First-Time Home Buyer or Next-Time Home Owner
Before buying your home, you probably might want to ask a lot of questions. There is a lot to consider.
There’s something special about having your own home, but nothing more exciting than your first.
Today, as a first-time home buyer or next-time home owner, you will more than likely purchase a home priced in the $350,000 range. You now have a permanent place to sleep at night and decorate however you want.
Good Things to Be Aware
For 95% of Americans, their home is their largest lifetime investment. A home is an investment and should always be treated as such.
The average American sells their home and moves every 5-years. The cost of buying and selling a home each time increases the investment.
With every additional closing, the investment rollover adds a larger amount into the balance owed on the next home with mortgage financing. Only if your move was profitable in the sell or purchase in the next buy does the home equity increase.
The purchase price of a home is not as important as its location and potential future appreciation in value. The reason to look at a home from this point of view is the higher the appreciation of the home and greater increase in value gives the home-owner more equity cash value and long-term financial security.
You are better off owning the smallest home in the neighborhood and lowest purchased priced-home in a luxury-home subdivision than owning the largest and most expensive home in an alternative lesser subdivision.
You now hold a Warranty Deed of Trust held in Tenancy by the Entirety with Right of Survivorship. This allows either survivor to remain in the home and inherit title to the home undisputed in a legal challenge with the courts and family.
To be expected, you’ve paid 1%-8% realtor commission, closing fees and costs for legal title and keys to the home. All closing costs add to your purchase price every time you buy and sell a home.
Few home-owners stay in the same home and pay off their 30-year mortgage. It is even rarer for a homeowner to live in the same home for their entire lifetime.
A home is the greatest asset for 95% of Americans, their greatest savings, and most secure accumulation of wealth. In many states, your home is protected by law from being taken by bankruptcy, foreclosure for debt, and in some instances the property tax while still residing in the home.
Owning a home outright debt-free with a clear title, holding cash quietly in the bank, and having no debt and obligations, your family will be happy and you can live the simple life stress-free. This is the American Way and the American Dream.
If you don’t qualify for a mortgage to purchase a home by bank standards, start small by buying an affordable condo or duplex for rental of the other side for cash flow. Later on, you have two options.
Keep the condo or duplex for monthly rental income. Or sell it and roll the equity into your next-time desired home.
By following this instruction, the simpler the first-time home buyer or next-time home owner keep things will help to control all costs and the faster your wealth accumulates. It’s the best way to easy street.
Bad Things to Be Aware
The close is over and now you hold the keys to your home, so what could go wrong …?
First off, a too high mortgage could bankrupt you along the way in life during periods of no job, no income, and no savings. We’ve all been fired or laid-off at some point, let go, or our place of employment closes.
It happens. It could happen to you for you aren’t immune, plan ahead.
The average person experiences 5 different jobs during their lifetime. These transitions usually happen at the worst time in life.
That’s why it is important to save cash in a bank account. It’s not important if the money earns interest or if it doesn’t.
People may tell you that you are losing money if you don’t invest. Forget it and don’t give anyone else your cash.
The more cash you hold in a savings account, uncommitted, the better you sleep at night. The higher your subconscious quiet confidence shows and the healthier you enjoy life.
Cash can always be spent without restriction. Investments can’t.
The best time to start to save is with any amount, a little or a lot, from the first paycheck. Save cash and leave it alone.
There are instances when a new home is not as well built as an older home. Whether the home was constructed by a mass home-builder or custom home-builder, they are not necessarily of the same high standards and quality of older homes.
Flawed construction from drinking on the job sub-contractors can result in mistakes in the structure or foundation of the home. After a soaking rain and the wall studs are still wet, sheet-rocking the home may result in hidden mold or worse settling of the structure over time.
This could result for the first-time and next-time new home owner a substantial decrease in home appraisal value. In some cases, this might result in expensive medical treatment and dangerous life-threatening medical conditions for the family.
If it were possible to see below the lawn surface, there may exist from the building site period scattered nails, metal, lumber and trash, plastic and glass bottles, aluminum cans, styrofoam and plastic cups from take-out containers, scrap material, and no telling what else. It may even smell like a toilette in some corners.
In this case, a health or financial loss could be substantial. Your medical bills could bankrupt you if you don’t have medical insurance, maybe you can’t afford the major repair costs and your home value drops below your mortgage balance leaving you in catch-22 with no way out financially if you had to sell the home.
This used to never happen. Now, it seems to have become more of a common occurrence which homebuilders deny is a problem; but it is.
For the builder, this type of unethical behavior promotes quick inventory turnover and fast profit all the while passing on to the new unsuspecting home-owner all the flaws and liabilities. It’s criminal in nature and may become an expensive legal matter for the courts.
The yards of these types of homes can become literally trash dumps when construction workers are not continuously under supervision. It all can get buried by a thin layer of dirt in the yard and become toxic over time; a real coverup.
This is cheating first-time and next-time families making them and their children sick or injured. They never got to inspect or have any idea of the quality or shabby construction during the construction process.
Then in most situations there is the HOA Home Ownership Association. HOAs can be a good thing if maintaining the entry and protecting property values at a low fee.
For the home-owner, HOAs can be a harsh dictatorship. The HOA Board could arbitrarily impose a charge of unreasonably high assessments the home owner can’t afford to pay resulting in eviction from the home under state law.
HOAs have state statutory legal authority to pass total control by-laws. The HOA Board may approve what you can and cannot do outside the home.
It is within the legal purview of the HOA Board to denying all requests to change anything outside the home. This has happened in extreme circumstances in Florida and Texas.
A home owner can be evicted and lose their home under state law by not paying the HOA fee on time. Penalties, interest, court fees and eviction can result if you do not pay the property tax and homeowner insurance if holding a mortgage.
It’s easy for the first-time home buyer or next-time home owner not to calculate all expenses in addition to the monthly mortgage payment, the HOA monthly fee, homeowner insurance premium, and monthly maintenance cost. It is fatal to look at a mortgage by itself and not plan on an average percentage of the cost to paying all contractual obligations while keeping up the value of the home.
For Americans, our home is truly our castle and refuge from the world. Make it your paradise.
Copyright © 2025 Prof. Dr. Dr. Dr. Tom Grooms
The Father of Market Intelligence … The Master of the Family Business …
Astrospace and Geopolitical Strategist and Forecaster …
World Classic Author of Distinguished Literature
TomGrooms.com: This article is the sole opinion of the author and nonadvisory and nonpolitical. The written content is based on research and contains opinions and ideas of the author. The author is not engaged in rendering advice. Quotation of passages for purposes of academic research, academic papers, criticism, education, review, and teaching are permitted with proper acknowledgment of the author. All rights reserved.
Source …
Mortgage Monsters Blog Article
My Little Business (Grooms 2023)
Keeping It In The Family (Grooms 2024)