House Buying Seminar

For a few weeks now, Keith and I have been in "house hunting mode". We have figured out our finances and how much we think we can afford, we met with two lenders to see about rates and see what mortgage programs they offer, and we have walked through over 20 houses. It's an exhausting and exciting process!!

Tonight we went to the 2nd part of a 6-hour "House Buying Seminar". The first 3 hours were last Wednesday and tonight was another 3 hours. The Seminar is put on by VHDA (the Virginia Housing Development Authority) and PHA (the Piedmont Housing Alliance, which is a local non-profit agency).

Last week they focused three things - (1) Personal Finances (figuring out how much you spend vs. how much you bring in, coming up with a monthly mortgage figure that you are comfortable paying, and making sure that you are saving money while still paying off debt as quickly as possible), (2) Credit and Credit scores (how they are calculated and how having "healthy" credit - and a good income-to-debt ratio - is KEY to getting good rates), and (3) the Lending Process - a lender came in to talk to us about the process and all of the paperwork involved. She explained pre-qualification, pre-approval and went line-by-line through a Good Faith Estimate.

This week, they talked about three additional things - (1) the Role of the Real Estate Agent, (2) the Home Inspection, and (3) the Closing. For the last part, a local real estate attorney came in and "tried" to explain the closing procedure to us. I say "tried" because Keith and I both agreed that the legalese (a.k.a. legal jargon that no one but lawyers understand) was a bit much and he kinda lost us in his explanation of things. Hopefully once we get to that point in our own process, we'll understand it a bit more!!

We very much enjoyed the seminar and found it to be very informative. I would certainly recommend it - or a similar seminar - to anyone who is starting the house buying process! If you live in the state of Virginia, you can go to the VHDA website and see when the seminar is being offered in your area.