Step 3 In Home Buying

Update!

Andy and I have moved onto our step 3, we met with our realtor on Monday. I knew it would be a tricky meeting because we have a lot of thoughts on our house and a very small price range.

The basics: We want a 3 bedroom 1 1/2 bath house with room for an offsite studio or income property. The hope is that this can either become its own separate income property, a mother-in-law apartment or a place I can practice financial planning or psychotherapy out of.

She balked when we told her our $200,000 cap, but convinced us to nudge it up to $225,000. Yesterday we got the first set of listings and the prices range from $150,000 to $225,000. I think we're going to end up further south than either of us thought, but at this point, we just want a nice place we can build into our own vision of our ideal house and maybe raise some kiddies in.

We're finishing up the mortgage application with our first lender and starting with the second lender. We'll compare their two offers and go with whichever one we're most comfortable with. This doesn't necessarily mean cheaper, just whichever one has the best terms and gives a good rate.

We start tours a week from Monday. I can't wait to see what we look at.

At one point in the meeting our realtor said "And then it's just a matter of time before we find your house."

Swoon. Our house.