Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

Hi!
So the boyfriend matched up in Chicago for Diagnostic Radiology, and now our mission is to find a house by june to hopefully buy. If anyone lives in the chicago area, and can recommend some nice places to live (we heard tinley park and orland park), his hospital is St James, Olympia Fields.. Relocating from Fort lauderdale--BIG CHANGE!! Anyway, anything would help. Also, buying a house...any recommendations for which lenders to go to to get pre-approved? or any tips?

Kinda nervous about the whole thing. My plan is to apply for Physician Assistant programs in the area once up there and settled. But I will know no one , so school or working will be a great way to meet people.


Anyway, I like reading your feedback!!

Thank you!
Lauryn

[Auspicious]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I'm afraid I'm on the polar opposite side of the city (Evanston) and we rent and have never owned. So I am useless here, as in so many places.

But I wanted to say and .

[Tenacious_D]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

Congrats but just out of curiosity...how do you know about his match before March 19th?

[ladymoreta]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I also have no useful advice on Chicago, except that you should definitely go to Uno's. Don't worry about the calories - you won't be able to eat again for a few days anyway!

I'm not sure how the lending market is these days. We spent way too much time messing around with the Bank of America doctor loan. If you both have excellent credit, it should be easy. DH had one late payment (an accident that was later removed), and we could not get them to answer our calls/emails/faxes for anything. We ended up getting a referral for a mortgage broker from our realtor, and the guy promptly sold our loans to Wells Fargo and some obscure bank in Arkansas. (We knew to expect that.)

Now would be a good time to check both of your credit reports. You get one free one from each of the three major reporting companies at www.annualcreditreport.com. This is the official site for it, and the only site that is completely free and doesn't enroll you in any kind of credit monitoring stuff. If you want to get your credit score, you have to pay extra. To avoid that fee, you can find a credit monitoring site that gives it to you when you sign up for a free month of credit monitoring - just remember to cancel after that month! We used Bank of America's credit monitoring program to get our scores.

ETA: Congratulations on your Match!

[alison]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I've been living here for over 6 years, and I've never heard of the areas you mentioned. Are they suburbs? I live in the city, so if you've got any questions for specific neighborhoods in the city itself, I may be able to help.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I also have no useful advice on Chicago, except that you should definitely go to Uno's. Don't worry about the calories - you won't be able to eat again for a few days anyway!

Being a native Chicagoan, I am going to disagree While Uno's is not bad, hands down, best deep dish IMHO is Pequod's (there's one on Webster and Clybourn in the city and one on Dempster in Morton Grove! :02:

Chicago peeps - I'm always down for a get-together! PM me if you'd like to meet up!

[GreyhoundsRUs]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

Lauryn - we've already talked, but I would say that Orland is not a bad bet - according to http://cgi.money.cnn.com/tools/costo...tofliving.html housing is roughly 21% cheaper in IL than Ft. Lauderdale! It's like a 20 minute drive to the hospital from Orland. You could also go with places along I-80 like Mokena or New Lenox. You could also go south on 57 to Monee. Orland is the most populated of the areas mentioned with a mall, easy access to the city, enough stuff to do. Mokena and New Lenox aren't bad, either (Orland or Joliet would be your closest malls). Monee would be the least populated, most boring of the areas

Good luck!

[madeintaiwan]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

Congrats but just out of curiosity...how do you know about his match before March 19th?

The D.O. match was on February 9th.

[ladymoreta]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I also have no useful advice on Chicago, except that you should definitely go to Uno's. Don't worry about the calories - you won't be able to eat again for a few days anyway!

Being a native Chicagoan, I am going to disagree While Uno's is not bad, hands down, best deep dish IMHO is Pequod's (there's one on Webster and Clybourn in the city and one on Dempster in Morton Grove! :02:

Yum! If it's better than Uno's I'm sorry I missed it! Chicago kind of freaked me out with all the traffic (we were just driving through - wasn't even rush hour), so I'm not sure if I'll get back up that way. If I do, I'll definitely check it out!

[Deebs]

Re: Relocating and purchasing first home** help!

I grew up in the Chicago Area - unfortunately, in the Northwest Suburbs, so I know very little about that area. I do know that right now there are short-term rentals to be found throughout Chicagoland. If it were me, I'd go for that for at least six months and figure out where I wanted to buy. Just my thoughts!