Advice for the First-time Home Buyer

If I could give myself advice as a first-time home buyer, here’s what it would be.

First time homeowners made up 32% of home purchases in 2023, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). That’s substantial.

Here’s the thing though – purchasing your first home is like no other purchase you’ve ever made. It’s typically a 30 year commitment and the largest purchase of most people’s lives. And as cliché as it may be, you don’t know what you don’t know.

I remember being “ready” to purchase our first home and truly crossing our fingers as we made decisions. We were fortunate enough to have great guidance, but there was so much we didn’t know to look for because we did not yet have the wisdom of homeownership. At that point in time, we basically made the decision on how much we could afford for the monthly amount we wanted to pay. While that’s a great place to start, there are undoubtedly little bites of wisdom that could have been helpful to know.

Helpful first-time homeowner tip #1: Focus more on the monthly mortgage than what the home cost. I remember the absolute sticker shock the first time we saw a home that felt like it checked all of our boxes. Have you been there before? Compromise on ultimate wants + desired price is normal, but I don’t think you can understand that until you are in the process. The second shock for me was when we were consistently looking at a certain price point and then one day decided to “just look” at homes that were around $20k higher, which at the time was almost a 10% increase. To my younger self who had never leisurely made a $20k decision about anything, this felt like a big deal and it made me doubt if our “wants” were worth the extra money. My ignorance here was rooted in the fact that I was looking at the overall cost of the home vs. what we would pay monthly. Ultimately, we ended up going with a home that was higher than we initially thought, but the mortgage was a relatively small increase. It is crucial to find a good real estate agent and mortgage lender to help you understand this and walk you through your options.

Helpful first-time homeowner tip #2: Don’t make your judgment calls based on the things you can easily change. The first time you start looking at homes, it’s easiest to look at houses through the lens that everything is what it is and that is concrete. If you’ve never owned your home before, there’s a good change you’ve never done a home project, painted a room, etc. and you don’t understand the power that holds. Therefore, you may see the house for what it is and think that’s its future. Once you’ve owned a home, or perhaps your already an HGTV advocate and know the power of paint, you can look at properties based on the potential they have and you see what value you can add to the home. Don’t like the paint color? Change it. Don’t like the kitchen cabinet hardware? Change it.

Helpful first-time homeowner tip #3: Pay attention to the things that you cannot change. On the flipside of our second tip, make sure you are paying attention to the things that are certain about a property. Use the logical side of your mind here and remember this is a home but it is also an investment at the end of the day. Yes, you can buy a home that you love that maybe noboby else would choose, but this is just advice. Because the chances are – you won’t live in your first home forever. So what are we looking for here? Location is key. “Location, location, location” has been overused in the history of real estate, but for good reason! The location of a home will not change and it’s often what people base their home search around first. Factor in things like school zones, proximity to grocery stores, walkability, neighborhood and surrounding businesses. Remember that the cons you see in a home are likely going to be the cons future home buyers see when you want to eventually sell your home and factor in how much those cons weigh.

While you will never purchase a home that fits every need and needs no changes, because your needs are always changing, I hope this helps. A great real estate agent who cares and a knowledgeable mortgage lender will be your first steps in making good real estate decisions. Use the wisdom of others to help you feel confident, especially in a process you’ve never been through before.

And lastly, know that if you can make a good decision financially and logically, you have the power to make any home feel like your favorite place in the world. If you compromise on facets of the home that you thought were non-negotiable at first, that doesn't mean you can’t make another part of the home something that you never even knew you needed on your list.

Happy house hunting!

As always, if you need a resource, please reach out and if you’re in Middle Tennessee I would love to help you.