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Where to Start When Buying a Home

• Tia Moore • Season 2 • Episode 2

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Thank you for tuning in to NextView podcast with host, Tia Moore. NextView is your resource for all things real estate and business.

So you decided that you're ready to buy a house. Perhaps this is your first purchase, or maybe you've bought real estate in the past, but it's been awhile. Well, wherever you are in the journey, I'm glad it brought you here to NextView Podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about where you can start because if you're anything like I was when I purchased my first home, you have enough information to be dangerous, but you don't know what you don't know because you want to avoid mistakes, right? So inevitably, I would say the thing that we have in common the most is we usually all start with a Google search. Perhaps that's even how you found this podcast, but ultimately nine times out of 10, when we all think about doing something new, taking on a different challenge, it all starts with Google.

So what happens after you Google? There's so much information that you find online. So you're wondering what can you trust, what information is accurate? Is this information still UpToDate? Because sometimes the, you know, the information that comes up in the first page and Google is seriously dated. Well that's what we're going to be talking about today. On this podcast I'm going to talk about what resources are available to you as a first time home buyer and what exactly does home first time home buyer mean. It does not mean that this is the first time you purchased a home that might be surprising to some of you guys. So tune in and we'll talk about that. We're going to talk about who to trust, um, how you can choose your realtor, how you can choose your loan officer. So we want to make sure that you have all that information so that it, it helps you make a great journey into, you know, pushing you out there to, you know, get your first home purchased or your next home purchased.

So resources, what resources are available. The number one question we get asked is what down payment assistance is available. Okay. So most people think that down payment assistance is only available for first time home buyers in Arizona for down payment assistance. A lot of times it's not necessarily just that you're a first time home buyer, you just can't be a homeowner at the time of your purchase. So let me explain that to you. So, or give you a couple of examples. So one example is let's say you do not own a home, it's your first purchase and um, but you have, or maybe it's your first purchase or maybe you just don't own a home right now, but it's not your first purchase. Well that consent you would be eligible for down payment assistance in that regard. Um, ultimately with down payment assistance, there are some other qualifiers and I'll get into that a little bit.But again, I'll repeat that example. So let's say you do not own a home right now. You have owned one in the past, you still may be eligible for down payment assistance. Okay, here's another example. Let's, you currently own a home, but you're selling a house and you're buying a new one. Well believe it or not, you may be eligible for a first time home buyer or some type of a down payment assistance program. So I had a client that was purchasing a home and they owned a home already. So they were selling that house and then they were going to use down payment assistance. This helped a ton because they didn't have a ton of equity in the home, but they had to move for work because they own the house for only a short period of time. So, um, the area where they purchased, a lot of the buyers were asking for closing cost assistance.

So they really needed as much help as they could get moving into their new place. And so they were eligible for down payment assistance because they sold their house first and then they were moving into the other one. So it was only a one day difference. So for example, they sold their house on October 31st and t

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in to NextView podcast with host, Tia Moore. NextView is your resource for all things real estate and business.

Speaker 2:

So you decided that you're ready to buy a house. Perhaps this is your first purchase, or maybe you've bought real estate in the past, but it's been awhile. Well, wherever you are in the journey, I'm glad it brought you here to NextView Podcast. Today I'm going to be talking about where you can start because if you're anything like I was when I purchased my first home, you have enough information to be dangerous, but you don't know what you don't know because you want to avoid mistakes, right? So inevitably, I would say the thing that we have in common the most is we usually all start with a Google search. Perhaps that's even how you found this podcast, but ultimately nine times out of 10, when we all think about doing something new, taking on a different challenge, it all starts with Google. So what happens after you Google? There's so much information that you find online. So you're wondering what can you trust, what information is accurate? Is this information still UpToDate? Because sometimes the, you know, the information that comes up in the first page and Google is seriously dated. Well that's what we're going to be talking about today. On this podcast I'm going to talk about what resources are available to you as a first time home buyer and what exactly does home first time home buyer mean. It does not mean that this is the first time you purchased a home that might be surprising to some of you guys. So tune in and we'll talk about that. We're going to talk about who to trust, um, how you can choose your realtor, how you can choose your loan officer. So we want to make sure that you have all that information so that it, it helps you make a great journey into, you know, pushing you out there to, you know, get your first home purchased or your next home purchased. So resources, what resources are available. The number one question we get asked is what down payment assistance is available. Okay. So most people think that down payment assistance is only available for first time home buyers in Arizona for down payment assistance. A lot of times it's not necessarily just that you're a first time home buyer, you just can't be a homeowner at the time of your purchase. So let me explain that to you. So, or give you a couple of examples. So one example is let's say you do not own a home, it's your first purchase and um, but you have, or maybe it's your first purchase or maybe you just don't own a home right now, but it's not your first purchase. Well that consent you would be eligible for down payment assistance in that regard. Um, ultimately with down payment assistance, there are some other qualifiers and I'll get into that a little bit. But again, I'll repeat that example. So let's say you do not own a home right now. You have owned one in the past, you still may be eligible for down payment assistance. Okay, here's another example. Let's, you currently own a home, but you're selling a house and you're buying a new one. Well believe it or not, you may be eligible for a first time home buyer or some type of a down payment assistance program. So I had a client that was purchasing a home and they owned a home already. So they were selling that house and then they were g oing t o use down payment assistance. This helped a ton because they didn't have a ton of equity in the home, but they had to move for work because they o wn the house for only a short period of time. So, u m, the area where they purchased, a lot of the buyers were asking for closing c ost assistance. So they really needed as much help as they could get moving into their new place. And so they were eligible for down payment assistance because they sold their house first and then they were moving into the other one. So it was only a one day difference. So for example, they sold their house on October 31st and then they purchased their new one on November 1st so ultimately they qualified because they were not homeowners at the time of their purchase. Makes sense. All right, so some people, you know when you're purchasing home you might be overwhelmed and trying to figure out where can my down payment come from. Well we have a pretty cool resource that can give you some great ideas on down payment, how to create down payment, um, how to, how to a creative guy for down payment assistance. So if you're interested in that, send me an email at TIAA that's spelled T I a@nextviewpodcast.com. So Tia@nextviewpodcast.com. So, and again that's if you, let's say you're not using a down payment assistance, you having trouble saving for your down payment, maybe it's a little bit intimidating for you. Send me an email and I'll send you our guide that tells you about creative, creative way so that you can save for a down payment and how much, how little you can put down in order to qualify for your house. Alright. So that's the first one that's, you know, gives you a little guidance in regards to down payment assistance and what is available to you. All right? Ultimately, in my opinion, the best place to start is selecting your realtor. Now, when I purchased my first home, I was 20 years old and I did not make the best decisions when I purchased that property. And it's because I did not use a realtor. There, I had my reasons. One of the reasons, one of the biggest reasons for it is because at that time it was a very crazy market. Everybody in the world had a real estate license and I had the perception that nobody really knew what they were doing with their license. So I was wrong. I just didn't know where to look to find those professional realtors that actually worked at, you know, sold real estate as a full time career and had a business in the, in, in real estate. So I'm going to tell you that that was the biggest mistake. Do not make that same mistake. Learn from me and avoid my, and my same mistake. And again, as a licensed real estate agent I didn't know or as a real estate agent, now I realize all the mistakes I made with that purchase. With that purchase and now I have a lot more experience behind me because this is what I do every single day. So hire a real estate agent and you're probably thinking, okay, what, how do I know how to hire a real estate agent? Well, one, you can interview them. What is most important to you, you know, is is the thing that's most important to you? The real estate agents availability is their ability to, you know, send them a text, email in ways that how they communicate, um, is the most important thing to you. Their knowledge of the market is their most important thing to you, their ability to negotiate. So it's it, it's definitely going to be driven by what's most important to you. So a strong realtor is going to be able to provide you with great resources. The reason that's important is because that's going to help you avoid things that are not, I'm going to assist you. So there's a lot of scams out there, especially targeted toward home buyers. For example, you may have heard of people having wire fraud issues because they get an email from somebody saying, Oh, you need to wire your closing funds to this address. And it's not actually the closing an escrow officer that's completing their sale. So that's an issue. Um, so work with, with a reputable realtor that has a strong real estate presence where you're purchasing, then you can also, and the other nice thing about that is a real estate agent that's constantly working in their market. They have a lot of experience with loan officers. They know loan officers that they work with when they work with buyers. And they also know loan officers when they work with sellers because they have to help facilitate that sale as well. Well, so they'll be able to tell you and many cases they'll be able to give you an idea of if somebody is hard to work with, if their closings are late in different things like that, because those things are going to be important to you. And the, the other reason for choosing a real estate agent and working with a real estate agent as, because you will know what's going to happen in terms of your contract. So I recently got a phone call from a pro, um, a potential home seller, a woman, she wanted to sell her house, but the problem was she's been paying on this house for 10 years. But however, whoever it was that she purchased it from, they didn't use realtors and whoever the party she was that she bought it from, technically they still own the house. So there was never a transfer of deed or title and the contract that she had, it even said that that wouldn't happen. And so now she's having trouble getting a hold of this man yet she wants to sell a house and take advantage of the equity and she cannot. So she didn't, she, when she told me on the phone and she didn't work with a professional and she wasn't, she didn't know what she was signing. Ultimately she understood she was buying a house and that was the extent of her knowledge and what she knew. So definitely contact somebody. So the other question is you're probably like, okay, how can I figure out who I can trust as a realtor? Okay, so you have a lot of options. The first place I'd recommend you go is ask your friend a family member or even a coworker that you know has recently bought or sold a home. So let's say for example, you have a friend, they just closed on a house. They're super excited. Ask them how their experience was with their real estate agent. You know, ask them questions where she had good negotiator. Do you feel she was, she had a great attention to detailed or, or he, um, did your re did, did that realtor, um, present you with different options? Where are they knowledgeable on the area? Those, that's going to be your number one place to go is what I would recommend. The other thing is if they can't, if they can't describe their experience, they may not have had the best one. You want to get details from them. You don't want to have they information. Okay. Then the next thing you want to do is take a look at online Google top real estate agents in the area. Go to realtor.com. Go to Google, go to Zillow. Um, on Zillow there is on realtor.com also, you can click on real estate agents and you can browse real estate agents and you can see their reviews. See what their clients are saying about them, see what their reputation is online. You can even look on Yelp, um, but just see what people are saying about them. Good, bad or indifferent. But just to give you an idea of if this is somebody that you feel like you want to start a relationship with, and guess what? Even by giving the phone call to one of those realtors that doesn't, you know, obligate you to work with them, that's your opportunity to ask them questions, to see if they're going to be a good fit for you and what you're looking for. The other thing that you want to make sure that you're doing when you're speaking to these real estate agents, ask them for references. You know you, you're more than welcome to ask for references just so that you can call their clients directly and they can give you specifics about what their experience was like. Right? One thing to be in, to be wary of is when you are going to these websites, just be careful because sometimes they ask you to register and obviously if you want to register, great go ahead and go for it, but just know you're going to be getting a lot of phone calls. Some of those people may be licensed realtors, some may be hired to simply call you and keep calling and keep calling you just to kind of, you know, push you to make a purchase and if you're not, if you're not at that stage yet, you don't want to get into that situation when you're reading the reviews. Always look, keywords such as easy to get in contact with, easy to communicate with reliable response, time negotiations. Those are going to be the most important in resourceful. Those are going to be super important. Then you know if your real estate agent, once you choose a real estate agent, if they have a loan officer, did they recommend working with nine times out of 10 they have a good rapport working together and they have experience with getting sales pushed through or completed and doing it successfully as a team. There are so many moving parts within a real estate transaction that it's good if people have a good rapport and can work together because that's going to work to your benefit. So consider asking your real estate agent for a loan officer recommendation and you know, see if, see if it makes sense for you. You still want to make sure you're competitive. Most people, when they look for loan officers, they're looking for, they always say, who's going to give me the best rate? Well, most loan officers are going to be able to quote you similar rates. You want to find out what type of um, fees they're charging you because that's where a loan officer, that's where a mortgage company typically makes their money, is what they're charging you in fees. So that's going to be more important to look at than simply just the rate. So when you're talking, when you're getting pre-qualified with loan officers and even if you're going to shop it, always asking them for a breakdown of what you should expect your costs to be. So I'm going to do a quick recap to go over what we talked about. We talked about choosing your realtor down payment assistance, your loan officer and how to research for both of them. So believe it or not, loan officers can also be found on Zillow and you can read reviews about them. So definitely do that. And just so you know, I am, um, we offer our clients, if you've listened to this podcast and you mentioned it to us, when you contact us on the first contact, we will, we will purchase your first years home warranty as a, as a courtesy, just because you mentioned it on this podcast. So just remember that I'm licensed here in the state of Arizona. I lead the NextView Home Professionals team at eXp Realty. If you or anybody that you know has a real estate need, be sure to give them, have them contact me. They can call me by phone, by calling, they can text me. Our number is(480) 281-3078 we're always happy to work with you, answer any of your questions you have, and also help anybody that you consider important in your life. So again, the number is(480) 281-3078

Speaker 1:

Thanks again for tuning in. Be sure to subscribe to future episodes. As always, your feedback is appreciated, so be sure to rate and review this episode when you have questions about real estate or about being a guest. On next few podcast visit NextViewpodcast.com for contact information

Speaker 3:

[inaudible].