First Time Buying A House

I've been helping a lot of first time home buyers, and have seen some common struggles. Buying your first home involves searching and putting in an offer when you've found a home you love. Just making an offer can be more difficult than most anticipate.

Searching

Looking for a good home can be either easy or difficult, depending upon the inventory and type of home. Typically, as of this day finding a great first home can take between one to two months of active weekly searching in the Bay Area. Finding something nice is not so much the problem as affordability and competition.

Making an Offer

This is the most difficult aspect for the first time home buyer, and for a good reason. This is one of the largest decisions someone can make in their life, and one involving a lot of money. Some will find a home that is perfect, but back out of making an offer, or make an offer that is too low and not get accepted. Typically, most first time home buyers in the Bay Area get two or three offers turned down before one gets accepted. This is a learning process and usually with more experience making offers people become more comfortable with making competitive offers. Houses for sale rarely get only a few offers, so it's important to keep in mind that others may be offering a higher purchase price and better terms. Having a great real estate agent for this process is important because they can advise you and work to negotiate on your behalf.

Getting a Loan

Obtaining a loan for your new home should definitely be on your mind before looking for homes, but sometimes it gets pushed aside as an afterthought. It's best to get a pre-approval letter which tells how much of a loan you can get to help you search with the right criteria and get your offer accepted (most sellers won't accept an offer without a pre-approval letter). For more on this, read my post "POWER to The Home Buyer."

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