Any advice appreciated!

WOW Long Island is so expensive!
I need any advice you can give me please.
Renting vs. Buying?
Affordable but nice areas?
Advice for first time homebuyer?

We are thinking of buying next fall. I don't know anything about buying a house. Please help!

Thanks,
Julie

You might want to start by figuring out how far you're willing to commute from home to work, and map out an area within that boundry. That will help you start to narrow down areas. You can then take some drives to check out towns, go to some open houses, get a feel for the area and services, ie: commuter trains, shopping, parks. Newsday has a featured town in Friday's paper every week. I haven't looked at their website, but they may let you search back issues.

Rent vs. Buy - Renting is just paying someone elses mortgage instead of your own, so if you can buy, even if it's not yet your dream home, it's worth considering. DH's cousin bought a nice one bedroom condo in Middle Island last year and the units there are still in the $100,000 range. I think the real estate market for starter homes will continue to be strong, so if you can build equity now it makes it easier to get into your dream home later. If you're buying to sell in the near future look for qualities that will be desireable to others - good location & school district for example. If you're handy, fixing up a 'handy-man's special' will help you get more for your money when you sell, helping you trade up to your dream home faster.

I hope this helps some. You might want to check out realtor.com to see what's out there in your price range. Bankrate.com has some mortgage calculators that will help you figure out approximately what you can affort in monthly payments. Don't forget to consider the taxes and insurance, on top of mortgage payments.

Good luck!

my friend had soem awesome advice once - she said never get an apt that you love, only one you like - this way, you are always motivated to try and save and move out!!