Wednesday, September 7, 2005 Comments (7)
Buying a Home - Finally!
The fiance and I have been discussing the perks of owning our own home. Although I think he enjoys the apartment we live in, and we also enjoy the convenience of having a maintenance man, not having to mow grass, etc., we are tired of throwing money at landlords. The truth is, I've been renting since 1999, and have paid pretty high rent fees. I could have already bought a house for what I've been spending and the thought of that kind of makes me sick to my stomach.
We don't even know where to begin when looking for a house. We don't know how much we need for a down payment (of course we're sure the more the better), and what kind of prices to be on the look-out for. I've been looking at some of the real estate websites to try to get an idea of what price range seems good for us for a starter home.
Any advice is appreciated!
Comments
Monique Lea is an awesome realtor. http://www.yourchattanoogahome.com
she'll take good care of you.
we got our house with no down payment, but pay a higher percentage rate because of it. there's lots of options these days.
I'll put in a plug for Sila Tuju (www.silatuju.com).
oh yeah Sila rocks too. how could you go wrong with such a name?
Monique Lea is a crap realtor. You can't trust her. She'll milk you for every dime she can and doesn't care one bit about neighborhoods. Pick ANY realtor other than her.
I say you should stay away from a realtor. As a first time homeowner you might feel a bit intimidated and think that realtors are a necessity but they are not. The only thing they will get you is a house that costs 6% more than it should have. Buying a house by owner is very easy. You can pick up a free For Sale Buy Owner contract from any credit union. Once you find the house you like you fill out the contract and once the seller and you agree on a price then the seller can walk the contract into any title agency. The title agency is the one that does all the work, and it only coast between $300 and $800 depending on the title agency. The title agency takes care of everything from communicating with banks, home inspectors, or loan officers.
Of course if the home you find is for sale through a realtor then you are forced to deal with them. In that case make sure you fill out your own contract and offer at a minimum of 3% less than they are asking, and let them know that you are representing yourself. If not the selling agent will get the full 6% for the sale of the house. It’s a huge racket.
Hey, I know that everyone is giving names for realtors and it might get old, but here is one more! Tucker Pennington. He is so good that in fact he came to our house and told us that it is not worth moving (which we have wanted to do for awhile) and spent a few hours giving us great ideas for how we can make the house we are in work better for us. Honest enough that he lost potential income from the sale of our house. Monique is a sales person. She is good at selling. She will sell you and her houses. I would not go with her unless you can read between her lines and know a lot about real estate. Tucker is so friendly and honest that it is totaly obvious that he loves what he does and wants to help people not make a killing. Going to realtor.com is a good place as is crye-leike.com. On crye-leike, do mls searches. Most of the houses are listed on the mls system, (but not all). One more thing, Tucker is very good at sticking to your dreams and looking in all sources, even if you want something really inexpensive, he will still work hard for you. Other realtors seem to only look in the mls resources. Keep us posted on things as they progress, especilally if you decide on a certain neighborhood or part of town.
Hey, wow, lots of advice and plugs! I wasn't expecting such a response for lil' ol' me, but I surely appreciate it!
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