The steps to debt...

Soon, our status will change from home buyer to home owner. It all feels a little surreal but only just a litte. The rest of the time I'm feeling a bit freaked out.

After work today we're going to meet our realtor at the new place and go through the vacant house and give it a thorough check before giving the thumbs up that everything is a-ok.

We'll meet up with our friends tonight for some Tex-Mex and try to breathe a little and relax. By the way that I talk everyone must think that I'm falling to pieces over this purchase. I am feeling a bit frazzled but do not fret for me because I'm going to be just fine.

Hey, you go out there and make a purchase that is well over 100K, my friend, and tell me how you're feeling. To be honest it's not really a fun-filled moment. There are feelings of self doubt, angst, and a bit of panic. But overall there is a feeling of being overwhelmed with so much information. Let me see if I remember some of the things that I've had to learn about as I went along on this adventure.

1. Go and get pre-approved first! This will allow you to see basically what you can or cannot afford.
2. Find a house that you like/love and get a good faith estimate on said home and it will give you an idea of what your closing costs will be and also what your mortgage/property tax/home insurance monthly bill will be.
3. Put an offer on said home and hope that there isn't too many back and forth negotiations between you and the seller.
4. Sign contracts stating that you and seller agree to all things that were negotiated (cost of home, who pays closing cost fees, contingencies like if appliances stay behind, etc.). This is also where you have to write a check for $500 as good faith in letting your seller know that you are absolutely serious about buying their home and also $25 dollars for the opt out fee (this gives you ten days to get out of the contract for whatever reason you want without you losing your $500) **these are costs in the Nac area**
5. Going through with the structural inspection and the termite inspection. These are two different inspections with two different costs. You can sometimes reduce the cost of these inspections by hiring an inspector who will do both for you. My advice thru personal experience is this: Do the structural inspection first and if there are too many negatives about the home that makes you want to back peddle fast away from the home then you've only paid for one inspection and have not lost money on two inspections. If the structural inspection goes great then go ahead with the termite inspection.
6. You get your report from the inspector on all the things that should be done to the home and you can weigh whether or not you are still interested in the home. Or you can determine whether you need to renegotiate the cost of the home/closing costs/etc. depending on how much money will come out of your pocket in order to fix some of the things that the inspector brought to your attention.
7. You confirm you want the home still and this is where things start to get fuzzy.
8. Around this time I was hustling to find out about home insurance and who I'd want to go with and which home warranty I wanted to order (my seller paid for this 1 year warranty per contractual agreement) and then there were other things that I had to research and get done regarding VA stuff (my hubby is a veteran).

I'm not sure at this point if I've forgotten anything or not but basically there you go.

**I knew I'd forget something...
-if there isn't a survey of your home at the bank then you'll have to pay a surveyor to come out to your property
-you'll also have to get your home appraised
-after closing of your home you'll need to go to your appraisal district and apply for property tax exemptions like: homestead; over 65; disabled; etc. most people will get the homestead exemption if it is their primary residence, i do believe.