A short video by Andrew Lamb (Lamb team, Remax Gold) offering basic, practical advice for first-time home buyers. He covers steps to prepare before house hunting—review outstanding debts and credit standing, save for a down payment (mentions FHA 3.5% and conventional/other programs as low as 3%, plus 3–5% grants), and plan for additional ongoing costs beyond the mortgage (PITI: principal, interest, taxes, insurance). The video also points viewers to website tools (Search All Homes, free home valuation) and invites contact for personalized strategy and education.
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Hi, this is Andrew Lam with the Lamb team at remax Gold and I wanted to thank you for joining us on our video blog again today. And today we're going to be talking about just a couple of questions I've been getting recently from first time home buyers about what to do when you first start looking for a home. What do you need? What are those questions you should ask yourself because starting the process. But before we get into that, I'd like to direct your attention to two spots on the blog. If you're looking for all the homes on the market, really a backstage pass to the mls, feel free to click the Search All Homes link right next to this video. And also if you're a seller, you can find a free home valuation link right below that Search All Homes link that will let you know what your home is worth in today's market and allow us to reach out if you have any questions about kind of what that time frame should look like, if you should sell now versus later. And we'd love to answer any questions that you have and get you a free no obligation home valuation. So back to the question at hand. What should a first time home buyer really be concerned about? Well, there's a few questions that you should ask yourself. Number one being do you have any outstanding debts, both short term, maybe meaning revolving credit cards and long term like a car payment? Number two would be are you paying those and are you in good standing with your creditors? So we want to make sure that, that you definitely have great credit or at least good credit. And also we just want to make sure that you have kind of all your ducks in a row in being able to show a lender that you're able to pay everything on time. Second would be do you have any money saved for a down payment? Now there are some great programs out there that can give you a 3 to 5% grant, money you never have to pay back, but also FHA loan programs that are only 3.5% down. And, and there are some conventional loan products out there with only 3% down. So there's a lot of options for you, but it's definitely something you want to consider. How much money do you have to put down on a home? Another thing would be do you have additional money on top of the mortgage to pay for any additional bills? Because there's garbage, sewer, utilities, water, things like that that are above and beyond your mortgage. A lot of times the quote you'll get is piti, meaning principal interest, which is just your loan and, and then taxes and insurance, meaning property taxes for the home, as well as hazard insurance and then homeowners insurance as well. So just a lot of things to consider, but we can definitely help you answer all of those questions. And we'd love to put together a smart home buying strategy for you so you can understand a little bit more about the process. We definitely do a lot of education on the front end to make sure you know exactly what you're walking into and you know, making sure that buying right now versus waiting and cleaning up a few things on your credit. We want to make sure the timeline works out so that you're getting the best deal at the best price and the best interest rate. So give us a call. And thank you again for joining us on our video blog. Have a great day.
