It’s a Brand New Start

Editor’s Note: As we do each spring for our annual “Tales From the Trenches” article, we asked first-time home buyers to tell us how they did it, so that their hard-earned wisdom can help guide the next class of first-timers. As always, your letters were inspiring and filled with savvy advice. We did not have room for everyone’s letters, but our sincere thanks to all who wrote. Three of the stories appear below. For more tales see K5.

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I am a widow with grown children, a senior citizen on a fixed income, and I recently bought my first new house. Hooray for me!

In retrospect, it was a snap. Not that it was easy for me to make the decision to do it and then to apply for, and get, a 40-year mortgage, which will make me 100 years old (plus a couple) when I finally own it free and clear. How’s that for optimism?

I needed a brand new house. After living in a condo, in a “unit,” I wanted and needed my own walls, my own yard, my own privacy, my sanity.

I knew I had limited resources. Although I would’ve preferred to live on the beach at Malibu, I felt comfortable just inside Ventura County, and that’s where I found my affordable home.

I have 1,800 square feet of brand-newness with three bedrooms and loft, two full baths and a laundry room upstairs. The price was just under $270,000, including $22,000 in options like real wood floors downstairs, a fireplace, new appliances and high-quality carpeting.

It was a bit more than I wanted to pay, but this is not the 1950s anymore, I realized.

I bought the lot on which the sales office was located, so waiting until the tract was finished and all the homes sold (about eight months) was a bit on the downside.

However, on the upside, I got a semi-custom house on a great lot with an unobstructed view of forever out of the deal.

Here’s my advice:

* Be patient. Go for what you really want and be persistent.

* Use a trusted real estate agent. Even with a new home, the agent can “handle” stuff.

* Be firm and positive.

* Most of all, whether this is your first home or your last, be audacious and courageous.

ADELE C. BOHRMAN

Simi Valley