House Buying Thursdays

Thursdays are now changed to House Thursdays, FYI.

Dylan and I are in the beginning stages of buying a house.

Back in Novemberish, I decided I would rather buy a house after our lease is up at the end of May. To me, it makes way more sense to have my money going towards something (paying off a mortgage) than to more or less be throwing it away towards a living space. Plus, I hate living in rentals. I see all of my family members homes and family friends homes decorated so beautifully. I just can't do much to a rental between not being allowed to paint or put too many holes in the walls. Also, the timing works out relatively well since we're obviously getting married and this will give us time to get settled in the house before the wedding and I like the idea of buying a house together as another way of growing our life together. (Personally it's a much bigger step than signing a marriage license and changing my name)

So we decided to buy a house.

We went through a couple of different financing ideas/arrangements and have ended up where we will be getting a mortgage. Hopefully this works out well in terms of rates and getting the amount of financing we want/need based on what we are willing to pay per month. Difficult part here is the credit score and the income. I have debt-student loans, car loan, and credit card. My credit history is really good though since everything has always been paid off in a definitively timely fashion. Dylan has no debt but also has no credit history. So we are kind of opposites; hopefully this works in our favor. The income part is that I have my salary, which unless I loose my hands or something, I can pretty much guarantee I will always make at least as much as I make right now and will have a very slim chance of loosing my job. Dylan does not have a job right now, but he is providing the down payment. (He's a much better saver than me, but I do have a wedding I have paid for myself so far and I like buying things :) ) So we really do kind of balance out. I feel comfortable paying for a certain mortgage payment a month based on my income alone, so we have decided to move forward without Dylan being currently employed.

Next step is: Location, location, location. We looked around at several areas. We wanted to be closish to my parents, but Dylan stipulated a 1 mile radius away from their house. So we looked by my parents and where I went to high school, but discovered we can buy a lot more house for our money out in HR. Plus I much prefer the style of house out in HR since they are newer, have higher ceilings and are rarely ranch style homes.

So that's the how and where of our beginning the house buying process. Now we are on to the details of the house we want, looking at houses (the fun part!), and then the checklist of items once we settle on a house (not fun part--bidding, inspections, closing details...), Wish us luck!