First time home buying can be such a frightening proposition. It can also be terribly exciting. The thing to remember is that people go through this each and every day so you are not alone. You are actually far from alone in the home buying process as many Americans experience the American dream of home ownership for the very first time each and every day.
The thing to remember when buying your first home is that your realtor is your best friend in this process. He or she should be a wealth of knowledge for you about programs that are designed for the sole purpose of helping people purchase their first homes. Use his or her knowledge and ability to put you in touch with the right people to assist you in getting the information, applications, and taking the classes necessary in order to receive the assistance that is so widely available yet underutilized.
It is also important to remember that many of these programs have specific requirements for participation not only from the homeowner but also the home in question. You need to decide if the assistance that is available during the process of first time home buying is worth the restrictions it will place on the type of home you can buy. For us, we fell in love with a turn of the century home that needed extensive renovations. This home didn't qualify for these programs but was well worth missing out on those opportunities to us. Remember, however, that if you skip the first time home buying benefits, you will not be able to get them later. This is a one shot deal for homebuyers and the benefits can be anything from down payment assistance, grants, or even lower interest rates (this is one that really adds up over time even if the benefits aren't immediately obvious).
Think carefully before electing not to make use of these benefits. Other than that, I highly doubt that there is any feeling on earth that is quite the same as the feeling of buying your first home. It's not on the level as having your first child or getting married, this feeling requires a category of its own. However, buying your first home allows you to suddenly feel like an honest to goodness contributing member of a community. And you are a different type of contributor to the community at large. You will now pay those lovely wonderful property taxes that renters miss the joys of paying but that help build local organizations and keep the community at large in good running order.
Taxes should not scare you away from purchasing your first home. In fact, that is a small price to pay for enjoying the American dream. The most important thing about first time home buying is that the rewards far outweigh issues such as taxes, private mortgage insurance, interest rates, and home owners insurance. These things are such a small price to pay and the rewards of home ownership are so great.
The truth of the matter is that owning your own home is its very own reward. You will have a place of your own in which to build wonderful memories while sharing dreams for the future. This is what you should think about while first time home buying. The future and what the home you choose will some day be rather than what it is at the moment. It is very important to remember that very few people leave a house in the same condition that it was in when they first purchased the home. First Time Home Buying for the Real World