Are you looking to buy your first home in San Diego? Watch this video first!
San Diego realtor Kyle Whissel gives you his top 3 mistakes he sees first time home buyers make and what they can do to avoid them.
3 Mistakes to Avoid as a First Time Home Buyer in San Diego, CA
If you're looking to buy your first home here in San Diego, I've got three mistakes to help you avoid. Hi there, it's Kyle Whissel with the Whissel Realty Group in San Diego. And in today's video, I want to share my top three tips with you to help you buy your first home here in San Diego.
And these tips are really the things to help you avoid the mistakes that I see a lot of people make when they're buying their first home.
Meet with a Lender
Number one on the list, is going out and looking at homes first before you have an opportunity to connect with a lender. And the reason it's really important to do that, is you want to make sure you're looking at homes that are going to fit your budget. I have clients sometimes reach out to me and say, "Hey Kyle, I'm looking for a home around $500,000." "Fantastic.
Have you had an opportunity to connect with a lender yet?" "No." They connect with a lender and lo and behold, they thought a $500,000 home was going to be $5,000 a month. That's actually not the case. $5,000 home's going to be closer to $3,000 a month. So, the last thing I want you to do is sell yourself short. That's why I really want you to connect with a lender first, so they could figure out what your budget is and then based on your budget, help you determine what the ideal price point to target is.
'Cause you don't want to shortchange yourself and look at homes that are smaller than what fits your budget. And same thing on the other side, you don't want to look at homes that are outside of your budget because when you do that, what ends up happening, is you look at these homes that are more than you can afford. If you ever watch Property Brothers on HDTV, they do this to people all the time. They show them something way out of their budget.
And now the problem is, once you see something beautiful but it's out of your budget, you compare all the homes in your budget to the one that's out of your budget, and it's just screws your head up. So make sure you connect with a lender first. Figure out what is the ideal price point to target based on your budget. We have some amazing lenders that we work with here at Whissel Realty group and a lot of those lenders can actually help pay for some of your closing costs for you, including the appraisal, which costs you hundreds of dollars.
So definitely reach out to us. If you're interested, we can set up one of those with one of our lenders, who can help you explore those options and figure out the price point for your budget.
Work With an Experienced Agent
Number two mistake to avoid, is working with an inexperienced agent. In a hot market, which we've been in for like a decade in San Diego, it's very competitive. You want to make sure you have an agent who knows how to put you in the pull position when writing an offer on a home. Once they find you that right home, you've got to not only find the home, which is half of the battle, but then the other half of the battle is actually getting your offer accepted on that home.
And if you're working with an inexperienced agent, they don't know a lot of the little tips and tricks to get offers accepted in a competitive market. Whereas an experienced agent is going to know those tips and tricks to help get your offer accepted. In addition, the more experienced agent is going to help you not only get your offer accepted, but get it at the best price possible. Because when you're buying a home, there's a negotiation that happens. It's not always the prettiest and most fun part of the process, but it's part of the process.
You want to have an experienced negotiator on your side, because negotiating, to me, is a lot like boxing. I could go and I could hit the speed bag, I could hit the heavy bag, that doesn't mean I actually know how to box. I don't know how to box till I get in the ring and somebody is actually punching back at me, then I learn how good of a boxer I am. Negotiating is the same thing. You could read books about negotiating.
You could watch videos about negotiating. But until you actually get into active negotiations, you really have no idea what you're doing, because when there's somebody on the other end negotiating back, now you're going to learn how good of a negotiator you are. Our team here at Whissel Realty Group has negotiated thousands of transactions over our 20 year history here in San Diego. We would love to put that negotiation experience to work for you.
Find a Home Not a Deal
Number three mistake to avoid, don't get overly fixated on finding the best deal. This is a home that you and your family are going to live in. This is not purely an investment. Yes, it is an investment. It's not purely an investment. You actually got to live in this investment. So the last thing I want you to do is buy a home just because it's a good deal, but it's in a horrible neighborhood, where you're literally scared to walk out your door every night. You don't have anything that fits your lifestyle.
Maybe you want a very active lifestyle and you love to go to the park and you have a dog and you love to throw the Frisbee with your dog and there's no dog park anywhere near you. Well, maybe that's not the right neighborhood for you. Maybe you're a foodie. You want to be somewhere in an area where there's a lot of restaurants close by that you could walk to or scooter to or something like that. Well, maybe you don't want to be deep into East County where there's not a lot of that going on.
Maybe you want to be in downtown or maybe you want to be in PB or North Park where there's a lot of action happening, a lot of good restaurants for you to try out. So when you're looking for a home, don't get overly fixated on finding a deal, get overly fixated on finding the right home for you and for your family to live in. And if you can get a good deal on it in the process, by having an experienced agent on your behalf, who helped you work with a great lender to nail down the ideal price point for you to target, now you're winning. Now you got that trifecta.
Get into the right home at the right price that fits your budget.
So if you're looking for your first home, we would be honored for the opportunity to help make it happen for you. Just reach out to us at the number below. You can call or text us on that number any time, we'd be honored for that opportunity to help you out. Again, I'm Kyle Whissel with Whissel Realty Group. Thanks so much for watching
