Are you a homeowner, well I must say that I
am. I purchased my first home in 1995, this was my first home and I
was truly excited. There was so much to do when purchasing a home. I
was actually shopping for my mother-in-law, but she got very sick in a
short period of time. This caused me to slow down, but I was already hyped up about the prospect of owning a home. One evening, after
getting home from work I decided to tell my husband how I was feeling. I
really wanted the opportunity of owning my own home. I had never
really thought of it before. I was always a rented and didn't think too
much about purchasing a home. I had spoke to my Dad a few times
because he had purchased several homes, while I was growing up. Some he
lived in a few he rented. When I talked to him about it, he told me
baby girl there is nothing wrong with owning your own home but you have
to always have capital for the unexpected. I didn't think too much
about, but I knew that he was right because he had plenty of
experience. After discussing this with my husband, he told me he did
not mind if I wanted to we could look into it further. I was excited
because I had no idea how he was going to respond. He had recently
landed a new job and we didn't have a lot of money saved.
The next
day, I took him to see the house and he really liked it. We talked
with the realtor and he started the process. It was so much paper work
that we had to obtain; bank statements, W-2 forms and prepared taxes.
We even had to eventually get receipts of paid up hospital bills. Who
would have thought that an unpaid bill could be a problem when trying to
purchase a home. Well it was and without this bill paid up, it would
have slowed down the process. We were able to get all of the documents
sent in and then the process had started. The did background checks on
the places we lived prior to this attempt to purchase, they looked into
our jobs and there was endless paper work that had to be processed. I
had to make a down payment, I didn't have much but I was about to put
down $10,000. Then there would be the closing cost, this would be about
another $15,000. We were able to get the previous owner to pay our
closing costs. This was a blessing because neither of us had much more
money then what we had put down on the house.
There was
inspections to be done, appraisals to be completed it just seemed like
this journey would never end. The process took more than 3 months and
the banks started requested updated information. At one point, they
told us that we had to pay another outstanding bill in order for the
transaction to be completed. They only allowed you to owe a certain
amount of money. We were told that we could not make any large
purchases throughout the loan process.
Finally, it was time
to close we would be headed to the realtors office to sign papers. That
morning we went to closing and we had to sign so many papers. Our
lawyer explained that there still had to be a final inspection of the
home before we moved in. Everything went smooth, all the papers were
signed and documented. They cut us a check right at closing, which had
to be turned over for all the closing costs to be paid. We both signed
off on the check and it was submitted. Once all documents were
completed, they had to be processed by another person. When she
completed all signed documents, we were given a copy of the entire
transaction. My lawyer looked over the paper work and noticed something
out of order. Before we finished, he was able to get us an addition
$1500. because they had charged us for something twice. I was happy I
had obtained this lawyer and glad to pay him the $900. he had asked
for. The day was finally over and it was time to go home, finish
packing so we could move into our house.
Our moving date was
Saturday, right after our closing. The movers were on time and we moved
into our new home officially, Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. That was
just the beginning of our journey, approximately 4 years later I was
purchasing my second home. I was to have had this experience, the
second time around wasn't as difficult. I can now appreciate the time
that it took to complete the first process, moving forward it was
another journey but things went much smoother. I sold my first home
shortly after securing my second one and was able to profit about
$40,000. I very thankful today that I have been in the same home for
the past 15 years, there have definitely been some challenges but I
appreciate all that I have accomplished. I don't have to wait on anyone to provide heat when it's cold or wait on the super to repair my toilet when it's stopped up. I basically control everything and take care of everything in my home. No one can take that control away from me. As long as I pay my mortgage, all changes, upgrades, ect. are in my control. I love it, I'm not saying everything is always up there are other challenges but I would give nothing up with the chance of owning my home and having the last say so. It feels real good, if I had to give my opinion on owning or renting I give 100% thumbs up for owning.