November YP Connector

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