Well, the cat’s outta the bag! We’re moving ya’ll! This has without a doubt been the longest process I’ve ever had to go through as an adult, but I couldn’t be more excited. I’m going to share some tips with you today for first-time home buyers. The reason being… it was tricky and I want you to have a smooth process! Happy house Hunting and stay tuned for all the home decor posts to come! As you know, TGG is taking on much more lifestyle content this year due to both my and your request! The timing couldn’t be more perfect.
The 5 Biggest Mistakes we made as first-time home buyers:
- Going in with unrealistic expectations:Â I think it was the ignorance to the current market, but we literally went in with a much lower budget than we ended with because it’s a hot market right now you guys. What we call this situation is a seller’s market. What does that mean you ask? You bettah work to find your dream house because most will sell within a week ABOVE asking price. The first 6 months were a hustle to say the least. We spent almost every day we had free hunting down listings, driving around looking for FSBO houses that wouldn’t be on Realtor.com, and probably driving our agent insane to be honest. It was so hard, but eye opening.
- Not reading what we signed:Â Ask questions. If you haven’t done something before… you aren’t an expert. Read every single thing you sign. Just like when I’m signing blog contracts… there’s always something extra in there and you need to know every single detail. One little oversight could be the difference between getting the right lot, the right fixture, the right price… you name it! READ IT ALL! Things worked out for us with this, but it can really cause major issues!
- Not Voicing concerns:Â We got lucky with this one. We actually put an offer in on a house. This was last year and we absolutely loved the house. Thank goodness that house didn’t work out (it needed work, but being a hot market they wouldn’t come down on the price), because it would have taken our remaining budget to make the upgrades it needed to really be “our house”. That would have left little to no budget for furnishings and decorations. I know so many people who have gone this route and were miserable their first few years in their house because they couldn’t afford to do what they wanted with it.
- Caring Too Much About What Other People Think:Â We spent a lot of our time worrying about whether or not what we liked would be pleasing to our family. To be honest, they didn’t care! They just wanted us to be happy. It was hard not to focus so much on oh they won’t like this or that and just focus on what we wanted. For that reason I’m so glad we took our time. We ended up getting exactly what we wanted. If we had jumped the gun too early I don’t think we would be as happy.
- Stressing about finding the “Perfect House”:Â When we were house hunting I was miserable. I would get so excited looking at listings and then when we got to the property… the advertisement was misleading to say the least. It was so upsetting to me. I would get the “this is it” mentality in my head and then BAM another ugly house mis-represented. Truth be told, there was no “Perfect House”and there still is no “Perfect House”. Nothing is perfect. There are still things in our house we want to do and it’s brand spanking new. Find the house that feels like home and the rest will fall into place!
Thank you so so much for all the kind wishes over on instagram this weekend. We are so happy and excited and can’t wait to share the process with you!
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