Are you thinking about buying your first home?  Let me make a suggestion that will definitely help you in the future.

Open a Word doc and divide it into two columns.  On one side, put down all the advantages to buying a home & all the features you really need to have in your new home.  On the other side, list all the reasons you can think of for not buying a home.

Then name the file and put it in a safe folder where you can find it later. 

I know – you’re thinking “this is dumb”.  We all grow up aspiring to the dream of  home ownership – it’s part and parcel of the American dream.  Most of us have very little trouble imagining some version of the house with the white picket fence in a nice neighborhood where we can raise a family. 

So you begin your home search – staying up late looking at virtual tours, hopping from web site to web site, setting up searches on Realtor.com and Zillow.  You find a few older homes in Dormont with charming stained glass windows, gleaming hardwood floors and built in bookshelves or that completely remodeled beauty in Canonsburg that just came on the market and won’t “last long”. 

Now the fun begins – actually looking at houses.  Some of the houses aren’t quite what you imagined, so you rule those out.  Others have potential.  You find just the right house with most of the items on your “must have” list and you make an offer.  After some negotiation, the offer is accepted and you’ve achieved your goals – home ownership.  This is exactly what you wanted.

Or is it? 

Sometime that night or maybe the next day, doubt starts to creep in.  Oh no – what have you done?  Can you afford the mortgage payment?  Maybe you should have waited.  What if you get laid off?  What if the neighbors aren’t nice?  Maybe an even better house will come on the market next week.   Maybe the government will give an even bigger incentive next month or the interest rates will go down.  What if, what if, what if?  Oh no, oh no, oh no.

Relax.  You’re experiencing “buyer’s remorse”.  Everyone goes through it – even the most confident home buyers.  You’ve just signed a binding contract and put money down on the biggest purchase of your life.  Yikes!  It’s completely normal to be scared.  At this point in time, worry and stress will overtake your typical clear and coherent thought processes.  Outside forces will also be in play – parents, friends, co-workers – everybody has an opinion and when they share theirs – you’ll be second guessing yours. 

Find your list.  You made the list when you were stress free and clear thinking.  Get it out.  Look at all the reasons you recorded for buying a home.  You decided when you made the list that the benefits of buying a home outweighed any risks.   Nothing has changed. 

I’m not promising that reviewing the list will completely relieve your worry but it will help.  If you’re working with me – I’ll help, too. 

And if you don’t follow my advice and make the list now… and you enter into an agreement to buy a house…and buyer’s remorse sets in…it’s not too late.  Open a Word doc, divide it into two columns…