During the next few weeks I want to take you through the life of first time home buyers.  We will see the questions they have, the mistakes they may make, and the choices that they are presented with and make.  This is a professional couple, both are degreed individuals with promising careers in the field of engineering.  Currently they are renting a townhouse.  I will name this couple Jane and Jerry.

When I first talked to this couple they had been looking at the local MLS service online bookmarking the homes that they had an interest in.  (There are several sites that you can search, your local MLS service, Realtor.com, all of the major real estate company’s web sites, Zillow.com, etc….) Jane and Jerry have been looking for about six months prior.  They have picked a price range that was conservative for them based on the amount of rent that they have been paying, they have estimated utilities,  taxes, and their current debt.  This is a good rough estimate of how much monthly payment you will feel comfortable with.  There are also mortgage calculators available online that will help you estimate this as well.

One of the first questions that I asked them was are you preapproved?  Their answer, “We aren’t sure.”  Do you know the difference between being preapproved and prequalified?  Where do you begin do you even begin?  Check back tomorrow to find out the answers.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 @ 9:35 pm on the category Buying A Home. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.