House purchasing 101

My husband and I just closed on our first house last week, so this is pretty fresh in my head. If I were you, before you do anything, set in your mind what you want to spend. Then go to a mortgage broker, bank, whatever and get pre-approved. People are more likely to take you seriously with a certificate of approval.

My DH and I originally went through the paper and circled all the homes that had what we wanted in areas that we wanted - this is time consuming. Especially because when you call those homes that don't have scheduled open houses, you usually have to set up a time with the realtor to meet at the house. DH and I decided it was just too time consuming for us (but lots of people choose to do it this way).

Instead, we went to Century 21. Told them all our specs (prices, what we wanted like a basement and garage, how much in taxes to start, etc.), and they look it up for you. Sometimes they will try to oversell (for the commision), but if you put your foot down and say 'Listen, don't waste our time and yours, I'm not going over XX amount' they tend to back off a bit. We also used the multiple listing service for Long Island www.mlsli.com (I know you're looking in Dallas though). This helped us locate houses at home, then we would call our realtor and say we want to see those houses, and he would tell us if they were already under contract or still available, and would set up the appointments to see them.

Also, make sure you have a good attorneybut not someone who is such a big wig and could be swamped with a million things, which only means it takes longer for you to close on the house, because it's one of many things they will be working on (run on sentence there) Our lawyer suc$ed, that's how I know this...

Hope this helped you a little...good luck to you!