Don’t miss out. Skip to the entry you want to read by clicking on the links below.

• PART 1: MEET THE TAYLORS
• PART 2: FINDING THE RIGHT REAL ESTATE AGENT
• PART 3: CHOOSING A HOUSE
• PART 4: WHY WE DIDN’T GET OUR MORTGAGE FROM A CREDIT UNION
• PART 5: OUR MORTGAGE 5 MONTHS LATER
• PART 6: 3 WAYS TO HELP FIRST-TIME HOMEBUYERS

PART 7: WHAT WE’VE LEARNED GOING FROM RENTERS TO HOMEOWNERS (COMING SOON)

Victoria Taylor, a marketing and engagement manager at Callahan & Associates, and her husband, Matt, are on the hunt to find a perfect home. Join them on their journey in this CreditUnions.com timeline exclusive.

2 Real Millennials … 5 Months Later

Hi CreditUnions.com readers. It’s been awhile. While I was writing the first pieces in this series, my husband and I were looking at houses, filling out paperwork, closing our loan, and moving in.

Lesson learned: Commit to writing a blog about an experience after that experience is over.

Going into the home-buying process, Matt and I had no idea what to expect. Would it go fast? Slow? Would it be time-consuming? Anti-climactic? Overwhelming? Exhausting?

It was all of the above.

After we secured financing, we waited. Closing day came and went. It was exciting and not nearly as overwhelming as we anticipated, although passing that 20% down payment check across the table was hard. It’s so much money. But, really, the time and effort it took to complete the application, scan statements, and input information was more overwhelming than signing on the dotted line.

Moving day also was not as stressful as we anticipated, thanks to hired movers. We’ve now been in our new home for slightly more than five months. We are excited to be homeowners and are slowly learning how to care for it fixing broken things ourselves, shoveling snow, and more.

1 Real Mortgage … 5 Months Later

Our loan (remember, not from a credit union) has been sold twice since its origination first to Chase Bank, and then to Fannie Mae. Working with credit unions, I have a stronger-than-average understanding of mortgages, and I expected this. Interestingly enough, our mortgage representative told us upfront the company would sell the loan and asked us to keep an eye on our mail for information on which company would be servicing our loan moving forward.

I know many homeowners want to keep their loan local, but Matt and I don’t have positive or negative feelings about it. It just feels like part of the process. And although I wish we had better educated ourselves on local credit unions before searching for a new home, we don’t regret the process or the companies we worked with. We did try to find a credit union mortgage option, but none were a good fit for us. For our situation, what we chose was the right loan for us.

Back in October, I had the opportunity to meet with 17 chief lending officers at Callahan’s Lending Roundtable in Nashville. Many had read this series, and I enjoyed talking with the group more about lending to millennials or first-time homebuyers and how credit unions are differentiating themselves in a competitive mortgage lending market.

Get Real For Real Results

Looking for more credit union-vetted strategies? Callahan Roundtables offer off-the-record conversations with credit union peers looking to find and share ideas. Attendees drive these unscripted discussions and leave the room with actionable takeaways they can implement at their own institution. Learn more today.

*Attendance at Callahan Roundtables is reserved for executives at participating credit unions.

Working With Real Estate Agents

The mortgage and housing business is heavy on agent referrals. I’d love to hear what steps credit unions are taking to partner with local agents or home builders. Comment below!

• Are you offering first-time home buying seminars with local agents?
• How do you identify members who might be looking for their first home or a new home?
• What kind of ROI are you seeing from those partnerships?

One thing I didn’t realize until I bought a home was just how much influence real estate agents have over their clients, especially first-time homebuyers. This was absolutely the case for us. Matt and I hung on our agent’s every word. This was an unfamiliar process and an unfamiliar area, and he was our guiding light. His referrals and recommendations helped our home-buying process move forward in a positive manner. On the flip side, if a homebuyer is working with a real estate agent less attentive to their needs, the whole process could prove problematic.

But our experience was positive, and we’ve made it through our first five months as homeowners. The house is still standing, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for the next five.

Matt Taylor contributed to this article.

Click through the timeline below to see homebuying milestones and read more from the series. Come back to CreditUnions.com to read about the Taylors’ experience in making an offer and financing a home loan.