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@MenagerieMama: we bought on a similar timeline--I think we started looking in May and closed in July? We were able to put 20% down which meant a 30 day closing period. But when we were looking at other loans (like FHA) they had a 45 day closing period at time. So I would look at that first to make sure you can buy within your time frame.

My best advice is to find a good experienced realtor. We are currently selling our first house to buy a new one and our realtor has been a godsend!

Also, when looking, have a sense of must have, nice to have, deal breakers and location to make the process faster.

Good luck!!

Remember paint/fixtures and things are little fixes,.fall in love with layout and neighborhood those things you can't change!!!!

First I would double check your lease to see is you can renew month to month after the initial lease period. All apartments I rented allowed that, which would take some pressure off.

Second, get preapproves first. Our realtor wouldn't even work with us until we were. It makes it much easier to work with the sellers too.

Third, make a list of your absolute needs. For us, I didn't want to live in a certain section of town (all sprawl, no services) and didn't even bother with the listings our realtor sent us from there. But we also realized that although our dream home was an arts and crafts bungalow, we weren't going to renovate one and would be much happier with an already renovated ranch.

Fourth, get to know your town REALLY well. I thought I did, because we had lived there for a couple years. But now I realized kf we had bought a few blocks over, we would have had much better access to a trail system. Ask everyone you know what they like about living where they do, and where they would ideally live.

Fifth, be realistic about things you can change in a home. Yes, fixtures and paint and countertops are just cosmetic and can be changed. But do you have time/cash on hand/will to do a lot of projects?

Sixth, if you are on a time crunch, don't waste time! We were pretty quick looking at houses. It might take a bit to know if you want to live somewhere, but it doesn't take long to know that you don't. If you walk in, hate the layout and location, then there is no need to spend your whole lunch break measuring closets. Just move on!

Last, watch a lot of HGtV and have fun!

I am a first time home buyer and my husband is a second time buyer, first time together. We've been watching the market carefully for close to a year and have been looking aggressively for 6 months. It was only 2 weeks ago that we found a place and even that might fall through if the sellers won't make certain repairs. So my advice would be to get a backup plan so you don't feel pressured to commit to something that's not right. We've been living with my parents for months, but there are some apartments with short leases. We found one with a 2 month lease.

It's definitely possible. We first spoke to a realtor in January, found a house right away (We looked at around ten and ended up putting an offer on the very first house we saw), and closed on our house 60 days later on March 20th!

@MenagerieMama: we went from deciding to buy to under contract in 2 weeks. My husband is in residency and we had planned to wait until he starts his job next July (he was offered and accepted a position in residency year two). However, the apartment we've been living in for 6 years is going to go up for sale, and the landlord is raising the rent so that he can make more on the sale. We didn't want to pay more, and didn't want to move twice...so we did it. We had a substantial savings (we put 20% down, and have that amount left over in savings), which makes it all easier.
That said, I'm kind of glad we were on a tight timeline. We could have looked forever, and waited for ever. The perfect house will never come along, there will always be something you are compromising on. So we basically made a list of all the properties for sale that we were interested in, and looked at 8 of them in a week. We narrowed it down to two, one was in an ideal location but small, needed work, and was on a teeny tiny lot. The other is a bit of a longer commute and needs work, but has a large lot. We prefer historical homes, so both were almost 150 years old. In the end we went with the larger lot, and bigger house. We plan to sell in about 6 years to build our dream house, but we will not outgrow this house in the meantime.

It's stressful, and scary, but I remind myself regularly that people in far tighter financial situations buy homes all the time. We started the process by getting pre approved, and then found an agent. It's all been quite smooth!

I am not officially a homeowner yet, but I will say I'm glad we have extra money in the bank. The inspection turned up some repairs that will take more money than we had planned. We are also moving from a maybe 750 sq ft apartment to a 2200 sq foot house, so furniture, lawnmower, etc are all upfront costs to be considered. I Wouldn't want to spend all my cash on the deposit!

@MenagerieMama: 5/3 bank still does the doctor loans without PMI if you have that bank
in your area. They are less common now than they once were but still available with some banks. Also, there were no extra fees and my interest rate was pretty good for prime at the time. I'd definitely avoid PMI.

If we ever move again we'll definitely pay more attention to neighbors. As first time buyers we didn't pay too much attention to this. The house right next to us is a rental and the people living there are don't seem to be at all interested in keeping the property up, keeping the noise down, etc. Good luck with the home buying process!