The Search Begins - Buying a House

For anyone who has never bought a house before, the process of searching for a home is exhausting. Selling an old house in order to buy a new one, even an old house that you have outgrown, is also a bit heart wrenching, but I will talk about that later.

First, I begin searching on Realtor.com or use their free iPad app. I find a few homes that interest me and save them. I contact a realtor to schedule to see the home I am most interested in... one that is PERFECT, has everything on my wish list, and is within our price point. Three days later, she calls me, when we are scheduling to go out and look at homes, and she tells me that the one I most wanted to see is already under contract. NOOOOOO!!!!!!

That will no doubt happen at least two or three more times within the next year before we are able to purchase a home. That's okay. We won't buy until we are ready this time. We have a wonderful apartment, which is big enough for us all, and we have the luxury of time. I want our new home to be perfect.

When we bought our home in Lindenhurst, New York in September of 2009, we bought it because it was within our price range, and it was livable. It was cheaper to own a home than rent an apartment at the time. Still, real estate on Long Island in New York is ridiculously expensive; taxes are also high. At the time, everything we were shown was either not in budget because of taxes, or it would need a lot of remodeling due to being foreclosed and damaged by disgruntled former owners.

South Carolina is very different. There are brand new homes for sale with taxes under $2000 a year, whereas a similar home would have taxes in excess of $10,000 on Long Island.

Now, how did I calculate what we could and can afford? I use this Mortgage Principal, Interest, Taxes, Insurance Calculator (PITI) http://www.realestateabc.com/calculators/PITI.htm

This time, when we buy a house, it is going to be our dream home. It will be in a good neighborhood, with room for our current family and any more children we may be blessed with in the future. We want a two car garage, brick face, 2 1/2 baths, master SUITE with separate tub and shower, dual vanity, walk in closets, hard wood flooring, tile in the bathrooms, central air, granite countertops. All of these features are within reach in South Carolina, whereas they were only a pipe dream on Long Island for anyone as young as we are, whose careers have not been built up.

Even though our home in New York was tiny, and we had outgrown it, I will still miss it. I took pride in choosing the countertops, the cabinets, the tile in the kitchen. I did a ton of research to find the most cost effective furnace replacement. I finally achieved perfection in that little house, and I really hate to leave... but I also could not wait to move to South Carolina, because I know that there is something better for us out here. That house was at it's peak. We're dreaming bigger.