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Hi, my husband and I are just starting our neighborhood-scouting/home buying process in LI. We've been using MLSLI as our main home search tool and the forum here to gather info on neighborhoods. So far we've only briefly checked out Valley Stream in person, but plan on doing more drive-throughs of Valley Stream and other towns we're interested in over the next couple of months.
I'm hoping to pick all of your brains as to what else we can do or should be doing to help narrow down our search. Thanks in advance!
Decide upon a budget first and foremost. Then you prioritize what it is that will be important to you. For example, style of home, school district, transportation, shopping, religious institutions etc. You can also look up the mynassauproperty.com and check home out there. That will provide you with info such as taxes, building and what the home has on record (warning this is not always accurate). You can also sign up for trulia, redfin and Zillow. to mention just a few.
We will definitely get pre-approval first before doing any serious searching. Right now we're still trying to figure out neighborhoods. But I see what you guys mean by figuring out budget/pre-approval first since knowing how much we can spend will also determine which neighborhoods we can afford.
So another question is, we are receiving gift money from our parents to use for our downpayment but not all of the money has been deposited in our bank account yet. Should we wait until we have it all in our account and have it seasoned for 60 days before getting the pre-approval or can we do it now and tell the lender that we'll be getting more money soon?
So another question is, we are receiving gift money from our parents to use for our downpayment but not all of the money has been deposited in our bank account yet. Should we wait until we have it all in our account and have it seasoned for 60 days before getting the pre-approval or can we do it now and tell the lender that we'll be getting more money soon?
Having the money in your account only matters when you're applying for the actual mortgage, but what happens if you get lucky and find the "right house" right away?
By all means, if you can get the money earlier, do so! If it shows in your account for two or three months it makes it easier all around, including on your parents. If the money is seasoned, your parents won't have to a) provide a gift letter stating that the money is not a loan and b) they won't have to show the source of the $$.
Having the money in your account only matters when you're applying for the actual mortgage, but what happens if you get lucky and find the "right house" right away?
By all means, if you can get the money earlier, do so! If it shows in your account for two or three months it makes it easier all around, including on your parents. If the money is seasoned, your parents won't have to a) provide a gift letter stating that the money is not a loan and b) they won't have to show the source of the $$.
Yup, that's what we're doing right now, seasoning the money from our parents and putting more of our paychecks into savings. We'd definitely prefer avoiding the extra paperwork if possible, so hopefully there will still be a decent selection of houses on the market later in the year. Though I wonder if the housing market in LI is dependent on the school year, as in most SFH are owned by parents and they wouldn't want to pull their kids out in the middle of the year.
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