It looks like my husband and I are ready to buy a house! We are currently getting pre-approved. 
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Don't be afraid of committing to a house because you're afraid of missing out on other houses.
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Congrats!! We just bought our first home last year.
Have a clear idea of what your "must haves" are and what youre willing to compromise on. It's easy to get caught up with beautiful houses with nice staging but that don't actually meet your needs.
Be prepared to move quickly with offers- it's scary but sometimes necessary. -
Look at property taxes, PMI and HOA fees in your "budget". We have found that property tax rates vary greatly around town here and the calculators you find online aren't accurate. One neighborhood would cost about an extra $175/month for HOA and extra property tax. Thats a big difference in our budget and what we would be comfortable with each month.
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When we were first looking, we spent a couple of days just doing drives around to look at houses in different towns and budgets- we didn't stop and go in, just would find a house on Zillow that looked interesting and drive past it- gave us a decent idea of price points in th different towns. But if you have narrowed it down already you could skip that.
I found going to a lot of open houses at first to be helpful. Again it helped to narrow down what we were looking for and what we could reasonably expect at different price points. Then we could rule out houses a lot easier without going to see them.
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Find a realtor you enjoy working with and don't be afraid to break up with one if you aren't feeling the relationship (we "broke" up with our first one after meeting one at an open house, she understood our needs and our price range and didn't try to sway us on either which we appreciated as first time home buyers.)
Know going into it you aren't going to get everything you want, so like PP said have a list of your must haves/not willing to compromise on, and things you are willing to give up if necessary
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Don't hold back feedback with your realtor. She can only help you find a great home if she knows what you like or disliked about the first few ones.
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If you are buying someplace with an HOA, ask to see their financials/reserves. We've only owned our place for a year, and gone through TWO special assessments because our HOA was mis-managed for a long time. I wish I went through their financials more thoroughly before buying!!
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I agree with @LuLu Mom:
Don't forget, the Realtor is working for you.
I left one immediately because she wanted me to sign a contract before we even viewed anything. I used a friend of DH for a while, but he was really disorganized and was showing me things HE would like, not that I was looking for. The third was a good fit and I felt like he really listened to me and planned showings (I was shopping in a HUGE county, so mapping out where to go in what order saved a ton of time)
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Put aside more money than you think you will need for closing costs. There are always tons of small paperwork fees and larger fees for things like propane left in the tank, etc.
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I was going to say get preapproved first, but you've got that covered!
-have some cash set aside for an earnest money deposit
-a Realtor is not like a car salesman, you need to be specific with your likes and dislikes when you view a house so they can help narrow your search
-have some must haves and some would be nice to haves and some deal breakers -
Once you find a house and make an offer get an inspection. It may seem like a lot but at the time but whats a few hundred dollars in the face of hundreds of thousands of dollars. NACHI and ASHI are two professional home inspectors organizations. An inspection can alert you to problems that need to be addressed by the home owner before you move in along with things you might want to monitor in the next few years.
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We did everything wrong, basically. We had an idea of neighborhoods, but my husband and I couldn't agree on the type of house or the amenities that we wanted and I feel like I ended up with a house that I don't particularly care for.
If I were to do it all over again, I would probably have to say that my husband and I should have done more research on the styles and amenities that we wanted and talked that through. We were forced to have those discussions while looking at the houses and it was rather tense.
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@RonjaL7: and in addition to that, I'd have a couple thousand set aside for things you notice AFTER the move...like upgrades you need that you didn't notice (like no lighting in any of the bedrooms...why did people do that in the 70s and 80s?)
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I second what @snarkybiochemist says, plus I recommend to be present for the inspection and take lots of notes/ask lots of questions. This will be your list of to-dos if you purchase the house and the seller doesn't take care of everything!
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Thank you everyone! You have been very helpful. So far I like the realtor we're currently talking with because he has stressed the importance of a budget/ not becoming house poor and because he also stressed that he is working for us. We gave him a want/ need list and the houses he sent us look at were really great. He definitely did a good job. We'll see what happens.
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You really have to go to a house to know. A house that seems like a dream could just be staged/photographed well while a gem could look not as nice because of poor photography/staging. Keep an open mind.
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When it comes down to purchase, don't underestimate how much it costs to close!!! You'll get a closing summary from your lender, but closing fees are additional to down payment.
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@matador84: Any idea of a good way to get an estimate for closing costs (meaning before you put an offer in)?
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@T.H.O.U.: I don't think so. Our lender wasn't able to estimate closing costs until we locked in our interest rate and maybe a week before we closed gave us the closing sheet summary. I honestly thought i was going to have a heart attack. This was our second home purchase and I did not recall closing costs being so much with our first home!!!
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Something we wish we would have done: pay more attention to finer details. Take time viewing the homes, and even more if you're reviewing a home again once you like it. Does it have enough counter space? In the kitchen and bathrooms. How's the storage, considering once you've lived there a few years and accumulated stuff? If it's a new build, pay close attention if they were cheap on finishes, cabinetry, etc.
Funny story: we only realized the kitchen has no cutlery drawers until after we bought it, so we have to store our cutlery in a cabinet next to our plates.
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@T.H.O.U.: our bank gave us an estimate once we knew the location we were looking in. They let us know it could vary depending on the rate we locked in, but we at least got a ballpark figure.
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You can change ANYTHING in the house, but the location!
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Listen for traffic noise.
Pay attention to the direction the house faces in terms of the sun.
Your house will get likely get reassessed by the county after you buy to reflect the current value of the home and you will likely get an adjusted property tax bill 4-6 months after you buy. So what the previous owner paid in property taxes won't be what you pay. For example, we bought from the original owner of the house and so the house hadn't been assessed properly in 17 years and we had to pay an additional $3,000 in taxes 3 months after we bought the house.
If there are fixes that can be made before you move in, do it, but that also means saving up more cash up front.
Look into maintenance costs for landscaping, pest abatement, water/sewer/gas, and tree trimming. FYI tree trimming is expensive!
Try very hard to buy a home that has a good roof and HVAC - something where you won't have to do anything to with it for at least 10 years. Those are expensive fixes.
Look at what the water situation is. For example, we are on river water and we have hard water that needs a softener otherwise we get super itchy. And we need Culligan filtration for drinking water. Our house came with a softener but the Culligan is another monthly fee.
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Everyone has great advice so far. I agree that you need to pay attention to both big and little things. Big things like taxes, home maintenance costs, utilities age of roif windows etc. Little things like overhead lighting, water pressure, do the windows open, what size bed would fit in what rooms, ... I had a friend buy a house with an updated kitchen that looked wonderful until once they moved in they realized that due to the layout the dishwasher doesn't open all the way making it almost useless.
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Don't commit yourself to a mortgage / debt that you're going to struggle to service! Lots of things can crop up that might change your financial status (kids, illness, unemployment etc) and you don't want to end up in a hole if you suddenly lose an income.
Buy a house that's built for the sun, having a sunny house can make such a difference in your heating costs!
Be realistic about how much yard and garden you can handle, our place came with beautiful gardens and I just don't have the time or inclination to keep them looking as nice.
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@oskarsmommy: yep! we saw a bunch of homes that were less for a better lay out, but they were on busy streets, in less desirable locations for the neighborhood (corner, across from school pick ups). we bought a smaller place with a weird layout but on a quiet street that we LOVE! with about $15K in reno costs, we were able to change the weird layout and we're thrilled that we didn't settle for the other locations.
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In addition to great advice already given, talk to your Realtor about what the market is like in your area. If there's a listing you're interested in, will have to get out to see it asap? Are things going above asking? Or are places taking a little longer to sell?
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