So you’re probably wondering, isn’t EVERYONE ready to buy a home? In my opinion, yes, I think most people would love to live in a home rather than live life in a small apartment or studio. But after months of looking and having discussions with one another, Abe and I have decided that we are just not ready to purchase our first home. Although we definitely would like to start the home buying process sooner rather than later, I wanted to share with you guys some of the reasons why we aren’t necessarily ready to pull the trigger on a home just yet.
We have neglected our credit scores
One of the biggest things that you can do when beginning your home search is to know your credit score. When we first started looking at homes, we definitely did not have any idea HOW much your credit score truly impacts your home buying experience.
Until we decide that it is actually time, we are spending time working on getting our credit scores in tip-top shape, making extra payments when we can on our debts, and making sure that we stay up to date on our scores. We both recently downloaded the Credit Karma and Credit Sesame apps in order to keep an eye on things more often than we normally had.
To buy or to build?
When Abe and I started talking about buying our new home, we immediately debated whether we would like to buy a home or if we would like to build a new home. After researching both there are pros and cons of both – yet to this day we cannot agree on which option would be the best option for us.
When buying a home, inventory usually moves quick, especially in our area. It’s on the market one day and gone the next. We have also found that after looking at numerous houses, that we do not necessarily like each and every thing about any of the houses we have looked at. When building, you get to be more involved with how the home is built, the finishes, customization. But along with that, comes with a higher price tag, and not immediate availability.
We don’t have an emergency fund
So this is something that I heavily debated about including in this post, only because I don’t normally speak to our finances personally, but I felt it was important to explain. This is not something new to us, we have always wanted to have an emergency/rainy day fund, but it has just never been in the cards for us. Whether it’s been a loss of a job, sickness, or random repairs, any finances that we had have been used, leaving us living form paycheck to paycheck. Sounds pretty normal though, right?
For us, we really want to make sure that we start our homeowners journey on the right foot. What if we move into our new home and the furnace goes out? Or we need a new water heater? Or we just want to fix up somethings? Because of these questions we had, we are making sure that any extra finances we have after our immediate bills are paid, goes to an emergency/savings fund.
We don’t have a down payment saved
This is a tough one to discuss. As I said before, we are in the “typical” American finance struggle of working from paycheck to paycheck with not much left after. We have gone back and forth between saving a down payment when possible, or using the VA Loan which doesn’t require us to have a down payment. Also, if we were to build a home, we would definitely be required to have a down payment, which is definitely not going to happen any time in the next few months with our wedding coming up this fall (FINALLY.)
Undecided on a location
Location is super important. I mean, you want to love where you live, right? While we are currently living in the Columbus area currently, we aren’t totally convinced this is where we want to plant roots for our family. While it may be a few years if we decide to move, if we end up deciding to build a home, we would like that home to be our permanent forever home in a city we truly love and want to bring up our future kids in. Other locations we have discussed have included Nashville, TN and Austin, TX.
I hope discussing all of this with you all will help you in your decisions to purchase a home. If you have any questions at all, you know where to find me 😉
