Category: Home Buying Tips
Home Buying Tips
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Should You Break Your Lease to Buy?
In a perfect world, the transition from renting to buying would be seamless — you'd find a great house to buy, close the deal, and move right into your new place. Alas, it's rarely this easy. That's because many renters are on a lease, which may heavily impact their timing when buying a home and limit their options overall. This was definitely the case for us as we still had...
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Worst Time to Buy a House? There Are Always Exceptions
If you've been thinking about buying a house, looking at the news lately has likely disheartened you. As CNN reports, a recent Gallup poll found that 76% of Americans believe it's a bad time to buy — with only 21% saying it's a good time. There are several reasons for that sentiment, with the top two being the combination of high interest rates and high home prices. So, are you...
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Best Parts of Homeownership So Far
Being a homeowner certainly has some pros and cons. In fact, a couple of weeks ago, I explored some of the downsides I've discovered since becoming a homeowner. With that, it's only fair that I also highlight some of the best aspects as well. Top 5 Things I'm Loving as a New Homeowner Being able to decorate Having lived in apartments for the past 20 years or so of my...
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Worst Parts of Homeownership So Far
As you can probably imagine, making the jump from being a long-time apartment dweller to a first-time homeowner has been drastic. On the whole, the changes have been positive (which is why we chose to buy in the first place). But, of course, there are some downsides too — including some that I didn't really think about ahead of time. With that in mind, I wanted to share some of...
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Living Outside City Limits
So, apparently I don't actually live in Springfield. Despite our mailing address including Springfield and part of our backyard likely falling under the city's jurisdiction, technically, we just live in Greene County, Missouri. This is something we only confirmed yesterday — although I had my suspicions before that. When we first came to tour this house, we were surprised to see a "Leaving City Limits" sign just before our street....
Home Buying Tips
Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Problem with Appraisal Gaps
Amazingly, when my wife and I recently purchased our very first home, the process couldn't have gone smoother. Alas, that was not the case for our sister and brother-in-law. A day after they told us that their offer had been accepted on a house, they hit us back to say that the acceptance had since been rescinded as the owner feared an appraisal gap. Now, you may be thinking 1)...
Home Buying Tips
