The new home buyers

We closed on a house today. Having said that, this happens to be one of the biggest days in my life post wedding.It is a big thing & although it is exciting to be a new home buyer our emotions are pretty much "yeah..thank god" and not just "yahoo!". lol,i think it is understandable when you have your income tied up to a mortgage company

for the next 30yrs!.

We have searched around austin for the last 1yr and during this process i can pretty much say we have scored an A in housebuying 101. Here is probably the top 10 things that I learned / observed over the last 10months.

- Don't try to fit in 'everybody's lifestyle into yours while searching - accept it- you dont have friends/relatives who visit you every week unlike in India. it doesn't really matter if you have just 1 guest bedroom and you think of what if uncle a & uncle b visit at the same time. the chances are slim. Things like having a basement, fireplace is common in the east coast while a large backyard in common in tx. Basically it depends on what you want and not how you would fit somebody else. (exceptions of course)

- re-sale,re-sale,re-sale. in India, you buy one house and you live there all your life.your kids,grandkids everybody will continue to live there. People move out in 5yrs in the US. desi/non-desi. You grow out of it pretty soon.If you are buying a previously owned home, do not add value to aesthetic stuff(like they show in model homes). Adding square footage makes sense. If you buy a house which has a main road passing right behind you,chances that you can sell the house are very less.

- model homes are like a model. dont get carried away. they attract buyers with aesthetic details that you can't help but admire the hand carved front door.In reality, nobody sees your front door.You enter through the garage :D

- sales consultants at new home builders/new sub-divisions can fleece you.beware of all the fine print.(this applies to most common things)

- You cannot like a house,talk to their owners and come to an agreement. People dont show you houses if you dont have a realtor. Same for selling.In fact you never meet your sellers. its all mediated.

- Apart from important facts like property tax,mortagages and numbers when you begin home search make a list of things that you absolutely want- for ex- we wanted a self contained community(gym,pool,hall blah blah)all inside, exemplary rated school districts etc. Also for the last 2 yrs we were the only indians living in our apt community (although it had its own perks) often we felt the need for a good desi gang.you know what i mean.

-getting a good realtor is very very crucial.u dont want to move around with an used car salesman who is trying to push you something. get somebody who knows the city well and is patient & straightforward. it usually works thru referrals. although our realtor is 75 and has a poor memory(cant blame her) she has told us on face how she disliked a particular house (when we thought we liked it).you want someone who can point the negatives.

- credit score- this is the fun and tricky part. when you like a particular house, the process is multi tiered. one of the things that are often scrutinized are credit scores. u might think everything is perfect but remember even little things can make or break a deal.let me give u an ex:so the bank determines whether ur worthy of a loan.they pull your credit score and depending on how good or bad it is you get the loan. you can land up getting a smaller loan because your CS was marginally below the expected score.when we i moved from CA to TX time warner accounts had to be settled.

two yrs later they had actually mailed us saying we were due 85$ for a modem. We settled it but this "due" gets carried on your credit report for 1yr and you are screwed. So when you start the home search, check your score.

-Paper work paper work paper work. Pages and pages of documents to read, understand and sign.Its a nightmare really.understanding the mortgage math by itself is a big deal. after that you have your insurance,property taxes,escrow,hoa -the list is endless.

So,in short, the last1 yr we pretty much scored an A in housebuying 101.

Looking fwd to the settling down and setting up part over the next few months.

Oh, don't you just love my kitchen? :-)