First-time Home Buyer Checklist

Buying a home is a massive accomplishment and a lifelong goal for many. As exciting as it is, the process can also feel daunting if it’s your first time.

This is where my first time home buyer checklist comes in, to hopefully help make the process as straightforward as possible. If you tick all the boxes on this list, buying your first home will be a much smoother process!

👉Set your budget
This is the first factor you’ll want to consider because it will affect the rest of the home buying process. You’ll generally want to aim to save 20% of the total purchase price to use as a down payment. To get a good estimate of your total budget, consider your savings, income, job security, credit score, and preferred lender. There are home loan calculators online that make it easy to plug all of this info into to help you identify a target price range for your first home.

👉Get pre-approved for a mortgage
Getting pre-approved for a mortgage essentially means you are guaranteed to be immediately granted a loan when you apply. Before getting pre-approved, you’ll need to get pre-qualified, which involves getting an estimate from a lender of what you might be able to borrow based on the information you provide about your finances. This is a great opportunity to learn about the different mortgage options available to you.

👉Research the market
It's important to understand the current trends of the real estate market before you decide when to buy your first home. Working alongside a professional realtor helps make this part of the process much simpler since they’ll have all of this information available for you, plus they’ll know what factors to consider based on your budget and housing/neighborhood preferences.

👉Work with a real estate professional

Your realtor will be able to simplify and guide you through the entire journey of buying your first home, as well as help with a variety of important details that you may not have otherwise known. They understand the current market, know what to look for during a showing, can help you understand what to expect during the purchasing process, among other important details.

👉 Begin house hunting
When you begin house hunting, you’ll want to have a checklist in mind with all the exact features you want in a home, neighborhood, etc. One of the perks of working with a real estate agent is that you’ll have access to a multiple listing service (MLS), which is a private database of available homes for sale with up-to-date status information and accuracy. Only licensed real estate agents have access to an MLS, so when you go house hunting with a real estate agent, you’ll get to see all the latest listings that comply with your budget and preferred features checklist.