Adventures in First Time Home Buying (what to look for and what to avoid)

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Guest Blog Post by Ashley Houseman

There’s nothing more exciting than researching homes on the internet, sifting through hundreds (maybe thousands) of photos of homes listed for sale until you narrow down the possibilities and compile your list of those you’d like to see in person. In most cases, a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

On numerous occasions, I’ve had the pleasure of walking through homes with First Time Home Buyers to discover some of the most outrageous and interesting features a house could possibly possess. Some in which you wish the Realtor would have posted pictures of, so you could’ve ruled it out as a possibility and saved yourself the gas and your precious time to see it.

bathroomdoor Adventures in First Time Home Buying (what to look for and what to avoid)

Epic Fail!

Homes with holes in the floor (we could see the dirt fill below), bathrooms with the door against the toilet, homes that were previous crime scenes (which I found out later via “Googling” the address), an ENTIRE home that was a dedicated shrine of Dale Earnhardt Jr (I’m a fan, just not an entire house of it) and my personal favorite:  a bidet in the middle of a bedroom, yes, a bedroom.

It’s tough to see yourself in a home when either photos don’t do a good home justice or when a potential home is washed out by clutter or issues that are hard to look past. Here’s a few tips to help you to weed out the bad ones from the diamonds in the rough:

Do Your Homework:
- Go online:  Did you know that most Realtors can send you listings via email to check out from the web from the comfort of your couch? Use their services to check out homes! Their MLS will be your most up-to-date source for what’s available on the market. Also check out www.ColdwellBanker.com and their app as well.
- Do the Drive-by:  If it’s a good possibility, drive by the home and see if you like the location. This will help you to weed out more homes than you think.

Look Past the Surface:
- Good Bones:  If shag carpet and gaudy wallpaper isn’t your thing, don’t sweat it. Those are cheap fixes to a home that may have great bones. Look past the things that are easily replaceable and look at the layout of the home, as adding an addition is way more expensive than that gorgeous granite you’ve been dreaming of.
- Don’t Fall for the Bells & Whistles: Quite opposite of the last tip. A home may have some sweet upgrades like solid counter tops and stainless appliances, but you aren’t too crazy about the layout. Just remember, you can always customize the home down the road but living in a home with an awkward layout can eventually get annoying. It’s more expensive to do a total renovation (knocking down walls, permits, etc) than it is to buy an entire stainless kitchen on a Memorial Day sale.

Think About the Future:
- Resale, Resale, Resale:  That small bedroom that is a decent “office” now may not be a considered good-sized bedroom for a buyer down the road when you’re trying to sell, as this personally cost us 10+ buyers when selling our home!  Don’t compromise on things that you think may hinder your chances of selling the home in the future.
- Replacement Costs:  Buying a home is an investment, especially if you have to replace a ton of stuff inside. Take a closer look at things like the roof, air conditioning unit, pool pump, and other high ticket items that could be in need of replacing. It’s good to budget replacement costs into your yearly budget, but you don’t want to take on a home that needs everything replaced all at once.

A Home Fit for a Family:
- Busy Streets:  If you have or plan on having kids, that’s great, just make sure the house accommodates them! Any parent of a toddler will tell you that living on a busy street is one of the scariest things in the world as you watch cars fly by your driveway. Consider an area that has less traffic and will be safer for the little ones.
- A Tub:  As silly as it sounds, you will want a tub in the guest bathroom. Unless you want your sweet munchkins taking over your master every night until they can bathe themselves, save yourself the insanity and make sure there’s a tub in the guest bathroom for the little ones.

These are just a few things to think about when you’re looking to buy a home for the first time. When in doubt about certain things, always consult a real estate professional, as they are your best source of information in the home buying process.

No matter what your first time home buying adventure is like, just remember, you could always have a bidet in the middle of your bedroom.

Ashley Houseman( YES! Her last name has HOUSE in it) is an Associate Broker/REALTOR® with Coldwell Banker Morris Realty. in Punta Gorda, Florida. You can follow her on Twitter at @BrokerEXCLUSIVE or visit her blog brokerEXCLUSIVEblog.com.

This Ain’t Your Mama’s House! Modern Day Tips for A First Time Home Buyer

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Jessica Edwards, a Sales Associate with Coldwell Banker Sea Coast Realty, provides real estate advice and tips for first time home buyers.

1. This ain’t your mama’s house – talking about getting opinions from others and that sometimes your mother may know best best not always…..choose a couple people to be sounding boards for throughout the process and that’s it.  Getting advice and opinions from too many people sometimes just makes thinks more complicated and makes you lose sight of what YOU want and need and that is most important.

2.  You live with the payment not the price – the purchase price is important or “top of mind” twice.  When you buy and when you sell.  It is the monthly payment that you live with.  Sometimes first time home buyers get so caught up on that big picture number and forget that in the end its the payment that you live with month to month and although a few thousand dollars this way or that may seem like a big deal it may not be when you look at the monthly number.

3.  You are what you eat….or where you eat anyways;) - don’t forget about real estate 101….location, location, location.  Keep in mind your daily commute, proximity to friends, family, and your life….the gym you go to, your favorite restaurant or bar, etc. I’ve had many people call me to sell because the location was never their top choice but never usually the opposite.  Don’t only pay attention to the house…look outside and around as well and keep that in mind.  I would rather someone take much longer to buy and hold out for a specific location or neighborhood than settle for a house that was great but in an area other than what they want.

4.  And on that note it should be “75 to buy”– a house isn’t going to be 100% what you want from the first time you set foot in it.  Stay focused on your most important wants and needs but let go of perfection.  A home should be 75% or more what you want and the other 25% is what you make it.  You choices in paint and décor, cosmetic stuff, etc.  Part of the joy of home ownership is making it your own.

Stay in touch with Jessica by visiting thecarolinasfinest.com or visit her YouTube channel for more insightful videos.

Tips for First Time Home Buyers from Coldwell Banker’s Global Network

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With a global network of over 80,000 sales associates you can bet our network has an amazing wealth of knowledge regarding First Time Home Buyers. Here are just a few tips from members of our “Gen Blue” network.

From Colby Culbertson, Regional Field Marketing Manager, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Sacramento, Tahoe

1. Get Pre-approved (NOT PRE-QUALIFIED) BEFORE you start looking for houses. It makes absolutely no sense to start looking at houses until you actually know what you can afford. It will save you and your sales professional a lot of time.

2. Always get a home inspection, its well worth the investment.

3. Never buy more house then your lifestyle can afford. Too many buyers get in over their heads because they buy as much house as they can afford, and forget to calculate other living expenses such as utilities, vacation, hobbies, etc.

From Sean Carpenter, Director of Agent Development, Ohio NRT Companies

1. Meet with a full time Realtor who can help you clearly identify and then separate your wants and needs. These will include exploring where you are now and where you want to be once you have closed on your new house. A good agent will explore “why” you are seeking the specific features instead of just asking “what” you want to see.

2. Understand clearly what you are going to get for the money/price range you are looking in. Buyers moving from Omaha, Nebraska will be shocked at what $200,000 would get them in Chicago or San Francisco while buyers moving from Boston or LA to the Midwest would most likely be able to change their entire lifestyle (commute time, hobbies, schools, etc.).

3. Have an agent clearly explain the timelines involved with the process. Depending on how “selective” (i.e. “picky”) a buyer is, it could take a while to find the right home – especially with diminished inventories in most markets across the country. Finding the right house is just the start of the process and depending on the type of financing it could take anywhere from 30-60+ days to get to a successful closing.

We had to add in Sean’s final comment… “All the more reason to work with a full-time Realtor from Coldwell Banker, huh?” :)

From Andrea Geller, Broker Associate, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage Chicago, IL

Focus on if the space(home) and location works before getting wrapped up in anything else. If those 2 things aren’t right for you then you should move and not waste energy on it.

From Vance Anthony Hill, Founder, Seattle Luxury Group, Coldwell Banker Bain

1. Interview multiple agents – take the time to interview a few agents. Don’t base your decision strictly on friendship, family or length of time in the business. Those aren’t always the most qualified person to help you. This is the biggest financial decision you will make. Sometimes in your entire life. Would you hand over your savings account to your brother to invest your money, just because he’s your brother? Or would you hand that over to the BEST QUALIFIED person? Find out who will be helping you with this process. DO they meet YOUR qualifications to best suit your needs?

2. Buy Smart – Don’t buy a $400,000 house just because your lender says you can afford it. If there is a 200-300 house that suits your needs, buy that and save the mortgage payment for something else. Remember, statistics show homeowners move every 5-7 years. Why not use that information to your benefit? Buy what you need, not necessarily what you can so you can buy what you WANT later.

From Mike Bowler, Associate Broker, Coldwell Banker Hubbell Briarwood

When writing an offer in this competitive market, buyers should 1. Have a strong deposit (Stronger the deposit, stronger the offer) 2. Offer what you’re willing to pay for the house and indicate that you are FIRM. Low offers hoping for a counter offer lose homes for buyers to multiple offers from others. 3. Be prepared to look at new listings upon a moments notice, the good ones go fast.

From John Riche, REALTOR®, Coldwell Banker Pro Co,  St. John’s, NL, Canada.

Bring a golf ball on all appointments to test for level floors. I jokingly call mine the Titanium 1000 Levelometer. (We love this!)

Have more questions about buying a home? Visit coldwellbanker.com and contact an office near you.

Real Estate 101: Understanding Title and Escrow

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The title and escrow for your home are some of the most important aspects of the real estate buying process, but even most seasoned homeowners don’t fully understand what these terms mean.

In this video Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty gives you a simple explanation of what these two terms mean and why they are so important.

9 Questions to Ask Your Home Inspector

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The following post comes from Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty, Inc. agent, Kim Knapp. Kim is an experienced agent in Northern Florida and has a great team who has worked with countless first-time home buyers. Below is Kim’s list of questions you should ask your home inspector before agreeing to use them.

Before you make your final buying or selling decision, you should have the home inspected by a professional. An inspection can alert you to potential problems with a property and allow you to make an informed decision. Ask these questions to prospective home inspectors:

1. Will your inspection meet recognized standards?

Ask whether the inspection and the inspection report will meet all state requirements and comply with a well-recognized standard of practice and code of ethics, such as the one adopted by the American Society of Home Inspectors or the National Association of Home Inspectors. Customers can view each group’s standards of practice and code of ethics online at www.ashi.org or www.nahi.org. ASHI’s Web site also provides a database of state regulations.

2. Do you belong to a professional home inspector association?

There are many state and national associations for home inspectors, including the two groups mentioned in No. 1. Unfortunately, some groups confer questionable credentials or certifications in return for nothing more than a fee. Insist on members of reputable, nonprofit trade organizations; request to see a membership ID.

3. How experienced are you?

Ask how long inspectors have been in the profession and how many inspections they’ve completed. They should provide customer referrals on request. New inspectors also may be highly qualified, but they should describe their training and let you know whether they plan to work with a more experienced partner.

4. How do you keep your expertise up to date?

Inspectors’ commitment to continuing education is a good measure of their professionalism and service. Advanced knowledge is especially important in cases in which a home is older or includes unique elements requiring additional or updated training.

5. Do you focus on residential inspection?

Make sure the inspector has training and experience in the unique discipline of home inspection, which is very different from inspecting commercial buildings or a construction site. If your customers are buying a unique property, such as a historic home, they may want to ask whether the inspector has experience with that type of property in particular.

6. How long will the inspection take?

On average, an inspector working alone inspects a typical single-family house in two to three hours; anything significantly less may not be thorough. If your customers are purchasing an especially large property, they may want to ask whether additional inspectors will be brought in.

7. What’s the cost?

Costs can vary dramatically, depending on your region, the size and age of the house, and the scope of services. The national average for single-family homes is about $320, but customers with large homes can expect to pay more. Customers should be wary of deals that seem too good to be true.

8. What type of inspection report do you provide?

Ask to see samples to determine whether you will understand the inspector’s reporting style. Also, most inspectors provide their full report within 24 hours of the inspection.

9. Will I be able to attend the inspection?

The answer should be yes. A home inspection is a valuable educational opportunity for the buyer. An inspector’s refusal to let the buyer attend should raise a red flag.

Real Estate 101: What Are Home Inspections?

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Home inspections might be the most significant milestone in your road to buying your first home. What happens during a home inspection can often times make or break a purchase of a home.

In this video, Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty gives you the lowdown on what a home inspection exactly is and why you want to make sure you have a good partner to help

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer: Home Inspection

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Inspector: Kid, you’ve got shoes right?
Me: Yeah
Inspector: Then run!

A mere two weeks after my girlfriend and I decided that we were going to go for it and buy a home, we had selected a fantastic Realtor, obtained a pre-approval and even submitted an offer on a charming single family starter home in a near perfect location in my city. After we completed the short back and forth on the contract, my girlfriend and I celebrated over dinner and remarked on how incredibly easy everything had been so far. It was true; the whole process had been pretty much conflict free and a walk in the park up until that point. Then we had the home inspection.

I’m no Al Borland or Bob Villa, but after my visits to the home I figured that it looked like it was in good order and free of any defects/issues that would make the home a money pit for us. With that being said, we didn’t mail it in and go with just any home inspector, we asked our homeowner friends for recommendations and they referred us to a contractor who was knowledgeable, prompt and extremely thorough. He even took photos of every possible issue and provided them to us in PDF format along with commentary the very next day!

As thorough as the inspector’s report was, all it did was put into words what we already knew; the home had serious defects to it that would cost a significant amount of money to correct. In fact, the issues with the home were so bad, the contractor shook his head after I asked him if these were normal issues; and told me to RUN!

Now almost all homes, especially older ones, will have some type of issue that either needs immediate attention or some work done to it a few years down the road. After obtaining a home inspection, I think it’s important for all homebuyers to take a step back and evaluate your life situation:

  • Can you afford to make the repairs or can the seller make the repairs?
  • If the seller makes the repairs how will you ensure that the repairs were reliably and not cheaply made?
  • Even if you could afford them do you have the time and energy to undergo those big projects?
  • If corrected, will the issues occur again and how will that impact resale value?

For my girlfriend and I, we took stock of the fact that we had planned to do a gut renovation to the kitchen and came to the realization that we wouldn’t have the resources or time and commitment to remediate the structural problems; so things ended up falling through with this home. While we were disappointed initially, we are extremely thankful for the home inspection we obtained because we’re sure that it saved us tens of thousands of dollars and countless headaches and problems down the road.

As a result of this experience we’ve altered the type of home we’re looking for; realizing that we’d ideally want a condo or townhouse for our first home to ease us into homeownership and lessen the burden of maintaining a property on our own.

If this post has peaked you’re interest and illuminated just how pivotal GREAT home inspections are, then the content we’ve got lined up for the rest of the day will be can’t miss stuff!

  • Real Estate 101: What Are Home Inspections
  • 9 Questions to Ask Your Home Inspector
  • Real Estate 101: Title & Escrow

Real Estate 101: Hiring a Real Estate Professional

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So you want to hire a real estate professional? Are you just going to hire someone  your friend likes or should you dig a little deeper.

Diann Patton of Coldwell Banker Grass Roots Realty talks about how you should approach trying to find the right person to work with on what is most likely the single greatest purchase of your life.

8 Tips For Finding Your First Home

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The following post comes from Coldwell Banker Vanguard Realty, Inc. agent, Kim Knapp. Kim is an experienced agent in Northern Florida and has a great team who has worked with countless first-time home buyers.

Here are her 8 tips to help make finding that first home go as smoothly as possible:

1. Research before you look.

Decide what features you most want to have in a home, what neighborhoods you prefer, and how much you’d be willing to spend each month for housing.

2. Be realistic.

It’s OK to be picky, but don’t be unrealistic with your expectations. There’s no such thing as a perfect home. Use your list of priorities as a guide to evaluate each property.

3. Get your finances in order.

Review your credit report and be sure you have enough money to cover your down payment and closing costs. Then, talk to a lender and get prequalified for a mortgage. This will save you the heartache later of falling in love with a house you can’t afford.

4. Don’t ask too many people for opinions.

It will drive you crazy. Select one or two people to turn to if you feel you need a second opinion, but be ready to make the final decision on your own. You will be the one that will be ultimately living in the home and paying the mortgage payment.

5. Decide your moving timeline.

When is your lease up? Are you allowed to sublet? How tight is the rental market in your area? All of these factors will help you determine when you should move.

6. Think long term.

Are you looking for a starter house with plans to move up in a few years, or do you hope to stay in this home for a longer period? This decision may dictate what type of home you’ll buy as well as the type of mortgage terms that will best suit you.

7. Insist on a home inspection.

If possible, get a warranty from the seller to cover defects for one year.

8. Get help from a REALTOR®.

Hire a real estate professional who specializes in buyer representation. Unlike a listing agent, whose first duty is to the seller, a buyer’s representative is working only for you. Buyer’s reps are usually paid out of the seller’s commission payment.

Confessions of a First-Time Homebuyer – Shopping Surprises

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It has been a little over a month since my girlfriend and I took the leap and decided that NOW was the time for us to buy. With five plus years experience working for the Coldwell Banker brand and hours of HGTV television shows under our belts; we thought we’d be grizzled veterans who wouldn’t be surprised by anything. We were wrong.

While we did plenty of research, preparation and soul searching before we began shopping for homes, we’ve still discovered a lot of unexpected things about ourselves and the real estate market and process as a whole. Here are the top 5 things that have surprised us so far:

1. Pre-Approval is Easy

For most people, buying a home will be the single largest and most complicated purchase of our lifetimes. For the uninitiated, the paperwork and all the rules and regulations and requirements that go along with financing a home can strike uneasiness and fear into the best of us.

With that being said, to this point, I’ve been shocked at how easy the process has been. When my real estate agent put me in touch with a mortgage advisor to obtain my pre-approval I thought that it would take weeks of back and forth to receive it. Once again, I was wrong – I received it in minutes.

It’s hard to describe the feeling you get when you hear that you’ve been pre-approved for a mortgage at X amount. The ease with which we obtained it coupled with the solid advice we were given gave us confidence and reassured us that we were qualified buyers with real buying power now. It threw us head first into home shopping mode.

2. Technology has Changed Everything. For the Better

In being a tech advocate and working on our various mobile platforms in the past, I’ve certainly been well aware of how technology has changed the way homebuyers shop for homes. I fully expected to scour through our mobile app and send my real estate agent just as many listings as she’d send me. However, what has surprised me is how technology on the back-end of the real estate process has made life a whole easier, neater and greener.

After seeing a few places, my girlfriend and I put an offer on a single family home a few weeks ago and I fully expected to receive a fat packet in the mail that I’d have to review, then sign, then somehow send back to my agent, who’d send it to the seller’s agent , who’d have to send it to the seller who was working in India, who’d have to sign again, etc. etc. I can only imagine how long and arduous that process must have been even a few short years ago.

Yet, with a simple product called DocuSign, my girlfriend and I were able to review documents virtually with my agent, sign it digitally which would send it off to a whole other continent in mere seconds! This collaborative tool saved us presumably weeks in time and saved a whole lot of trees as well. While things with that home didn’t end up working out (that’ll be a whole other blog post), we found out pretty quickly that it wouldn’t work and were able to jump right into looking at homes again; instead of waiting around for weeks and possibly missing out on something perfect.

3. Things You Didn’t Think Mattered Do

At the start of our home searching process, my girlfriend and I made a list of our ‘must haves’ and our ‘nice to haves’. While we did a great job of outlining what we wanted in our future home, we’ve been surprised to discover things we thought that didn’t matter actually do.

A few examples of items that matter a lot and factor greatly in our opinion of a home when we’re visiting it are:

A.) Home flow – It was hard to articulate it before actually visiting listings, but we’ve come to find over time, that we have a “flow” we prefer. Actually, it’s not even really a flow of a home that we prefer, it’s more of the flow of a home that we know won’t work. It’s a feeling you get as you walk through a home and envision your life there. It’s something you can only get from physically being in a place.

B.) Laundry – In many urban areas, most condos do not offer a washer/dryer within the actual home. We’ve been surprised at our delight whenever we’ve encountered a condo with an in unit washer/dryer. We’ve added it near the top of our list now because we know in the long run it’ll save us time, energy and even money.

C.) Odds & Ends- We’ve been surprised by how sharp our eyes have gotten. Small things actually do matter, like: Why is water pooling by the backyard door? What do you get from your condo association for the fees you pay? What are the percentages of homeowners who live in a building? What did the home sell for previously?

4. Buyers are Motivated. Properties are Moving Fast!

In my local market, homes are moving like Cracker Jacks at a baseball game; seriously fast! Homes seem to be hitting “pending” status almost as soon as they officially hit the market. Real Estate is most definitely back. My girlfriend and I put an offer on a fantastic condo on our favorite street that we fell in love with (after our first offer on another home fell through) but we were not only outbid substantially , the buyers bought it in cash!

In another instance, we were sent a listing that my girlfriend liked but I was on the fence about. After 2 weeks I warmed to it and decided that we should go see it. We saw the home and fell in love with it! Problem was that someone swooped in within those two weeks and put an offer on the home already. The moral of the story is that buyers like us have to move quickly and decisively because if we won’t; somebody else will! Homes are moving quick!

5. You’ll Know if it’s Home

‘Home’ is such a personal and important part of our lives; maybe even the most personal and important. It may sound stereotypical, but you absolutely do get a “feeling” whenever you walk into a listing. From my experience, I’d say that you know whether a house can be your home within seconds. Within those first few seconds you get a very specifc feeling that washes over you; a feeling that words do little to amply describe. You instantly imagine your furniture in certain places, breakfast on Saturday morning with your loved ones, get together’s in the backyard and even a little one running around barefoot one day.

I hope these recollections and home shopping surprises resonate with those of you who look back on your first experience on buying a home and to those who are thinking about doing it for the first time. It’s actually a lot of fun and not as bad/scary as I thought it’d be. I don’t know when my girlfriend and I will find ‘home’ and I’m sure they’ll be more surprises along the way; but I won’t stop searching until I get that feeling of ‘home‘ again.

Cheers!