Well, we've taken the plunge. We are now
homeowners. We closed on our new house
on Tuesday, and only now is the realization
starting to sink in... we're BROKE!

You could say we started on this road over a
year ago, when I lost my previous job. At the
time, we were living in an apartment, and we
had a really crummy landlord. We decided that
the best thing would be to move in with my
folks until I had a job again, and in the back of
our minds was the idea that we did not want to
be renters again. When I finally did get work
four months later, we made the decision to
start putting money aside towards purchasing
our own home.

That was a sloow process. When you're
consciously trying to save money, it seems
like Murphy's Law goes into full effect-- lots of
little things popping up to drain your savings
account. A debt to pay off here, an unexpected
car repair to make there... and of course I had
to have that new computer, which our tax
refund was supposed to pay for, but
whoops--- forgot about all accessories,
software, etc. you need to go with it! It took us
nine months to save up enough cash before
we were ready to start looking.

Finding a lender and a realtor was much
easier than I thought it would be. Our credit
union began a new partnership with a
mortgage company offering FHA (first time
home buyer) loans in February, so we set up
an appointment and voila! There we were. We
had some friends at church who bought their
first home two years ago, and are now selling
it to move into a bigger house. They
recommended their realtor, so we contacted
her and voila! There we were.

Looking at houses was a long and tedious
process, although I'm certain that it could have
been a lot longer and more tedious than it
turned out to be. We looked at some nice
homes, some not-so-nice homes, and a
couple places that were real dumps before we
found our gem. When we found the one that
we ended up buying, we thought it was too
good to be true... right in our price range, fully
remodeled, nice neighborhood, all the
amenities we were looking for... I think we
fully expected our offer to get turned down flat.
When the sellers accepted it after a few minor
changes, we were ecstatic!

Then came the Flurry of Paperwork that didn't
end until the Massive Paperwork Storm of
Closing. Credit forms, insurance forms,
inspection forms, Forms forms... you feel like
you're signing your life away. And your savings
account begins to get drained... slowly at first.
A check for earnest money. A check for your
credit report. A check for the inspection. A
check for the appraisal. Then you get to
closing and they take whatever you have left. In
our case, the sellers paid part of our closing
costs, and our down payment was made for
us by the AmeriDream first-time home buyers
gift program, yet we still paid over $1000 in
closing costs out of what we had saved. And
my wife is writing a check for our first year's
homeowner's insurance today. Good
thing I get paid tomorrow. (Oh yeah... that
money is already spent, I forgot! ;o)

I'm not trying to scare prospective home
buyers out of doing what we've done. I'm just
amazed at how MUCH goes into buying a
house. It's an intense experience, but worth it.

Gri"now, who wants to come help us
move?"shny