first home purchase, with fiancee

This isn't mass-mailed pre-approved offer from a credit card, whose issuers also give card holders rope to hang themselves with, based on stated income.

A mortgage lender isn't going to give a borrower more than what they're qualified for, based on documented income, debt and other factors.

The two work very differently, at least since 2008.
He's talking about not maxing out your "budget" given by the bank on the house since they'll always approve you for more than you should spend.
 
well... that house wasn't meant to be ours... just got a text from the realtor, that someone else "put it under contract".... but she'll keep an eye out for something similar... here's the link to the listing, since it's not going to be ours...
https://superiorrealtors.com/property-details/429-LEWIS-BOULEVARD-LIMA-OH-45801/310117/443/
SO safe to assume you didnt make an offer on the house? or was it less than the asking price?

If this helps, when searching for homes. You can find out information on Zillow that the agent might not tell you.
Here is the price history on the home
Screenshot 2026-05-19 at 10.18.22 AM.webp

Source https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/429-Lewis-Blvd-Lima-OH-45801/33115822_zpid/
 
I know how to use zillow, thank you.... some people don't like them, and there are more real estate sites/apps than you can shake a stick at, so I posted the link from the realtor themselves.
no, we didn't put in an offer. ( first time buyers, we LITERALLY don't know what we are doing)
as i spelled out in the initial post ( or tried to at least) we saw a house online that we both liked, scheduled a viewing(on a Monday), and filled out an application and got Mortgage pre-approval.( on Thursday).

then the following Monday morning I get the text from the realtor that someone else put it under contract.
 
@earlyre in the future, once you see something you like, simply put the address in a search engine with the word "Zillow" after it and you will get a LOT of information on the home.
Or flip it the opposite of what you just searched depending on who paid to have that done …
 
@earlyre

Once you see something else you want to buy don't post it anywhere until you have the deal done.

You even have some unscrupulous
people here that would steal it from you... be very careful... most motor oil people can't be trusted.... 🤔
 
I feel like I should add in, that in my mind, whatever we buy, won't be our "forever home", but instead a stepping stone. the house I REALLY want, if mostly for sentimental reasons, is the one where my uncle Currently lives.

It was built for my grandparents around 96/97... a local Developer showed up at their old house, which was pretty rough, only real value was the land - lots of retail popping up around them, in fact the store where I've worked for the last 28 years is just behind that property... we used to play on what is now my employer, when it was a corn/bean field - anyway, the developer was starting a new addition a couple miles away, and offered my grandparents and both of their neighbors the same deal. I'll build you a new house, and then we just do a property swap*... so my grandparents got to live their last few years in a basically FREE brand new house.
My uncle was living with them at the time, and he still has the house, and it's in the names of all 3 brothers, that way if he sold it, he'd have to split the money ( effectively their inheritance) with his brothers.

I want that house when he Passes. which with his numerous health conditions, and the amount of prescriptions he's on ( better living through chemistry!) could be Tomorrow, or it could be 20 years from now...

as of this writing, I'm the only one of the cousins who a) doesn't already have a house of my own, b) still lives in the area, with no real plans of leaving. ( and when my brother moved back 10 yrs ago, he bought a house just down the street, and the older brother of My Childhood Best friend bough the house literally across the street from my uncle)

The house itself is nothing special, smallish ( just under 1300 sq ft**) 3 bed 2 bath .25 acre lot, semi customized for my grandparents ( took the standard design they were shown, pushed the kitchen wall back to make a bigger kitchen, and shrink the one bedroom, which could be a Nursery, or as it always has been my uncle's Home office ( traveling sales rep for var. hardware companies) but after moving in, Grandma felt like she was in a mansion.

* the developer wanted all 3 lots, and would then move his offices, etc to that location. only 2 of the 3 took the offer, the 3rd guy wanted a ridiculous amount of money, and a couple acres in the country for his .5 acre lot.. so the office move never happened, and his house is the only one still there, now with some kind of tarot/chakra reading thing... idk..

**1292 sqft,which actually makes it too small to be built in the neighboring township where my parents and I are, which has a 1300 sqft minimum, to keep out mobile homes...
 
Last edited:
Update: so we've seen a couple more houses, that look great on paper, or in pictures, but they just weren't right.
last monday, there was one that seemed okay, within budget, in an all right neighborhood. ( when we got there my eyes started picking it apart almost immediately)
and instead of the realtor we had been working with, I just went luck of the Draw with zillow to set up the viewing.

man was that the right move. he could tell we weren't really feeling the place, asked if we had any other plans that afternoon, as he had a listing just a couple blocks over, that they had just taken off the market for 30 days, after not getting much traction the prior 3 months. (but still under contract)
the second we stepped inside, it ticks all the boxes, and just feels like home.

I needed a bit of time to process things, and he kept texting me every day to see if we were ready to make an offer, but for the first couple days, I was having trouble with the transition from the abstract " oh yeah, we're gonna buy a house", to the "this is really happening, we're buying a house" .... I would get mini panic attacks over the fact that i was voluntarily going into "big debt"...
but I've processed my feelings, realize there was a larger hand guiding us to this house, and am going to make an offer tomorrow.

current owners are trying to buy another house contingent on this selling. they started out at $230k in march, most recently, down to $215k.
I plan on offering $200k, and with the additional money dad decided to give us ( again, TOTALLY HIS IDEA) we should be able to put $150k down, and still have a small nest egg leftover for the inevitable repairs that will happen.

my nephew is a licensed home inspector, and said he'd do ours for free, but now there appears to be a question of conflict of interest, because we're family, etc...
but, the current owners bought it just 2 years ago on a VA loan, and i guess they go hardcore on inspections?? ( or so i've been told) and it passed with flying colors.
 
met with realtor today, offered $200k. before I even got home, he was texting me with a counter offer of $212k, which is apparently as low as they can go. we accepted that counter. and within an hour or so, I got a Zillow notification that it went sale pending.
already got my inspection scheduled for next Friday. we may not get possession until early august, but, that's fine.
 
my nephew is a licensed home inspector, and said he'd do ours for free, but now there appears to be a question of conflict of interest, because we're family, etc...
Makes sense. The lender doesn't want him "overlooking" things to make it easier for you, then they turn out to be bigger issues that could affect your ability to re-pay the loan.
but, the current owners bought it just 2 years ago on a VA loan, and i guess they go hardcore on inspections?? ( or so i've been told) and it passed with flying colors.
No experience with VA, but FHA loans have stricter inspections, but rightfully so for any gov't-backed loan.

What neighborhood is this ?
 
Makes sense. The lender doesn't want him "overlooking" things to make it easier for you, then they turn out to be bigger issues that could affect your ability to re-pay the loan.

No experience with VA, but FHA loans have stricter inspections, but rightfully so for any gov't-backed loan.

What neighborhood is this ?
Are you familiar with Lima?
Without giving any specifics away, it's near Westgate.
 
Are you familiar with Lima?
Without giving any specifics away, it's near Westgate.
I was born and grew up there - a Spartan. Had Kewpee last weekend when we stopped going to visit our niece up past Findlay.... I'm very familiar with Westgate area from growing up near Jameson and Cole.
 
Makes sense. The lender doesn't want him "overlooking" things to make it easier for you, then they turn out to be bigger issues that could affect your ability to re-pay the loan.

No experience with VA, but FHA loans have stricter inspections, but rightfully so for any gov't-backed loan.

What neighborhood is this ?
Our first house sold to an FHA buyer.... The "inspection" for that was less than 2 minutes.

Also @earlyre we are in the same boat right now. We went and looked at a house that hadn't sold for 30 days, fell in love with it (big old house built in approximately 1910, still has the original hardwood floors that don't squeak that were recently refinished and otherwise not been heavily "updated" aesthetically). The house has never been sold, was left in a will to the 4 kids who put some money into it before listing (new furnace, house doesn't have central air, breaker panel is a newer square d one, new carpet, etc). Put in an offer at their asking price, asked for closing costs, they pay realtor commission but contingent upon our house selling, and we get 3 days early possession as they're not living there and they accepted. Listed our house 2 days later, and we accepted an offer 5k below asking 2 days after that. Most anxiety inducing period of my life.... We're going to deck it out "mid century" style.... 50's-70's vibes baby!

But you got this, it's scary at first but you'll have a place to call your own and turn from a "house" to a home that you and your fiancee create together, and that alone makes it all worth it.
 
Congrats on home!!!!

Getting married soon maybe just at courthouse do ceremony etc later.

You are tied up with a very expensive asset that courts can’t deal with.
 
Our first house sold to an FHA buyer.... The "inspection" for that was less than 2 minutes.
Doesn't mean it was done right.
$170k for a home is this located in fantasy land?
I grew up where earlyre is. Here's some examples of other homes (I'll stick to nice parts of town too) in that ballpark:

$199k - https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...e-St_Lima_OH_45805_M47964-03907?from=srp_next
$147k - https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...-Ave_Lima_OH_45805_M36191-76454?from=srp_next
$180k - https://www.realtor.com/realestatea...d-Rd_Lima_OH_45805_M30580-22222?from=srp_next
 
Back
Top Bottom