal and interest). From there, I’ll also take a look at what making an offer on a house is like, as well as what happens from there. That will all lead up to closing day… which is another part of the homebuying process that everyone kind of knows about but no one really explains what to expect.
From there, I’ll share more of our experience as homeowners during our first year — including the good and bad. For example, we’ll look at some of the pros and cons of financing the inevitable repairs and upgrades you’ll need to make to your home. But, before that, did you know that you may just find yourself inundated with spam and borderline scam mail after buying your house?! I’ll explain why that is and how to outsmart these tricks.
Once again, So You Are Thinking About Buying Your First Home is completely free and doesn’t even require an email to download. Just head to my dedicated landing page and click the download button at the bottom. You may need to hit another download button once the PDF loads, but you should be ‘home’ free (get it?) from there.
With that, I hope you get a chance to check out this first-time homebuyers guide and that it helps give you some new insight as you begin or continue your homebuying journey. And, for more from my homebuyer/homeowner series, I’ll see you over on Fioney.com.