Submit Feedback
Member Login
Blogs Homepage
Featured Entries
Recent Entries
Recent Comments
Tags
My Starred Entries
Create A Blog
RSS FeedPurchasing your first home is like learning to rock climb |
Aug. 19, 2007
Categorized in: Tips for Buyers
Rock climbing and purchasing your first home; what do these two events have in common? Most people would probably respond immediately that rock climbing and buying your very first home have absolutely nothing in common. I probably would have responded that way too, if I had not assisted a young couple recently in the purchase of their very first home.
Rob and Jennifer (not their real names) called me a few months ago and asked if they could see a 2 bedroom town-home that we had listed. I asked them if they had met with a Lender yet to get “pre-qualified” for a mortgage loan. They didn’t understand why they had to do that; all they wanted to do was look at this little town-home that they were pretty sure they could afford. They said that they would go see a lender if they liked the home and wanted to make an offer to purchase it.
I met Rob and Jennifer at the town-home at 3:00PM on a Saturday in January. They were a very cute young couple who were both going to school full-time and had part time jobs. They told me that they had been married about 1 year, which was very obvious by the dreamy way they looked into each other’s eyes. They further explained that they had moved into a tiny studio apartment right after they returned to St George from their honeymoon in Mexico. They had been saving as much money as they could for the past year to use as a down payment on the purchase of their first home. They informed me, very excitedly, that they were ready to take the plunge and become home owners!
I knew, at this point, that I had to put on my “private eye hat” to learn what I could about Rob and Jennifer to determine if they could qualify for a loan, or if this meeting was just going to end up as an exercise in futility. One of the questions I asked Rob was whether he was involved in any kind of sport or activity. My reason for asking this question was that I wanted to show him the correlation between mastering a sport and purchasing a home. Rob told me that he and Jennifer
had just been introduced to rock climbing by a close friend of theirs, and they had just enrolled in a rock climbing class.
had just been introduced to rock climbing by a close friend of theirs, and they had just enrolled in a rock climbing class.I thought it might be a little bit of a stretch to compare rock climbing and buying a home, but I thought it would really help Rob and Jennifer see that both of these activities have a lot in common. If you have never purchased a home before, the thought of going through this unknown process can be very scary, yet, at the same time, very exhilarating. These same feelings are felt by the beginning climber when they are standing in front of the first rock wall that they are going to attempt to scale.
To become an expert rock climber and eventually conquer the slick face of a mountain requires a number of steps. First, you will need to seek the advice of, and get training from, expert rock climbers. You will want to learn from people who have years of experience and have climbed a number of mountains, not from someone who has just read a book about rock climbing and has never actually done any climbing. Then you will need to invest in, and learn to use, the right equipment; cutting corners here could mean disaster down the road. After you have had professional climbing lessons and have purchased the appropriate equipment, you will need to spend a lot of time practicing what you have learned in order to become an expert rock climber.
Similarly, to be prepared to make the largest purchase of your life, you need to find the right team of experts in the real estate industry. You will need a qualified mortgage lender who can explain all of the different mortgage loans that are available and recommend the best loan for your particular lifestyle. This expert will be able to determine how much home you can afford based on your credit scores and your monthly income. You will also need to choose a professional real estate agent who can help you find the perfect home that will fit both your needs, and your pocketbook. You will want to choose someone who is an expert in real estate, someone who has been in the business at least 2 years, and preferably someone who has made a full-time commitment to their real estate business. When you make the biggest purchase of your life, you want a team working for you who has your very best interests at heart. Your real estate team should be competent and skilled and should be able to guide you from the beginning to the end of the home buying process.
Just as you wouldn’t attempt to climb the face of a shear cliff with no guidance and without the right equipment, you shouldn’t attempt to make the largest purchase of your life without the right team, and without investing the time it takes to gather all of the information in order to make the right choice.
