San Diego realtor Ryan Bellus, a marine veteran turned real estate guru, and he's got awesome tips for anyone buying a home for the first time. Learn about picking the perfect neighborhood, budgeting like a pro, and even why knowing your credit score is super important. Plus, find out how to turn your dream home wishes into realistic goals. Check it out, and let's get ready to buy that first home! 🏡💡
Hi, I'm Ryan Bellus. I'm with Whissel Realty Group and I've just retired 20
years with the Marine Corps. I am a Christian. I like to go to Light Church Encinitas. On the weekends you can
find my family and I grabbing a Prager sandwich after church, going to Pude's Park to skate with my son. It's mostly just him skating, but yeah, we're locals to North County and I just want to share some tips for you as you're getting into home buying for the first time. Many of us out there, it could be rather intimidating experience and I'm here for you to support you through those steps, through that journey. So one of the first things I have to share with you guys as you're out looking for your first home is getting to know your area. A lot of times we're relocating from one town over or from another state. As you're getting into the area, if you're just going from one town over to another, like say for example oceanside to vista, it might be a good idea for you to really get to know that area well enough that it's not just a gumption of what that traffic is going to look like on your commute in the morning.
So if you can get over to that general area where you're looking, maybe some of the neighborhoods that you are really looking to find your home in, and make that commute to your workplace. Go door to door from the neighborhood right at the same time that you would go. Get an understanding for what that neighborhood's going to feel like in your day-to-day routine once you get settled into your new home. One of the first tips that we have for first time home buyers in addition to the location, is defining your budget, looking at your expenses, and doing a deep dive. How much money do you have allocated for your rent currently? If you are a home buyer or currently own your own home, you know, comparing your current mortgage to your potential future mortgage to see have your expenses changed? Do you guys have a new car? Do you still have the same old car and is it paid off now? What are your real day-to-day,
month to month expenses looking like and how much do you have to allocate to that new home purchase? It's not just about what your lending conversation's going to look like and just your bottom line interest rate. It really comes down to what is your month to month budget going to look like? The next recommendation that I have is saving for a down payment. A down payment in North County San Diego can be quite a bit. If your home purchase is say a million dollars and 20% is what you're targeting to put down on that home, that's $200,000. So saving up for that down payment can be something that takes a while. You want to start now, start ahead of time, be prepared. There's also other
strategies that we can do as a first time home buyer to reduce that initial down payment. And those strategies we can discuss and go over further in detail. But the first thing that I would say is saving for that down payment is very important 'cause it's not only just a down payment, but you're going to see closing costs and other fees and obligations. Once you get into that home, there's going to be some other expenses that you would expect moving into your new home. You might need new furniture or other expenses. So saving up a good chunk early on is going to be very supportive in that investment. Another tip I have for first time home buyers is checking your credit score, being familiar with it. What is the last time that you looked at your credit score? Have you made any new purchases? Say you've purchased a car recently or you financed something else or opened up a new line of credit. That could be a credit card
and various number of things. So what does that look like? How does that affect your credit score? Anytime you're about to purchase a home, it's a good idea and a rule of thumb to not make any new major purchases prior to that ready to purchase that home. Especially once you are really getting ready to purchase the home or say you have an offer in on the table, it'll be reminded to you to not open up any new lines of credit. But as we're gathering and starting to work towards that objective, it's still a good idea to have that in your frame of mind. So that way you are not surprised by that recommendation. Once we go into escrow, you really want to be secure in your financial position and anything to affect that credit score negatively, you'd want to avoid. In addition to avoiding negatives on your credit score, it's also a great idea to make plans and take action on improving your credit score. So that way when you do go to the next step of a pre-approval, you're taking action and steps that can improve your score, whether that be paying down debt, extending your credit, and various other ways to improve your credit score. So now that we're through our planning process several months prior to purchasing a home or we've gone through those initial tips that I have for you, the next step would be to get a pre-approval. Before you start shopping for a home and start getting with your agent, me, and we start looking at homes, we want to make sure that we have a pre-approval letter in hand. The last thing we want to do is go get ready for a purchase such as a home and not know what we are able to afford. All right, we've done all our due diligence, we've worked on our credit score, we've saved that down payment. But until we have that pre-approval letter, we don't really know for sure if we can afford the home that we're taking a look at. So when we're going around to open houses, if it's listed at 500 and our budget is 400, we don't want to waste your time putting an offer in that is unrealistic that we can't make. Okay, so a pre-approval letter guarantees that the offer that we submit is backed up by a lender. Some additional advice I have when shopping for a home is knowing your must-haves. A lot of times we might come from a town home when we were living there with some roommates or as first time home buyers, we might be starting a new family. What are our must-haves? That might be two bedrooms, three bedrooms, might be one bathroom, two bathrooms, or three, one for each room. Some must haves could be outdoor living space. Do you host a lot of parties? Do you have gatherings? Do you have family nearby that you want to have over your home? Maybe grandma is going to come visit and stay and watch the kids sometimes and you need some extra space. How many kids do you have? Do you need extra living space? All these are factors to really consider and really understand what your lifestyle is like. In addition to that, if you have teenagers that might need that privacy, you might need to account for a bedroom per child. Or maybe you have a girl and a boy, both teenagers. That might be important to you to have a bathroom for each of your children. Whatever your needs are, it's always a good idea to be very clear about them and not get 'em mixed up with what your wants and goals are or your dream sheet. So having a clear line in the sand of your needs will help you meet those. Another tip I have is getting to know your neighborhood more. What are some of the amenities nearby? Do you have a need for maybe services like a hospital nearby? If your mother-in-law is going to be living with you, is she needing support either
medically or otherwise? Is there anything else that you might need to be nearby? Not just your commute to work, but also your commute to school. Some of the school districts in California don't have buses. So if you're relocating from the East coast, this might be news to you. So if you need to drop off your children at 7:00 AM or get ready for school, you know you need to look at that as well. How long is your commute to school? So in addition to saving up for your down payment, I spoke about closing costs. Closing costs are typically 1% of your home purchase price, give or take. The closing costs can be a surprise to you. Sometimes you're able to wrap that into your mortgage and you don't have to bring the closing costs to the table if you're a VA buyer, per se. But your closing costs are something that you want to be prepared for in advance because it's not a small sum. It can add up. Another trend I see is trying to find that dream home on your first home, and that can be very daunting. You might have a dream of a white picket fence and four bedrooms, an extra bath, an extra room for an office, and maybe, you know, coming out of college and starting that new family, that's just not realistic for many of us. So you want to be very clear on what your first home purchase looks like. Does it look like something that meets your needs or is it something that we
have a dream about living there for the next 40 years of our lives and waiting until we have grandchildren Our first home purchase might actually just be something that's nearby family, nearby the relatives, nearby college, or nearby your workplace. So maybe location is more important than having all of the dream sheet met. All of your wants are great to have, but being clear on what your needs are and knowing the difference between a want and a need. Planning for the future. For many first home buyers, you might start your search with the intention of only needing a two bedroom, one bath townhouse. That might be a great strategy for us. It might meet our mark as far as budget, but if we are, say, a few years into our marriage and a child might be on the horizon, or maybe we have one child and one might be on the way, making sure that you have enough space in your home for that next child or for that change in the family dynamic will help you feel at ease as your family grows. So those are some of my quick tips for us buying a home for our first time. If you have any questions, please comment below. Call me at the number here on your screen and I'd love to help you out. Let's buy that first home.
