My Personal Testimony to Purchasing Our First Home

Growing up, I was raised the “Dave Ramsey way” – which is both good and bad. I was taught to always pay for things with cash, keep my money in a safe at home (not in a bank), was taught the “envelope system,” and was told never to get credit cards because debt was bad. I did all of the above…at least until I turned 21. My husband, on the other hand, had medical bills, student debt, credit card debt, and a car loan that were all put into collections.

When we got married and decided we wanted to buy a home, we didn’t think twice that it couldn’t happen. We had a savings built up and thought that was enough. HA! Yeah, right. Here’s what happened:

We called the lender and I talked with her for around 30 minutes about our income and gave her our SSC numbers for her to pull credit. (Now, at the time I had no idea you needed credit to buy a home.) The following day she calls me back and says, “Kylie, you have no credit and your husband has a 400 credit score with student debt and other multiple items in collections. We are gonna need to do some work before you can buy a home.”

Talk about complete devastation! I remember thinking that we were never going to be able to buy a home. How the heck are we supposed to get all of that paid off?! It sounded like way too much money, time, and work.

If it wasn’t for my husband, I probably would have given up. But he was determined to get it figured out. Long story short, we had hit every speed bump in the books to buying our first home. Student debt? Check. Bad credit? Check. No credit? Check. Credit cards in collections? Check. Medical bills? Check. Car loan in collections? Check, check, check! Fortunately, we did figure it out. And you can, too! Here’s how we tackled it:

We started small and took it one thing at a time. I called the lender back and asked her what were the top three things that we should focus on. She said (1) start building your credit, (2)pay off or start making payments on his student loans, and (3) get him a credit card to start showing good credit use. So, that’s what we did.

We took almost our entire savings (a.k.a. what was going to be our down payment) and settled on his student debt to get that taken care of first. I went and got a credit card and started building my credit, albeit very carefully and wisely with out going into debt. (Pro tip: get a credit card and use it to pay your monthly bills, and pay off the balance each month. You’ll earn credit, possibly earn cash back, and won’t accrue interest and fall into debt.) And I got my husband a credit card, too. We then paid off two of his smaller credit cards that had been sitting in collections.

All of this financial improvement took a year of hard work! This was not easy. We worked extra hours, worked to get raises at our jobs, and set aside as much money as possible. A year later, we called our lender back and were approved for far more then we expected! Although it was difficult and timely to straighten out our finances — and we were definitely guilty of getting impatient — it was well worth the wait.

After getting approved for an even better loan expected, it then took us about another year to find a home that we loved.

Buying a home is not easy. It takes dedication, hard work, and a lot of patience. That’s why I use my home buying experience to create and design ways to help others buy their first homes. My family’s life motto is, “all good things take time.”—and WOW, that saying is true when it comes to buying your first home.

About the Author:

KYLIE ELLIOTT

FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER SPECIALIST, REALTOR®

928-848-8922 || kylie@prescottrealty.com

Kylie specializes in helping people who want to purchase their first home someday that might be currently feeling overwhelmed, scared, underprepared, lost or uneducated. She’s passionate about guiding her clients through a journey that’s exciting, fun and super rewarding! Kylie believes you shouldn’t have to go through it feeling alone.

My Personal Testimony to Purchasing Our First Home 

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