How I Purchased a Brand New House at 24 years old

I want to start this blog off by saying, "Buying a house is definitely something to be proud of." Please do not take the tone of this blog to heart, and feel as though I mean otherwise. With many different walks of lives come different experiences, so me downplaying my experience is not me speaking on yours. Now after saying that, if you still feel as though I'm an entitled snob, that's your problem love, not mine and you should take that up with Jesus.

I was fortunate enough to land my dream job right out of college. Everything I do is premeditated, which is why I feel I got the job to begin with. I started an internship the summer of my Sophomore year so that by graduation I would have 2 years experience in my field. I found and paid for the apartment that I wanted to live in 3 months prior to me moving in and braced myself for life as a Independent Woman! Life was great too, vacations, designers, a luxury car; everything was very Sex And The City-like. Then I decided I wanted a house. Yes randomly, I told myself you need a house.

Buying a house was not a foreign act to me. I was raised in a home owned by my parents, and my mother is a real estate agent. Naturally, I hired her as my realtor and began looking for homes. I knew I wanted to live near the city, but not in the city. The area I was researching was already pretty developed so selections were slim and I really wanted a brand new house. After months of searching I found a builder who still had lots of land available to build on.

I drove to the neighborhood one Saturday morning and told myself "that's your lot." I spoke with the builder and he gave me pricing on my home. I paid the $500 earnest money and had my contract wrote up that week. I selected the flooring, paint, cabinets, doors, bricks, etc.. Now, you all are probably wondering "dang how much did all that cost." Here's how this works.

Unless you can pay cash for your house, you will have to get your house financed. To get a bank to finance your home, you will need to have at least a 620 credit score. This score is not even a perfect credit score but, this is all you need. With this score and your income, the bank will inform you of how much they will loan you for your house. Other things they consider:

• How long have you been on your job? (The preference is 2 years)
• Have you been negative in your bank account in the past year?
• Your current bills vs. your income (mainly looking to see if there is money available to pay for the mortgage)
• Are your credit cards paid down (50% paid off is nice, 70% paid off is best)
• DO NOT PAY OFF YOUR CREDIT CARDS AT ONCE! Credit is a normal thing and you need to look like you can manage it.
• Proof that you have the down payment which is typically 3% of the cost of the home. (You will not have to pay it until you close on the house, however the money will need to be in the bank account for the bank to see)

If you can meet these requirements you can have a house, simple as that. Long gone are the days where you need to save up thousands of dollars in order to purchase a home. It is great to have a large down payment, but it is definitely not needed. Financially Savvy people are teaching their children this more an more and younger people are buying homes a lot earlier than their parents. The average first time home buyer in the United State is 33 years of age according to Entrepreneur.

No two experiences will be the exact same, but the process is pretty similar. I will say it takes maturity, and is quite the responsibility, however the rewards are endless. If you do your research and take a heavier interest in the future economy of the area, you can set your self up for the ultimate win, when it comes to selling the house. These are all things to consider!

I hope this blog entry was helpful! If you have any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments!

Sincerely,
Mariyah