Buying a House Question

My husband and I are just starting this whole process and it is sooo confusing. Can anyone tell me what exactly you need to do first? I know someone who is a morgage broker...but im not really sure why we would use a broker instead of the bank. Please help:) Thanks

Re: Buying a House Question

We called a real estate agent because I saw a house I was interested in. She showed us the house and a few others. We then met with the mortgage broker and went over all of our finances (it was their way to see if we were serious and ours to see if we were wasting our own time)...and did a pre-approval. He helped us to figure out what we could afford so we weren't in over our head. I have to say they were sooo helpful...I did all that at Century 21 in Patchogue.

Re: Buying a House Question

Seach the LIF home board cause there was a few good threads on starting the process

Re: Buying a House Question

first you have to see how much you can afford and look for houses in your price range and in the areas you want... i used to stalk mlsli.com all the time... DH and I used to go to a lot of open houses. it was a frustrating experience but eventually we found the house for us. w/ regards to a mortgage, we went through a broker who shopped around for the best deal for us (although he was an idiot and locked in our rate like 2 months before we closed and thus, we were stuck at a higher rate)