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Health & Fitness

Journey of First Time Home Buyers

One of the many perks of my job, as a Realtor, is getting to work with First Time Home Buyers.  They bring excitement and energy to my real estate world.  I think because we all can remember buying our first home.  The emotional roller coaster we felt taking that plunge and all the feelings we went through during the whole transaction.
In this series of my blog I have asked my First Time Home Buyers, Luke and Lauren, (reminds me of Luke and Laura from General Hospital, yes, I just dated myself) to document their experience buying their first home.
I met them at an open house.  I will let them describe the beginning of their journey. 
I asked them "Why now?"
"My husband, Luke, and I are first time home buyers.  We have been living in an apartment for 2.5 years and feel it is time to buy a house and have our money go towards something.  Apartment living is getting tiresome with the noisy neighbors, no privacy, and lack of storage.  Plus we really would like a puppy and we won't get one until we have a backyard."

What did you to do to begin the process?

 To begin our process Luke and I asked both sets of parents about the home buying process.  We wanted to gain knowledge and become familiar with the journey we were about to embark on.  We decided to go to different lenders to see what we could have been approved for.  Initially, we went with our bank and then got a second opinion from a different lending agency.  At that point we learned about what monthly/yearly finances came with owning a home.  We told our lender what monthly payment we were comfortable paying and he then told us the price range we should consider.  At this point we started doing some searching online of houses and town houses in that range.  We mainly used the internet to conduct our searches.  We decided to go on some open houses in the areas we wanted to live to get an idea of what is out on the market and what the price gets you.  After seeing a few houses/town houses, Luke and I discussed in more detail about what is important to us in buying a home.  We both agreed that we wanted a house in the Annapolis/Crofton and surrounding areas.  We wanted a little of a fixer-upper but it had to be move in ready.  Ultimately, we wanted whichever house we bought to have the potential for 3 bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms, a screen in porch, and fenced backyard.  Those were our top of the list essentials.  Luke and I were very willing to put some love into our new home because we wanted to make it ours.
Next step was to find a realtor" - Luke and Lauren

Tune in to see how they found me, their realtor.

Sarah Garza
410.946.6054 cell
Keller Williams Select Realtors in Annapolis
410.972.4000
www.Sarahgarza.com
Realtorsarahgarza.com


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