5 Questions to Ask Before You Buy a House

Know your why. Yeah. These are unique times for buying a house. And I want people to know we like home ownership, but I don't want you to feel like you have to have home ownership to build your great big, beautiful tomorrow. Yeah. I think so many people tell you, you have to be a homeowner, have to be a homeowner, have to be a homeowner. It's just not true. It is indeed possible to build financial security, to build to financial independence, even if you're just a renter. I mean, we even see a lot of our clients who opt to not be homeowners as they enter into retirement, as they enter into financial independence, because it gives flexibility. So don't let someone else tell you, you have to buy a home in order to be able to move forward in your financial journey. I think if you, if you want to know, cause this is, it fits in perfectly with know your why this has to go beyond just the finances. This is like your life is going to benefit from actually home ownership. And what I mean by this is if you want to set up roots in a community in a certain way, now look, I've actually had a lot of people who've written comments to the show say, Hey, you can rent and actually be in a community and set roots as well, but we just make sure that it's those elements beyond finances that make it into your decision matrix. And when you're thinking about the why, it doesn't need to just be the why for today, when it comes to buying a home, this should be a long-term decision. So when you make the decision to make this huge purchase, you ought to have the idea or the mindset. I'm going to be here for at least five to seven years so that I can make this giant financial decision make sense. If it's something where you have a shorter timeframe than that, home ownership might not be for you. So let's jump into tip number two. Let's say you have decided you've gone through and you say, yes, this is what I need in my life is to buy a home. We got to start building that team early. That's right. And you want to think about, okay, if I have a good team in place, again, you have to wrap your head around the idea for most people buying a home is the single most expensive thing that you will ever do. It's the, the largest thing you'll ever spend money on. So you want to make sure you have experts in your corner, helping you navigate that well. So when we talk about building a good team, here's some of the professionals we're talking about. A real estate agent, maybe a mortgage lender, a good inspector. You need to know what title company you're going to use. And then obviously you're going to need to be able to ensure this assets. You're going to need an insurance agent as well. Now, look, I just added this up. We've got real estate agent, mortgage lender, inspector, title company, insurance agent. This is like a basketball, basketball thing. We have, we have stacked it in. So let's go ahead and make something that seems complicated as easy as possible. Let's start with them. I'm going to mix up all the analogies cause we just did basketball team, but I'm going to say, well, we need as a quarterback, we need somebody that's going to wrangle this all together. And that starts with a really good real estate agent. That's exactly right. You need a great quarterback on your basketball team. You heard it here first on the money guy shows. Let's talk about how you find that person. How do you find a really good real estate agent? Well, first let's talk about what you should not do. Don't just use a friend. Now don't mishear us. If you have a friend that's a real estate agent, we're not saying don't use them necessarily, but you want to make sure that the person you're using is actually going to work in your best interest. Again, this is a huge purchase, a huge decision. You want to make sure that you do it right. And so you don't want to just use a friend simply because there's a relationship connection there. And you might not just want to use someone that some random website like Zillow recommends that you use. Yeah. So let's jump into how you actually do this. Cause I've done it both ways, by the way, I've had some real estate agents that you're like, Oh man, this, this seemed like almost a part-time gig and they're just collecting a commission check. And then I've had other agents that. Holy cow. I still am using some of these agents that I think are just world-class and that's why we wanted to put together a list so you can make sure you end up on the world-class side of this. And the first thing is go get a referral. Talk to people. If you have somebody in your sphere of influence that you know is buying and selling real estate, go ask them, who do you work with that you're really impressed with on the real estate agent side? And another thing you can do is look at reviews. And if you can't find anyone that has like positive experiences, uh, they might just be starting out. And again, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but if there's no review of the person that you're working with and you have no feedback about why you should select this person, you might just want to think through the decision before committing to go forward with them. And then see what they've actually sold recently. Here's a stat that kind of blew my mind, but it makes sense when you think about 70% of real estate agents sold five or fewer homes in 2025. That's wild. So that means that there's a lot of people who are more of, hobby's not the right word, but it definitely does not look like they're not doing a lot of transactions. So this is something you need to find out. And by the way, it's not wrong to ask. Tell me how many transactions you're doing in a year so you can use that as part of your assessment process. So then as you think through this, here are some things we want you to look for when it comes to selecting a really good agent. The very first thing is they're not a salesman. You don't want someone who cares more about the clothes, who cares more about the transaction than they do the person who's actually involved in the transaction. You want someone who's actually going to be an advocate for you through the process. Yeah. I mean, I think about some of my good real estate agents. They've helped me with the contracts. They've helped me with inspections. They've helped me, you know, fill in when I'm trying to figure out things. And, and, and they are, they really are the most versatile player when you're figuring out who your folks are. And they even will help you. What I think is a good real estate agent, they'll even try to help you find reasons not to buy the property. Yes, they have a conflict of interest potentially because they get paid by the transaction, but a really good agent is going to be your advocate, not get caught up in that conflict. And that's why pay attention to, are they telling you that where the warts are on this property that you're looking at as well? Yeah. You want a real estate agent that can communicate very easily with you, but it's also willing to answer your questions. If you want to know a little money guy insider tip on how to kind of suss this out, ask your real estate agent questions like this. Hey, what do you most dislike about this property? Or, Hey, I want you to give me one reason why I should not buy this property. And if they give you some very softball answer, like, Oh, the driveway's long when there might be other underlying issues, like, Oh man, the roof looks worn or there's mold in the basement or something like that, they may not be looking out for your best interest. So make sure you ask good questions and make sure when you ask those good questions, the agent is able to give you really good answers. I think this is, this is going to be a big shortcut. Once you figure out that you've got a good real estate agent, remember how we had a list of five people you had to have in your corner, helping you out. A good real estate agent is going to, and I'm going to use an old school term Rolodex, or they're going to have the numbers for a lot of those other players that you need to have in your corner. So lean into that, ask you, and you can use that as part of the interview process. Hey, are you going to be able to help me find a good mortgage broker? You're going to be able to help me find a good title company. These things are important and it's all part of your due diligence process. Now, when you think about mortgage brokers specifically, this can be a great resource to help you shop around for the best deals. They can help you find potentially significantly discounted rates compared to what your initial quote might be. So a broker is going to shop a number of different lenders for you. So it's not a bad person to have in your corner. Again, if you don't know a broker, you don't have a relationship. If you have a really good real estate agent, a really good quarterback on your team, they will likely be able to help you find the broker that can work in your best interest. And I've already kind of given the point about having a good real estate agent. I would also tell you, don't procrastinate. That's right. You do not need to just sit on your hands. Don't wait until the last minute. You're going to find out real estate is an illiquid transaction. And so time is one of those things where you're going to need to have extras because we're going to show you need to get some things in order, get your ducks in a row, but you also need to have time to find the right property because it's not an easy overnight process. So you need to be prepared and do a lot of work on the front end. And a great thing is if you can start the conversation with a real estate agent early enough, it's also going to allow you to figure out how you work with this person. So perhaps you start with an agent and you determine they're not the right person. If you figure that out early enough in the process, you can then make an adjustment that's a better fit for you.