Six Mistakes to Avoid - Must Read for First-Time Home Buyers

Certainly the goal for many home buyers is to find their dream house and have a splendid life making memories in it. But if you are a first-time home buyer, you may end up making some mistakes that result in heartbreak. To prevent that, we have compiled some of the most common mistakes people make when buying a new home.   

1. Underestimating Maintenance

Mortgage and interest payments are straightforward and are what initially come to mind when thinking of purchasing a home. However, you will also have to pay money to keep up the house. 

You will have utilities and there are a number of other things that need to be factored into your monthly payment that are outside of the mortgage payment. So be sure to take this into consideration.

2. Overly Expensive Mortgage

An expensive mortgage is something you need to think through. You're probably going to qualify for more money than you should be spending. 

So the recommendation I make is to find a monthly budget that you're comfortable with and then make your way from there. If you have this number, it will make it so much easier to stay in budget to make sure that you're not house poor. 

3. Not Hiring An Agent At The Right Time

Sometimes people walk into an open house and fall in love. In a weak moment, we’d hate for you to pick an agent based purely on desperation - which is why we recommend creating a relationship on the forefront of your search to avoid a stressful and potentially painful outcome on the backend. Trust is a BIG piece of crafting your offer in a speedy situation. 

4. Not Learning The Process

It's highly recommended to learn the home-buying process before you get started. We personally like to sit down with our buyers and go through our home-buyer roadmap to help them understand expectations from start to finish.

We help them understand when payment is due, what it’s for, and when they're expected/not expected to do things. Just knowing the basic elements helps people feel so much more relaxed. It’s best to know what you’re doing when you’re doing it, and why it’s important. 

5. Being Unaware Of All Options

It's a terrible mistake not to look through all of the mortgage options and all of the first-time homebuyer purchase options. 

Since there are so many things to go through, it's helpful to talk with your lender. Maybe you need to do a fixed-rate loan, or maybe you need a variable rate loan. How long you intend to own the property is certainly going to make a difference. 

6. Focusing Too Much On Details

There are things in a house you can ALWAYS change. Paint...carpet...appliances...etc. However, there are functional pieces of a house that will never change and need to be considered a little more closely. This can include layout, location, size, etc. I like to focus more on the latter as I understand over time you can fix all the things in the former category (for the right price). 

A good agent should be able to help you price out normal changes in real-time OR set you up with a contractor for larger-scale projects. 

Did I miss anything? Check out my YouTube channel for more value-packed content.

P.S. If you are looking for a house in DC, there are a ton of programs that you can utilize. I’ve made a video about some of them. So be sure to check it out! It's super helpful to save money, especially when buying your first home. 

Cheers, 

John Coleman