please share your house buying stories!!!!

husband and i are starting the process. tell me how you started. what was the first step you took? did you get preapproved, did you go through a bank or mortage company, do you have debt and how does that work into it? where did you find your house? nay info about how you started this process will be helpful..

We walked into our local realtor's office and they showed us a few houses. They suggested that we talk to a mortgage broker to see how much we could afford. That office never called us back so we just picked a mortgage broker that could tell us how much. We went to alot of open houses. In the middle of this a friend of mine got her real estate license and started working at a brokerage. She showed us a ton of houses and became our broker. After over a year of looking we became VERY discouraged. Our realtor said she had the perfect house for us but it was in a school district that we hadn't looked at yet.
After 2 other close calls, we saw this house and it was it! I spoke to some people at work who recommended a great mortgage broker and we went from there. We put in a bid a little lower than asking price because we knew the owners wanted out. They counteroffered and we accepted it. Then we started the process of actually getting the mortgage, seeing an attorney, getting an engineer, a mover, etc. We closed July 31st and moved Aug. 15th. We couldn't be happier.
When people say that your house is out there and you will find it, they are so true. Good luck- you will find your house!!!

Stpes we took:
1-DH knew how much we could afford and what type of a mortgage we would get approved for and stuff - so I didn't have to worry to much about that. Dh is a numbers ($$) person so he was fine with that. He also works for a major bank so we didn't have to investigate banks. Also,we had enough money saved for a good down payment so we didn't have to look into too much of the financial side.
2-determine where in LI to live - we only knew we wanted a good commute to LI. Got LIRR schedules, looked a school reports and asked around.
3-Once we pinpointed towns - we took a town a weekend and went driving around and going to open houses to get a feel for the towns and what they offer as far as housing and prices. This is what helped us narrow down towns. I always thought we would live on the borth shore but after looking I realized I felt more comfortable on the south shore.
4-kept an eye on real estate sites (like mlsi?) and newsday for open houses. Kept going to random open houses..and eventually we found the house we loved and bid on it and negotiated and found our house. We closed quickly and painlessly.

We wound up buying earlier than we expected. The whole process from research to move in only took about 6 months for us. We were very lucky!

Our first step was applying for 'pre-approval' so we could pinpoint how much $ we could afford. Next, my SIL's friend recommended a Buyer's Agent to us and we have spent the past 3 weekends going from house....to house...to house....LOL. It is pretty much process of elimination as Niecey said. We are now officially applying for the mortgage. Our agent emails us houses and we also look online and email her houses that we may see. One tip for house hunting that has nothing to do with $ though - bring a bottle water and a small snack - you could be out there for hours nonstop and it gets tiring!

We went to a few open houses...then we started contacing real estate brokers...we've gone looking at a few houses...

We just got pre-approved for a mortgage this week...so, now if we find something, we're going to put in a bid...hopefully, our pre-approval will help us.