I’m trying to build a coherent series on the home-buying process, so to help me organize here is an index of posts that I’ve already written so far. Those with no links are outlines for future posts. If you think something is missing or want me to cover a specific topic, just leave a comment. Thanks!
Should I Buy A House?
Buying a house isn’t necessarily the best choice for everyone. There are lots of different pros and cons.
- Famous Housing Bubble Graph (Different Version)
- Interactive Buy vs. Rent Calculator
- Another Buy Vs. Rent Calculator
- Intangible Advantages And Disadvantages Of Owning A Home
- Are Homes Actually A Horrible Investment?
Finding a Real Estate Agent
- Finding A Buyer’s Agent, Part 1: The Search Begins With Ourselves
- Finding A Buyer’s Agent, Part 2: Screening, Trial and Error, Signing a Contract, Offer Acceptance
- Home Buyer’s Agent Commission Rebates
- Guidance Received During The Escrow and Closing Process
- Looking Back: Things I Would Have Done Differently
Finding and Choosing A Home
If you do want to buy a house, what do you look for in a home?
- Our Criteria For A House (How Did We Do?)
- Housings Prices vs. Commute Time
- Condo Living: How Do I Find A Good Homeowners Association?
- Gathering Local Statistics About A Housing Market
- How Many Square Feet Should Our Home Have?
- Open Houses From A Buyer’s Perspective
Mortgage Basics: Choosing Loan Types
You found a home, so how are you going to pay for it?
- How Much House You Can Afford?
- Effect Of Credit Score On Mortgage Rates and Monthly Payments
- Choosing a Fixed-Rate Mortgage Term Length: 15, 30, or 40 Years?
- Loan Payment vs. Term Length
- Avoiding Jumbo Loans By Combining a Conforming Loan and Second Loan
Mortgage Practicalities: Choosing A Specific Lender & Interest Rate/Points
- Homeowners: Who Did You Get Your Mortgage Through?
- Getting Pre-Qualified For A Mortgage
- Comparison Shopping Between Different Mortgage Lenders
- Upfront Mortgage Brokers
- Upfront Direct Mortgage Lenders
- When To Lock Your Rate / Can You Predict Mortgage Rates?
- Reading The Good Faith Estimate
Making An Offer, Inspections, Escrow, and Closing
- Making and reading the offer contract
- Ordering Inspections, Asking For Concessioins
- Snags and Delays
- Signing Day
Housing-Related Humor
Buying a house is a serious and stressful endeavor. Watching these videos is not. 😀
- Bikini Girls + Waterfalls + 90s Real Estate Guru = Tom Vu
- Renting Can Be Rough: The Landlord with Will Ferrell
- Find the Right Property For You…
The Best Credit Card Bonus Offers – October 2024
Big List of Free Stocks from Brokerage Apps
Best Interest Rates on Cash - October 2024
Free Credit Scores x 3 + Free Credit Monitoring
Best No Fee 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers
Little-Known Cellular Data Plans That Can Save Big Money
How To Haggle Your Cable or Direct TV Bill
Big List of Free Consumer Data Reports (Credit, Rent, Work)
Great stuff, Jonathan. It looks like you have the making of an eBook here! 🙂
Before moving the mouse over that picture I thought that was your new house. That house looked amazing lol. I’m sure yours is not to shabby either though.
That looks like a dream house, something I would have liked as a kid. But now, I just want a one level sprawling ranch, with like 3000 square feet, 3 1/2 baths. Easy to clean, do laundry and vacuum.
The giant colonial is gorgeous, but really you’d need a couple of maids to help out or you’d spend your life cleaning. No Thanks! I’m tired just looking at it!
I don’t think a couple maids would be a problem financially if you can afford a house like that…
I would be interested in seeing something on PMI. I have having a hard time getting my lender to take it off even though I qualify. Plus, I was totally clueless about PMI when took out my loan. The learning process has cost me hundreds of dollars. I’m sure lots of people could benefit from some PMI 101.
May I ask where your house is located? Is it in California?
Ha, I just like that picture because it’s so enormous and over-the-top. The actual house we bought is pretty ugly from the outside in my opinion. (No huge columns I’m afraid!) It’s not that great from the inside either right now, but we’ll have to fix that ourselves.
This is really great. A nice compilation of information for buying a house. This would have really helped when I bought mine. I had to search through multiple sources online to dig up the information I was looking for.
hehe, i am wondering, if Jonathan post a picture of white house on the top of the blog, will there be score of readers asking him “wow, you bought white house?!”
LOL you gotta love those videos! But I knew that wasn’t your house 🙂
Wow, what a great amount of information! Because I’m lazy, I don’t want to follow every link to find out, but out of curiosity, where did you park your downpayment money? I’m currently saving for a house and am keeping the downpayment cash in a highish interest savings account. What was your experience with downpayment building?
Thanks! Love the blog!
Need a bullet for Home Insurance. Who did you go with and why?
I noticed that nothing has been posted on Inspections yet. However, I was wondering if different things need to be considered when getting an inspection on a newly constructed property versus any other property. I have heard that a town or city will need to inspect newly constructed properties prior to issuing approval to sell. If this is the case, are there other reasons to get a newly constructed property inspected prior to purchasing?