What We Didn't Know About Buying a House

- The banks are super nosey during the pre-approval process - expect to have to give them lots of old bank statements and to be able to defend and show proof of where withdraws or deposits went/came from
- Give yourself plenty of time if you're buying in a new city!!! (the earliest we could close was 60 days from date of loan approval)
- Unless you HAVE to...don't have your closing date over a month before you can even move. We were told it would better our chances of have the offer accepted, which could be true because the seller is paying everything until it's sold, but it sucked having to take over all the bills and not be able to live in our new home because we were still living and paying rent somewhere else.
- We used to think that in the negotiating phase if we said "throw in a fridge" it meant they just included a fridge... not so. If you say add a fridge, expect the price of the house to increase $1500 or so -- do the same for anything you want "thrown in" (like sprinklers) and then you have a new price you're negotiating to lower.
- Even if the seller "pays closing costs" ..that doesn't mean you won't pay any as well...and they are not cheap
- Property taxes can be OUTRAGEOUS
- House insurance in just confusing and annoying
- DO NOT close on a house while you're on vacation -- or if you're out of town for any reason
- You need a notary...and unless you know one (we didn't in California)...it's about $10-$15 per signature...and there are about 50
- You know what you're signing....but you don't know what you're signing...don't be shy to ask questions as you speed through and sign all 1000 pages

I'll update this as things come to mind!