[724Skinsfan]

More pieces of advice from a first time homeowner:

1) When having your home inspected try to get the years that the furnace/heat pump, roof, hot water heater, carpet and other big ticket repair items were last upgraded. To echo, don't use a home inspected referred by your realtor or lender. Make sure you are with the inspector during the walk-thru and take a notebook even though he'll provide you with a completed form.

2) Don't get caught up in the "max you can afford" game that realtors tend to push you into. My wife and I make a comfortable living and could have afforded another 75k and still be under the 35% rule but after a while you're just getting a big house with bigger maintenance needs. Better to use that extra money to pay off the mortgage quicker.

3) If you have time, taking a real estate class really pays off if you have very little knowledge (like me). That $300 investment could save you a few thousand. I took the class and even went on to take the national and state realtor's exams. I learned a ton in that class (mainly I didn't want to be a realtor).

4) Review the tax assessed records of the area that you're thinking about buying a home. There's a big difference in tax assessed value and realtor's appraised value.

5) If you don't understand something...STOP! You're paying the realtor to help you not screw you. If you don't feel right about someting thenkeep in mind that there are always going to be homes for sale. There's no shortage nor will there ever be in the near future.

6) Sometimes it's okay to just go with your heart. We drove around one Sunday looking at dozens of homes that were available in our preferred price range that the realtor put together for us. It turned out that I saw a little listing in the Sunday paper with a house in our price range with the right number of BR's and sq ft. We drove over to it and immediately wanted it. It was the only house we walked thru. My home inspector was also a life long family friend and we caught a few things but nothing major. I set a price that was in between the tax assessed value and their asking price (~30K difference) and we bought it.