House hunting

With a healthy dose of motivation, where should I begin? (I could have said where do we begin, but my husband lets me take care of all the legwork. Since I almost need to be medicated for my excessive planning, it's healthier for our marriage if I just give him reports every now and then.)

I wanted to see what was available, where it was and what it looked like. I hopped from several real estate Web sites until I landed on a site that had a map function where you can draw where you want to live and it will tell you what's available.

The first time I went to the site, I had no restrictions. I looked at everything. Then I saw an estimated monthly payment tool on each property listing. Yikes! Better set a budget.

There are several online mortgage calculators that will tell you how much you can afford. None of them helped. Some went strictly on gross income. Mortgage companies usually won't allow a loan that takes more than 28 percent of your gross income. So if you make $1,000 a month before taxes, you can't afford a monthly payment of more than $280.

Instead of dealing with all those numbers, I thought I would go the simpler route: I would look for a house with an estimated monthly payment similar to what we pay in rent.

I had several mental pictures of what I wanted my first home to look like. Lots of windows, a small yard, a porch, and hopefully two stories. The real estate Web site didn't have searches for all those options, but at least I could look at photos.