Just Married? Here Is the First-Year Plan to Buy Your First Home in Oregon
The couples who buy their first home without the panic are the ones who made a plan in the first year, not the ones who started looking the week they got tired of renting.
I know this from two sides. I photographed weddings for twenty-five years at Studio 623 and watched hundreds of couples plan the biggest day of their lives down to the minute. Now I am a mortgage broker in Oregon City, and I watch some of those same couples try to buy a house with no plan at all. Here is the one I build with them.
Why the first year, not the first house
Most of what decides whether you can buy, and how comfortable it feels, is set months before you tour anything. Credit takes time to improve. Savings take time to build. Income needs a history. Gift money from family has rules that are easier to follow before the money moves.
If you make the plan now, the house hunt is the easy part. If you skip the plan, the house hunt is where you find out what you should have fixed a year ago.
The three questions
Every couple I work with answers these together, and the answers matter more than any rate.
What can the two of us carry comfortably? Not what can we qualify for. Those are different numbers, and the gap between them is where people get in trouble. I show you both so you can choose with your eyes open.
What do we want the house to do? A starter home for five years is a different purchase than the house you plan to raise kids in. Neither is wrong. They lead to different budgets and different neighborhoods.
What is our honest timeline? Twelve months, twenty-four, longer. The timeline decides what we work on first.
Months twelve through nine: the money picture
Pull both credit reports. List every debt, both names. Look at what you spend as a couple for three months, because you probably do not actually know yet. Decide on a savings target for the down payment and closing costs, and open an account for it that you do not touch.
If family has mentioned helping, this is the time to find out how much and when. Gift money is welcome and it has rules, which I cover in a separate post. The short version is that it needs a letter and a paper trail.
Months eight through five: fix and build
Fix anything on the credit reports that can be fixed. Pay down revolving balances. Do not open new accounts. Do not close old ones. Do not finance furniture or a car in this window, no matter how good the offer is.
If one of you changed jobs recently, keep the new job. Lenders like to see stability. If one of you is self-employed, this is the window to get the books clean. I run three businesses and I have a whole plan for that.
Months four through two: the real pre-approval
A pre-qualification is a guess based on what you tell someone. A pre-approval is me looking at your real documents, pulling both credit reports, and telling you what you can borrow. Agents take the second one seriously.
The folder: two years of tax returns, recent pay stubs, two months of bank statements, photo ID, for both of you. Gift letter if there is one. I do the rest.
Month one: shop with a partner
I send you to a buyer's agent who takes care of first-time buyers, with your pre-approval in hand and a budget you understand. When you find the house, the hard part of the loan is already done.
If you are not newly married
The plan works for anyone buying a first home, together or alone. I write it for couples because that is who I know from the studio, and because the first year of marriage is when the house question shows up at the kitchen table.
I serve Oregon City, Clackamas County, Multnomah County, Washington County and the rest of Oregon. Message me and I will build your first-year plan with you. Twenty minutes, no forms.
Becky Chambers, Mortgage Broker, NMLS #2814018. Freestone Mortgage, NMLS #2613454. Licensed in Oregon. Equal Housing Opportunity. For informational purposes only. This is not a commitment to lend. Program availability and terms vary and are subject to credit approval.