We have lived in our house for 14 years now.  Wow, how fast time goes by!  I remember what all we had to do to buy our house.  We had to check out mortgage lenders to find the best one, and our realtor was very helpful.  I remember we had a mountain of paper work to sign at the closing, but it went surprisingly fast.  And what I remember most was when we first walked into our house after the closing, our realtor had left a beautifully wrapped little present to welcome us into our home.  That was sweet!