Are you a first-time homebuyer and looking to avoid the common mistakes other first-time homebuyers are making? San Diego realtor Cody Stamm covers the three common mistakes he sees first-time homebuyers make. Equipping you with the knowledge you need to make a great offer in this competitive market.

Avoid These First Time Home Buyer Mistakes

Are you looking to buy your first home in San Diego? Well, I've got the three most common mistakes that first-time homebuyers make. I'm Cody Stamm with Whissel Realty Group, and I'm going to give you the three most common mistakes to avoid when purchasing your first home. Number one, the most common mistake is, first-time home buyers, just start looking.

They're so excited to get into their first home. They're roaming Zillow, Redfin, all these other websites, just trying to find that perfect home, and then typically they'll reach out to a realtor like such as myself and they say, "Hey Cody, I'm ready. I'm ready right now, let's go." Great. Do you know what my first question to them is? "Have you been pre-approved?" In a market like this when presenting offers, you need to be pre-approved because unfortunately, if you're not pre-approved with a lender, most sellers are not going to take your offers seriously, and they're typically not even going to respond to you.

So, you need to know how much you're spending. You need to know what your actual budget is, because sometimes what I've seen is that buyers are shooting too low. They can actually afford way more than they even think. Or in the other chance, they are going way too high. They actually can't afford it there. And they get discouraged when they find out that they're really only allowed to buy at a lower price. Number two, looking for a bargain. Most first-time homebuyers are looking to buy something at the lowest price possible, which is, of course, you don't want to overpay.

You don't want to feel like you overpaid. But in my experience, I see when people do this, they pass up on the home that is actually one of their dreams. It could have the best location, the right amount of rooms. It's got the backyard for the dog and the kids to play, but it's at the top of the price range, And most time buyers are like, "Ah, you know, I just want to find one for lower." But you know what, unfortunately, sometimes what happens is you just don't find that one again, and you end up kicking yourself in the butt, wishing that you went with a home that met all of your needs and really was the right home for you.

And although it was a little bit of a price above what you wanted to pay, it realistically was a home that you're going to be living in and loving for the next, you know, 10, 20 years potentially. Mistake number three, not presenting a strong enough offer. I can't express how important this is. In a market like today, we're seeing listings have multiple offers, sometimes up to five, even up to 10 offers.

So it's really important that you come in strong off the bat. That way you can beat out these other offers. One way of doing that is being an all-cash buyer. With one of our unique mortgage lenders, they've got the opportunity to make you into a cash offer. And if you'd like to learn more about that, feel free to contact me at the number below. I'm Cody Stamm with Whissel Realty. Thanks for watching.

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