About Today: Are You Ready to Buy a Home? 3/21/11

From Jen Hubley, your About Today Editor Last month, my friends Matt and Liz finally moved into their new home. This is always exciting, but in their case, it's extra neat, because it's their first house. What they went through during the process of buying it, however ... well, let's just say, in retrospect, I think they wish they'd just built themselves a yurt out of aluminum cans and sticks.

Are You Ready to Buy a Home? Whenever they make those lists of Things That Stress People out the Most, buying a home is right at the top. That's because it's a complicated process, especially for people who are doing it for the first time. Before You Buy a Home Should You Buy or Rent? See More About:  buying a home  real estate agents  mortgages

Do First-Time Home Buyers Need an Agent? There are a lot of questions to answer, as well. First and foremost is probably,can I afford all of this? But next up is "do I need an agent?" Before You Buy a Home: A Feng Shui Checklist How to Find a Real Estate Agent See More About:  buy a home  real estate agents  offer negotiation

Before You Get a Mortgage Secretly, I don't think most people really understand mortgages. (Or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better.) Here's a cheat sheet. Do an Electrical Inspection Before You Buy a Home How to Build Credit

How to Find the Down Payment And the biggest trick of all, of course, is finding the down payment. Most of us, it turns out, don't necessary have tens of thousands of dollars lying around. Saving for a Down Payment How to Ask Parents for Money for a Down Payment See More About:  finding down payments  mortgages  buying a home