We haven't yet finished purchasing our house, but already I have a few thoughts:

1. Get a buyer's agent. Its great to have someone who is committed to walking you through the process and has a financial interest in seeing you succeed in the transaction. The world of purchasing real estate is so confusing and having an agent makes it so much easier. Especially since they split the commission with the seller's agent, thus not costing anything out of pocket, generally.

2. If you are attending college make sure to get your deferment letters early. We found out that it can take 5 days for Sallie Mae (one of the largest lenders) to send you a deferment letter. We still haven't received ours and we are down to the wire.

3. Home Inspections are fun. You learn all about your house. In our house they were leaving the appliances, but we learned this wasn't a humongous bonus since most of the appliances were near end of life.

4. You don't have to have a lot of money to buy a house. Many lenders offer 105% financing. That means that you get more money than the actual purchase price of the house.

    a. If you receive an 80% loan and then a secondary 20% loan you can get rid of PMI (insurance in case you default on your loan).

   b. ARMs don't really save you that much money.

   c. Seller's Assist is where you raise the purchase price of the house above the asking price and then the seller gives you that difference back to help pay for closing costs.

5. Closing closts are extremely expensive. Expect several thousand to get you a good interest rate as well as fees for a home inspection, taxes, and insurance.

6. If you don't get the first house you like, don't worry, there are a lot more that you will probably like even better.

   I'm not a professional by any means, I haven't even closed my first purchase, but just figured I'd drop a few preliminary thoughts. Also would appreciate prayers that the purchase would be accomplished without hiccups. This whole student loan thing has us a bit nervous.