November YP Connector
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THINGS I LEARNED IN MY FIRST YEAR OF<br />
Homeownership<br />
By Margaret O'Reilly<br />
I bought a home in March of 2018, little did I know I<br />
was NOT ready for that adventure. It didn’t help that<br />
my boyfriend and I were planning on completely<br />
renovating, but I don’t think he realized the monster<br />
he created. First thing you should know about me is I<br />
work in the hospitality industry and I am an event<br />
planner by trade, which means I have a passion for<br />
creating pretty spaces. I continue to think of projects<br />
everyday, and I don’t think they’ll ever stop. Other<br />
than the obvious, home renovating is hard, these are<br />
some of the lessons I learned in my first year of<br />
homeownership.<br />
Understand your goal for homeownership. Do you<br />
want to buy your forever home to raise a family in? Do<br />
you want a home that does not need any work? Do<br />
you want to renovate and sell the home? Do you plan<br />
on selling this house in a few years? Do you want an<br />
investment property? One thing my boyfriend and I<br />
knew going in is this house would not be our forever<br />
home. We weren’t sure if we wanted to fix it up and<br />
sell it right away, or if we wanted to hold it and rent it.<br />
The one thing we were confident on was that we<br />
weren’t staying longer than a few years and we wanted<br />
to renovate, so we had a goal during our search.<br />
Pay attention to the things you do and use daily.<br />
Create a list of your ‘must haves’ as well as be<br />
prepared to rank those. In my last apartment I did not<br />
have a dishwasher, and I truly despised hand washing<br />
dishes. I also have a lot of clothes, always have and<br />
always will, so I knew I would want to have a space for<br />
those clothes. Going into the house hunt I knew I<br />
absolutely needed a dishwasher as well as someplace<br />
to house my clothes (no this wasn’t the extent of my<br />
list just some examples) Be prepared for your checklist<br />
to change as you grow and change. In the next place I<br />
live, I want to make sure I have a nice outdoor space,<br />
I’ve learned that I like entertaining outside.<br />
Shop around on EVERYTHING. This starts at the very<br />
beginning of the home owning process. Price shop<br />
your mortgage, insurance, inspection, literally everything.<br />
Taking the time to price shop your mortgage and<br />
insurance, especially, could save you hundreds a<br />
month as well as thousands over the long term. But<br />
don’t stop there, any outside job you have to hire, any<br />
furniture you want to buy, the new light fixture,<br />
everything. This helps you not only save money, but<br />
helps you compare quality of the service or product.<br />
Buy below your means. When I started looking for<br />
homes I was envisioning that I was living by myself and<br />
paying for everything by myself so I was approved for a<br />
certain amount that I knew I was never going to buy a<br />
house for since I was living alone. This is when my<br />
boyfriend and I decided to move in together (yup you<br />
read that right, we moved in for the first time and<br />
renovated a whole house - yes we’re still together!),<br />
but we still wanted to be below what I was approved<br />
for. This was going to help with renovation costs as<br />
well as if we ever broke up, I wanted to make sure I<br />
was okay financially. My biggest piece of advice, would<br />
always buy below your approved rate so you can live<br />
financially secure. You don’t want to hold off retirement<br />
because you bought too big of a house.<br />
Don’t be afraid to negotiate. Real estate can be a very<br />
emotional process for some, but don’t be afraid to<br />
negotiate the asking price or add concessions. Each<br />
party is looking to make a deal and the worst thing<br />
they can do is deny your offer, but if you never ask the<br />
answer will always be no. Remember, most homes are<br />
priced to leave room for negotiation.