Home buying for ...

For some time now I have been asking Erick to talk to a professional about what we need to do, really need to do, to be home buyers. I asked and asked til I was blue in the face. He just wasnt ready. I looked online and did some research. I showed him my numbers but that didnt work for him because I only had the internet and a book we bought ages ago as a guide. I am not well versed in buying a house. So once again I would suggest we speak to someone who is. This little back and forth has gone on for MONTHS.

Finally, after talking with friends. I mean really talking openly about money with friends Erick listened and decided that just talking with a professional wasn't going to cost us anything more than a little time. Erick called and we set up a meeting. Erick had given the consultant some details on us and the consultant told us what to bring in. We left the boys for the morning and had the talk. The man we met with was very nice and personable. He explained EVERYTHING (even the things I had said I had researched). He walked us through every option. In the end the option he thought would be best for us was the exact same option I had told Erick about. He did tell us that we could be approved for more if we wanted but we decided to stick to the numbers we had already discussed. We let him run the numbers and actually put us in the computer. We found out that all of our credit scores are AMAZING (think right at or over 800). In the end we walked out with a letter of pre-approval and Erick feeling much more comfortable. We decided to hold off on actually entering contract or buying anything. We could but we dont want to be house poor and would perfer not to touch our current savings because you never know what could happen. So for now we are putting savings into high gear (without becoming bitter about it). We hope that after our taxes are said and done we will be all set to actually aggressively look in the spring so we will be able to close in the summer of next year.

We talked to a buyers agent just a few days ago. They have a really cool site and it allows me/us to make comments on houses and they agent to see them. I can save searches and he can see that too. This is what we will be doing for the next few months while we save so that next spring when we actually go to look he will have a great idea of what we want in addition to what we have told him.

I know to you all this may seem like an very boring post but to us this is a very exciting time. Now to go roll some more change LOL