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Buying your first home feels like a hundred decisions at once. It isn’t. It’s a handful of steps in a fairly predictable order, and knowing that order takes most of the stress out of it.
1. Know your number before you fall in love
Start with a mortgage pre-approval, not a viewing. A lender looks at your income, debts and down payment and tells you what they’re comfortable lending. That number shapes everything after it, so get it first. Our mortgage calculator is a good gut check before you talk to a lender, and we’re happy to connect you with one we trust.
Remember the costs beyond the down payment, too: legal fees, a home inspection, moving, and a cushion for the things that come up in the first few months.
2. Write down what matters (and what doesn’t)
Before you tour anything, sit down and sort your list into must-haves and nice-to-haves. Commute, schools, yard, garage, number of bedrooms. It sounds simple, but it’s the thing that keeps you from talking yourself into the wrong house on a busy weekend.
3. Tour with a plan
We’ll set up a search around your list and your budget, then book showings in batches so you can compare homes side by side. Take photos and notes. By the third house, they all start to blur together.
4. Make an offer, with conditions
When you find the one, we write an offer. Most first-time buyers include conditions, usually for financing and a home inspection, which give you a set window to confirm the mortgage and check the home before you’re fully committed. Price is only one part of a strong offer; the deposit, dates and conditions all matter.
5. Remove conditions and go firm
Once your lender signs off and the inspection comes back clean (or any issues are sorted), you remove conditions. At that point the deal is firm.
6. Lawyer, keys, possession
Your lawyer handles the paperwork and the transfer of funds. On possession day, you get the keys. That’s the part everyone pictures from the start, and it really is the best day of the whole process.
If you’d rather walk through this in person first, our free HQ Academy sessions cover buying your first home step by step. Bring your questions.