whats the first step in buying a home??

I would say first you want to go to a bank/lender and get pre approved or pre qualified. They'll tell you how much money they'll lend you for a house. That's better for one, you know your price range for the houses to look at. It would suck finding the perfect house, then finding out they won't lend you that much money. And, it makes you look more "serious" as a buyer in the eyes of a seller, they know you're a good risk for taking their house off the market while you go through the buying process.

I'm so glad u started this discusion as I too was wondering where to start. We are also hoping to purchase a home in the near future but were very confused as to where to start and where to go from there. Thanks a bunch!

the first step is finding a lender to do the loan..and getting a pre-approval letter. the next step is to get a realtor..and decide on how much of the down payment u can put down for closing cost.

I would say the first step would be sitting down with your spouse and deciding on a budget you want. A certain amount that you guys are willing to spend, and try not to go over it. I also think you need to see if you can get a loan from the bank, because most likely you are going to need one, and look into loans with low-interest rates so you won't be charged a bunch of money for interest. You're also going to want to decide what type of home you want, and what you want it to include. And there are other things to consider, such as how close the home is to where you work, when it was last worked on, etc. I hope this helps!