Where to Start When Buying a Home

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

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Thank you for tuning in to NextView podcast with
host, Tia Moore.
NextView is your resource forall things real estate and
business.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
So you decided that you're ready to buy a house.
Perhaps this is your firstpurchase, or maybe you've bought
real estate in the past, butit's been awhile.
Well, wherever you are in thejourney, I'm glad it brought you
here to NextView Podcast.
Today I'm going to be talkingabout where you can start
because if you're anything likeI was when I purchased my first
home, you have enoughinformation to be dangerous, but
you don't know what you don'tknow because you want to avoid

(00:36):
mistakes, right?
So inevitably, I would say thething that we have in common the
most is we usually all startwith a Google search.
Perhaps that's even how youfound this podcast, but
ultimately nine times out of 10,when we all think about doing
something new, taking on adifferent challenge, it all
starts with Google.
So what happens after youGoogle?

(00:57):
There's so much information thatyou find online.
So you're wondering what can youtrust, what information is
accurate?
Is this information stillUpToDate?
Because sometimes the, you know,the information that comes up in
the first page and Google isseriously dated.
Well that's what we're going tobe talking about today.
On this podcast I'm going totalk about what resources are
available to you as a first timehome buyer and what exactly does

(01:21):
home first time home buyer mean.
It does not mean that this isthe first time you purchased a
home that might be surprising tosome of you guys.
So tune in and we'll talk aboutthat.
We're going to talk about who totrust, um, how you can choose
your realtor, how you can chooseyour loan officer.
So we want to make sure that youhave all that information so
that it, it helps you make agreat journey into, you know,

(01:45):
pushing you out there to, youknow, get your first home
purchased or your next homepurchased.
So resources, what resources areavailable.
The number one question we getasked is what down payment
assistance is available.
Okay.
So most people think that downpayment assistance is only
available for first time homebuyers in Arizona for down

(02:08):
payment assistance.
A lot of times it's notnecessarily just that you're a
first time home buyer, you justcan't be a homeowner at the time
of your purchase.
So let me explain that to you.
So, or give you a couple ofexamples.
So one example is let's say youdo not own a home, it's your
first purchase and um, but youhave, or maybe it's your first

(02:30):
purchase or maybe you just don'town a home right now, but it's
not your first purchase.
Well that consent you would beeligible for down payment
assistance in that regard.
Um, ultimately with down paymentassistance, there are some other
qualifiers and I'll get intothat a little bit.
But again, I'll repeat thatexample.
So let's say you do not own ahome right now.

(02:50):
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 maybe eligible for a first time
home buyer or some type of adown payment assistance program.

(03:12):
So I had a client that waspurchasing a home and they owned
a home already.
So they were selling that houseand then they were g oing t o
use down payment assistance.
This helped a ton because theydidn't have a ton of equity in
the home, but they had to movefor work because they o wn the
house for only a short period oftime.
So, u m, the area where theypurchased, a lot of the buyers

(03:35):
were asking for closing c ostassistance.
So they really needed as muchhelp as they could get moving
into their new place.
And so they were eligible fordown payment assistance because
they sold their house first andthen they were moving into the
other one.
So it was only a one daydifference.
So for example, they sold theirhouse on October 31st and then
they purchased their new one onNovember 1st so ultimately they

(03:57):
qualified because they were nothomeowners at the time of their
purchase.
Makes sense.
All right, so some people, youknow when you're purchasing home
you might be overwhelmed andtrying to figure out where can
my down payment come from.
Well we have a pretty coolresource that can give you some

(04:17):
great ideas on down payment, howto create down payment, um, how
to, how to a creative guy fordown payment assistance.
So if you're interested in that,send me an email at TIAA that's
spelled T [e-mail].
So [e-mail].

(04:40):
So, and again that's if you,let's say you're not using a
down payment assistance, youhaving trouble saving for your
down payment, maybe it's alittle bit intimidating for you.
Send me an email and I'll sendyou our guide that tells you
about creative, creative way sothat you can save for a down
payment and how much, how littleyou can put down in order to
qualify for your house.

(05:00):
Alright.
So that's the first one that's,you know, gives you a little
guidance in regards to downpayment assistance and what is
available to you.
All right?
Ultimately, in my opinion, thebest place to start is selecting
your realtor.
Now, when I purchased my firsthome, I was 20 years old and I
did not make the best decisionswhen I purchased that property.

(05:23):
And it's because I did not use arealtor.
There, I had my reasons.
One of the reasons, one of thebiggest reasons for it is
because at that time it was avery crazy market.
Everybody in the world had areal estate license and I had
the perception that nobodyreally knew what they were doing
with their license.

(05:43):
So I was wrong.
I just didn't know where to lookto find those professional
realtors that actually workedat, you know, sold real estate
as a full time career and had abusiness in the, in, in real
estate.
So I'm going to tell you thatthat was the biggest mistake.
Do not make that same mistake.

(06:03):
Learn from me and avoid my, andmy same mistake.
And again, as a licensed realestate agent I didn't know or as
a real estate agent, now Irealize all the mistakes I made
with that purchase.
With that purchase and now Ihave a lot more experience
behind me because this is what Ido every single day.
So hire a real estate agent andyou're probably thinking, okay,

(06:28):
what, how do I know how to hirea real estate agent?
Well, one, you can interviewthem.
What is most important to you,you know, is is the thing that's
most important to you?
The real estate agentsavailability is their ability
to, you know, send them a text,email in ways that how they
communicate, um, is the mostimportant thing to you.

(06:49):
Their knowledge of the market istheir most important thing to
you, their ability to negotiate.
So it's it, it's definitelygoing to be driven by what's
most important to you.
So a strong realtor is going tobe able to provide you with
great resources.
The reason that's important isbecause that's going to help you

(07:10):
avoid things that are not, I'mgoing to assist you.
So there's a lot of scams outthere, especially targeted
toward home buyers.
For example, you may have heardof people having wire fraud
issues because they get an emailfrom somebody saying, Oh, you
need to wire your closing fundsto this address.
And it's not actually theclosing an escrow officer that's

(07:32):
completing their sale.
So that's an issue.
Um, so work with, with areputable realtor that has a
strong real estate presencewhere you're purchasing, then
you can also, and the other nicething about that is a real
estate agent that's constantlyworking in their market.
They have a lot of experiencewith loan officers.

(07:55):
They know loan officers thatthey work with when they work
with buyers.
And they also know loan officerswhen they work with sellers
because they have to helpfacilitate that sale as well.
Well, so they'll be able to tellyou and many cases they'll be
able to give you an idea of ifsomebody is hard to work with,
if their closings are late indifferent things like that,
because those things are goingto be important to you.

(08:17):
And the, the other reason forchoosing a real estate agent and
working with a real estate agentas, because you will know what's
going to happen in terms of yourcontract.
So I recently got a phone callfrom a pro, um, a potential home
seller, a woman, she wanted tosell her house, but the problem
was she's been paying on thishouse for 10 years.

(08:39):
But however, whoever it was thatshe purchased it from, they
didn't use realtors and whoeverthe party she was that she
bought it from, technically theystill own the house.
So there was never a transfer ofdeed or title and the contract
that she had, it even said thatthat wouldn't happen.
And so now she's having troublegetting a hold of this man yet

(08:59):
she wants to sell a house andtake advantage of the equity and
she cannot.
So she didn't, she, when shetold me on the phone and she
didn't work with a professionaland she wasn't, she didn't know
what she was signing.
Ultimately she understood shewas buying a house and that was
the extent of her knowledge andwhat she knew.
So definitely contact somebody.
So the other question is you'reprobably like, okay, how can I

(09:21):
figure out who I can trust as arealtor?
Okay, so you have a lot ofoptions.
The first place I'd recommendyou go is ask your friend a
family member or even a coworkerthat you know has recently
bought or sold a home.
So let's say for example, youhave a friend, they just closed
on a house.
They're super excited.
Ask them how their experiencewas with their real estate

(09:43):
agent.
You know, ask them questionswhere she had good negotiator.
Do you feel she was, she had agreat attention to detailed or,
or he, um, did your re did, didthat realtor, um, present you
with different options?
Where are they knowledgeable onthe area?
Those, that's going to be yournumber one place to go is what I
would recommend.

(10:03):
The other thing is if theycan't, if they can't describe
their experience, they may nothave had the best one.
You want to get details fromthem.
You don't want to have theyinformation.
Okay.
Then the next thing you want todo is take a look at online
Google top real estate agents inthe area.

(10:25):
Go to realtor.com.
Go to Google, go to Zillow.
Um, on Zillow there is onrealtor.com also, you can click
on real estate agents and youcan browse real estate agents
and you can see their reviews.
See what their clients aresaying about them, see what
their reputation is online.
You can even look on Yelp, um,but just see what people are

(10:46):
saying about them.
Good, bad or indifferent.
But just to give you an idea ofif this is somebody that you
feel like you want to start arelationship with, and guess
what?
Even by giving the phone call toone of those realtors that
doesn't, you know, obligate youto work with them, that's your
opportunity to ask themquestions, to see if they're
going to be a good fit for youand what you're looking for.
The other thing that you want tomake sure that you're doing when

(11:09):
you're speaking to these realestate agents, ask them for
references.
You know you, you're more thanwelcome to ask for references
just so that you can call theirclients directly and they can
give you specifics about whattheir experience was like.
Right?
One thing to be in, to be waryof is when you are going to
these websites, just be carefulbecause sometimes they ask you

(11:30):
to register and obviously if youwant to register, great go ahead
and go for it, but just knowyou're going to be getting a lot
of phone calls.
Some of those people may belicensed realtors, some may be
hired to simply call you andkeep 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 atthat stage yet, you don't want
to get into that situation whenyou're reading the reviews.

(11:52):
Always look, keywords such aseasy to get in contact with,
easy to communicate withreliable response, time
negotiations.
Those are going to be the mostimportant in resourceful.
Those are going to be superimportant.
Then you know if your realestate agent, once you choose a
real estate agent, if they havea loan officer, did they

(12:14):
recommend working with ninetimes out of 10 they have a good
rapport working together andthey have experience with
getting sales pushed through orcompleted and doing it
successfully as a team.
There are so many moving partswithin a real estate transaction
that it's good if people have agood rapport and can work
together because that's going towork to your benefit.

(12:35):
So consider asking your realestate agent for a loan officer
recommendation and you know, seeif, see if it makes sense for
you.
You still want to make sureyou're competitive.
Most people, when they look forloan officers, they're looking
for, they always say, who'sgoing to give me the best rate?
Well, most loan officers aregoing to be able to quote you
similar rates.
You want to find out what typeof um, fees they're charging you

(13:01):
because that's where a loanofficer, that's where a mortgage
company typically makes theirmoney, is what they're charging
you in fees.
So that's going to be moreimportant to look at than simply
just the rate.
So when you're talking, whenyou're getting pre-qualified
with loan officers and even ifyou're going to shop it, always
asking them for a breakdown ofwhat you should expect your
costs to be.
So I'm going to do a quick recapto go over what we talked about.

(13:25):
We talked about choosing yourrealtor down payment assistance,
your loan officer and how toresearch for both of them.
So believe it or not, loanofficers can also be found on
Zillow and you can read reviewsabout 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 youmentioned it to us, when you

(13:46):
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'mlicensed here in the state of
Arizona.
I lead the NextView HomeProfessionals team at eXp
Realty.
If you or anybody that you knowhas a real estate need, be sure

(14:06):
to give them, have them contactme.
They can call me by phone, bycalling, they can text me.
Our number is(480) 281-3078we're always happy to work with
you, answer any of yourquestions you have, and also
help anybody that you considerimportant in your life.
So again, the number is(480)281-3078

Speaker 1 (14:30):
Thanks again for tuning in.
Be sure to subscribe to futureepisodes.
As always, your feedback isappreciated, so be sure to rate
and review this episode when youhave questions about real estate
or about being a guest.
On next few podcast visitNextViewpodcast.com for contact
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Speaker 3 (14:55):
[inaudible].