ultimate first-time homebuyers guide
Part 6: Moving In!
That moment you first walk into your new empty house is a bit like the moment you bring a new baby home from the hospital. It’s exciting, a little scary, and you recognize that there are infinite possibilities ahead of you. Aside from the fun stuff (like decorating and furnishing), there are a few practical matters to take care of and things to look out for:
- Change the locks. You don’t know who has keys to the house, so take that worry off your plate.
- If you hadn’t arranged earlier to move the utilities over into your name, now’s the time. Same goes for changing your address.
- You’re going to get bombarded with scammy mailings from companies selling mortgage insurance. They’ll disguise their names to look like your actual lender, and rely on scare tactics to sell. Toss these into the circular file.
- Speaking of your lender, there’s a very good chance that they will sell off your loan within months. This is a normal part of their business model. You will likely be told there’s a different faceless entity you’ll be paying each month.
- Go meet your neighbors! They’ve all been wondering for a couple of months who their new neighbors will be. They’ll be happy to get a knock on the door.
That’s it! Well, not really. There’s furniture to buy, a fridge to stock, and a lawn that will need mowing soon. Also, there’s all of the routine home maintenance that you didn’t have to do when you rented (and there are plenty of online guides for those tasks, and to help you decide which you can do and which to hire a pro for). Owning a home is quite an undertaking, but it is a rewarding one. Each month you get to see your mortgage balance drop a bit, and you’ll have the knowledge that you’re the one gaining the equity instead of a landlord.
Plus, you own it! It’s yours to do what you want with! If you want to paint the walls purple, go for it. If you want to tear up the kitchen and put in those quartz countertops you like, that’s your choice. You can go full HGTV on the place (but please, ask an expert before taking a sledgehammer to any walls). Settle in, and sleep well knowing that, due to the wonders of amortization, in twenty years your principal and interest payment will be the same as it is today. Can you say that about rent?