Expert Tips for First-Time Homebuyers 2025 - These Tips Will Save You Thousands!

I'm going to give you my top 20 tips for first-time homebuyers. I'm Shahida Hill, getting you over the hill to home ownership and helping you confidently buy your first home. So I've been doing this channel for about five years now, and I've learned a lot helping mostly first-time homebuyers. So I'm going to give you my top 20 tips. And in the description of this video, I'm also going to put a video that goes more in depth for each tip that I give you. All right, let's go. So number one are loan estimates. You want to make sure that you're getting a loan estimate upfront. So as soon as you apply for a mortgage, you get approved for that mortgage, they're probably going to say, hey, you got approved for 300,000, but they're not going to automatically give you a loan estimate. You want a loan estimate that is going to give you your fees that are going to give you your monthly payment, your taxes, your insurance. You want a paper like that. And it's going to be something that you want to ask for before you ever go under contract on a house. So it'll be like a preliminary loan estimate. And again, lenders won't automatically usually give this to you. You have to ask. So make sure you're asking for one of those. Number two, I always want you to get three mortgage quotes, and that's the equivalent of three pre-approvals. And don't worry about your credit because the credit scoring models allow for rate shopping. So as long as you do it within 30 days, then you only get one hard credit pull. So don't let that frighten you away from getting more than one quote. You want to be able to compare the interest rates, the fees, everything that's being offered by the lender. So always get three quotes. Number three, start early. I always want home ownership to be on your mind as an option for a place to live. Especially if you grew up in a rental household and you never owned a home, your parents never owned a home, maybe your grandparents never owned a home, then rental will be top of mind for you. So I want you as early as 18 years old to at least be thinking, hey, I'm 18 now. I have the ability to go under contract. When will I be ready to buy my first home? The earlier you're thinking about it, the earlier you probably will buy. You always want to keep this top of mind as an option for you. So as soon as you move out on your own, you want to think about, hey, is it better for me to rent or is it better for me to buy? And if you do that every year, then you're probably going to buy a home earlier and that's going to allow you to build more equity over your lifetime. All right. Number four, you are able to buy a house right out of college. So one of the requirements for a lot of mortgages is that you have at least two years of work history, but there is an exception. If you are a recent college graduate, your years of college will count as your work history. So you want to keep that in mind. If you get a job out of college, you could go ahead and buy your first home then. Number five, you also want to be mindful about the fact that you can buy a multifamily property just as easily as you buy a single family property. So you can buy a two unit, which is known as a duplex, a three unit, a triplex, or a four unit, a fourplex. And it's the same qualification, but it allows you to not only purchase your first home that you're going to live in for at least one year, that's the rule, but you also can acquire some investment property as well because the people that you're renting to can be helping you pay that mortgage. So always, again, consider that when you're purchasing your first home, is that, okay, I could do multifamily or I can do single family. And there'll be a video again in the description that will help you understand how that works. Number six, down payment assistance is available in every state. All 50 states have down payment assistance programs for first time home buyers. So if you feel like you're going to struggle to get the down payment, and that's usually the biggest challenge for most first time home buyers is saving that down payment. That's why they have these programs in place. You want to at least research the programs in your state. So you'll know how much you qualify for to help you buy your first home. People often do this, but a lot of people don't do it because they don't know what exists in their area. Some are grants, some are loans, but a lot of the ones that are loans, you don't have to make any payments unless you sell the property or you refinance it. So it is definitely worth taking a look at. Number seven, get pre-approved early. Even if you're not a hundred percent sure you're ready, go ahead and get pre-approved so you can have at least a roadmap moving forward. So if you are not sure, and you go ahead and do a pre-approval application, a mortgage application, and you're not approved, that's going to help you get approved probably faster than trying to do it on your own, because now you know what you need to work on. It's generally going to be increasing your income, decreasing your debt, improving your credit score, but now you'll know exactly what you need to do. So don't hesitate and just try to figure out everything on your own. It's worth reaching out to a mortgage lender and doing that initial application. Number eight, get a home inspection. Never skip a home inspection. You're buying a very expensive asset, probably the most expensive thing you're going to buy. Don't skip or skimp on the home inspection. Even if you're buying a new construction home, you want to get a home inspection. So put that money aside. Generally speaking, it probably is going to cost you between $350 and $500 for a home inspection, but do not skip it. This is something you want to make sure you have as you go into your first home. Number nine, HOA covenants. So if you're moving into a community that has a homeowners association and that's rules for that community, you want to get a copy of those ahead of time. You do not want to be surprised about what you can and cannot do in your home, in your yard. You want to make sure you know and you're fully bought into what those rules are. So you can often get those when you're thinking about a property or in the due diligence period of the property. You want to know as much as you can about that HOA and you want to get a copy of those covenants and those bylaws. All right, number 10, we're about halfway through. Think about resale when you buy your house. I know sometimes it's first time home buyers, you'll have to make some compromises on things that you really want, or maybe things that you'll wait to your next home to get. You just want to kind of get in the door, but you want to at least think about resale value when you're buying your house. You want, when you're ready to sell, that home to be as attractive to the largest amount of people. That'll make it an easier sell. Always be thinking about resale when you buy. All right, number 11, ask the real estate agent, have they worked with clientele like yourself? This is important because a lot of times you'll find real estate agents that may specialize in a couple of areas, but they may have not worked with say down payment assistance, veterans, seniors, people that are relocating, people that want to buy a mobile home. You never know what their particular expertise is. You want to make sure that they have some experience working with similar clientele. It could be luxury. It could be ranch home, condos, whatever that is. You don't want to be their first person they're representing. Make sure you kind of talk to them about people they've worked with in the past that had a similar situation. Number 12, get organized, especially your financial documents. You'll be surprised how many people go to do their mortgage application and it's incomplete because they don't have everything. So they're going to definitely ask you for your check stubs. They're going to ask you for your bank statements. They're going to, they may ask you for your tax returns. You want to start gathering all of that information first before you go ahead and make that application. So then you don't have, you know, an incomplete application just waiting to be completed and, you know, find out where some of those things are. A lot of us get direct deposit, but we're not sure how to access the check stub, the details of that direct deposit. So make sure you're doing that. Again, all this, the videos that go more in depth than any of these, these 20 things I'm mentioning to you are in the description of this video, just click below. And I also have a masterclass. So you don't make expensive mistakes on your first home purchase. It has hundreds of reviews, hundreds and thousands of sales. So you want to make sure that you're getting that. If you have any questions about it, ask me in the comments. All right. Number 13, always try to find the best neighborhood for your budget. So whatever your budget is, you want to try to get in the best neighborhood for that price point. And generally speaking, most people think of that good neighborhoods as having low crime and good schools. If you can do that at your price point, you'll be winning. All right. Number 14, generally speaking, most things, if you're buying a resale home, most things should be replaced within 10 to 20 years. So you want to, if you have a home in that age range or even an older home, things should have been replaced multiple times by then. So say your home is 30 years old or 40 years old. You want to really pay close attention to those major replacements. Like when's the last time the roof got replaced, the HVAC system, that's the heating and air, the water heater, any appliances, because if they haven't been replaced by the former owner, then they're probably going to have to be replaced by you. And this is something that your home inspector can help you with. And they can estimate the average age of a lot of those systems. So you want to make sure because replacing those can get very expensive and you don't want that cost to fall on you. All right. Number 15, sellers can pay your closing costs. Oftentimes as first-time home buyers, you're aware that you have a down payment. A lot of people are not aware of the closing costs that come with that down payment. That's why, number one, I said for you to definitely get a loan estimate and they will detail all of those costs, but your seller, the person that you're buying the home from, the seller or the builder that's selling you the home can contribute to your closing costs. So you'll have less money to bring out of pocket. So you want to think about that with your real estate agent as to how much you need to ask for in closing costs. Number 16, there are just the same way we talked about closing costs. There are also no down payment mortgages. So mortgages that don't require a down payment. So you want to be aware of these. Some of the popular ones are USDA. So if you move to a rural area, then they will have 100% financing, no money down mortgages. Also, if you are a veteran, they have VA loans. So a veteran or somebody currently serving in the military, you generally qualify for a VA loan, which is 100% financing. And then a lot of your credit unions have special products where there'll be no down payment, no PMI, 100% financing conventional loans. I have all that information in the description, but look at those as a way that you can save some money. Because if you can come into a situation where you're doing 100% financing and the seller is covering your closing costs, you can enter a home with very little money out of pocket. Number 17, there's a lot of fear for first-time homebuyers because they've never spent this much money. They've never borrowed this much money, but I want you to know there are protections typically in your contract and you want to talk through these protections with your real estate agent. I'm going to give you some of the three of the common protections. Number one is that most contracts will have something called a due diligence period, that you go into that under contract, but you're still able to do your inspections, do more research about the neighborhood, about the house before you move forward. And a lot of times you can terminate that contract and get your earnest, any money you put up, that earnest money, you can get your earnest money back. So you want to make sure that when you are talking to your agent for the first time, ask them about some of those protections in the contract. That's number one. Another one is having a finance contingency. If for some reason, say you lose your job while you're under contract, you don't have as much money, you don't get approved like you thought you were going to get approved, then a finance contingency will save you from losing any money that earnest money that you typically put up with your contract. You can save that. And then lastly, there's usually an appraisal contingency in your contract, where if that property does not appraise for the contract price, you may be able to renegotiate that contract or get out of that contract. So you want to talk to your agent when you're doing your consultation and ask them, what protections do I have in this contract? And ask them about that, a due diligence period, an appraisal contingency, and a finance contingency. Number 18, never sign anything that you do not understand. It's pretty clear. I just want to make sure that I say this, never sign anything that you don't understand. A lot of times, we don't want to feel stupid. We don't want to feel like you don't understand something, but you need to ask. Again, this is the most money that you'll ever spend in your life. And you don't want to sign things and you're not clear about what you're signing. And also, if it's not in writing, it probably doesn't count. You need to think about those things. So if the seller's telling you something or your agent's telling you something, but it's not in writing, you need to ask about it or ask that it be put in writing and both sides sign agreeing to that. So again, you just want to make sure everything you understand, everything you signed, you understand, and then everything that has been agreed upon is in writing. Number 19, know all the fees that you may be required to pay. So things, I've mentioned them, but you may not know what they are. But again, have a video below, but some of the fees that you may be required to pay upfront are earnest money. Of course, we talked about down payment, inspections, appraisal fees, closing costs. You want to know and understand all of those fees before you go into home ownership. You want to know what do those fees go to and an estimate of how much you need to have. And lastly, and I'm going to give you a bonus too, number 20, you want to make sure after you close, you avoid any scams because you buying this house and recording your deed in your local area, it will be public record. Everybody's property that they buy is public record. So as soon as you record your deed in your state, city, county, that is a public record and people buy those public record lists and they start mailing you things, selling you things. So you want to make sure again, that you verify everything with your closing attorney or your title company, because people may tell you to pay something or pay your mortgage, your first mortgage payment to another company. And a lot of those places are scamming. So you want to make sure that you verify anything that you get in the mail with your agent or your closing attorney or title company. And then my bonus, we're almost through. My bonus is just to be aware as a first time home buyer, when you're buying your first home, you have your loan estimate, you close, you know what your monthly payment is going to be. But over time, what you're hoping to happen is that home goes up in value. And a lot of times when your home goes up in value, your taxes may increase and your insurance, your homeowner's insurance may also increase. So just don't be afraid of it. Typically, it doesn't go up drastically. However, over the pandemic, a lot of people had drastic increases in those costs, property insurance and homeowners insurance, because homes went up drastically. And that's just not the norm. But I don't want you to be too surprised if over time your mortgage payment increases, and it's not actually the principal and the interest, if that's fixed for you, but it's just the taxes and the insurance. And just so keep an eye on that. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, again, please look at the list in the description. If you have any questions, ask me in the comments, please like, and subscribe to my channel for new videos every week.