First time home buyers have a lot to learn as they go through the experience of purchasing their first home. If you are a first time buyer, finding the right realtor – one who specializes in helping first time home buyers – will make all the difference in the world. The right realtor will help you find the right home, and help you negotiate the right price.
If you are an inexperienced real estate investor, make sure to get some experience on your side. Your newly licensed cousin may be willing to work hard for you, and need the business, but you require someone who is knowledgeable about real estate to help you with your first home purchase. You need someone who will point out and explain all the various aspects of finding and buying a house because there will undoubtedly be considerations that don’t occur to you and processes with which you are unfamiliar.
As a first time buyer you likely have a ton of questions, and the first one might be; do I need a buyer’s agent to buy a house? The short answer is – yes, if you are smart!
Experienced real estate investors might not use a buyers agent (although many of them do because they can do a lot of the legwork, saving time and money) once they have gone through the process several times. First time buyers could miss a critical step along the way, leading to problems with financing, timing, legal issues, or even problems with the property chosen! Don’t let this happen to you – get some experienced help.
Before you get serious about looking for your first home, you should prequalify for a mortgage. Your realtor can advise you about this and even recommend a mortgage broker.
Considerations when house-hunting that your realtor can help you with include:
What will affect the resale value of homes that I’m interested in?
What should I look for when touring homes for sale?
How do I decide between houses I like?
How do I manage when I’m relocating from another city?
An experienced agent specializing in helping first time home buyers can also explain the real estate terms with which you may not be familiar. You’ll need to understand terms like:
Subject to;
Property disclosure;
Amortization;
Closing costs, and
Conditional offer, among many others.
Then there are those indecipherable abbreviations and acronyms that you will encounter when you are searching through real estate listings. Some of them are pretty obvious, like:
3 bdr – three bedrooms;
Bsmt – basement, or
Sqft – square feet, but what the heck is
Cvac;
Egdo, or
DOM?
Your realtor can explain all these and more.
If you are a first time home buyer don’t go it alone. You risk making a mistake with what is likely the biggest investment of your life! An experienced realtor, even better, one who specializes in helping first time buyers can help you with the entire process, making sure that nothing critical is forgotten and that your first home buying experience is a positive one.
Geoff McLean is a realtor in Victoria BC who approaches his real estate vocation with honesty, integrity and straightforwardness.
Geoff is also the primary author of a blog about his home city. Living in Victoria is a valuable source of information about the Greater Victoria area for those who are interested in moving to this beautiful city.
