- In this video, we talk to a realtor
about top first-time homebuyer mistakes
and what you can to mitigate them.
That's coming right up.
- [Narrator] Welcome to homebuyer's school brought to you
by Brookfield Residential.
- Hi, everyone, I'm Karl,
welcome to another homebuyer's school video,
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So today, I'm joined by local realtor legend,
Brad McCallum, with RE/MAX First.
And the question we're gonna answer is
what are some of the actual first-time homebuyer mistakes?
So Brad, in your opinion,
what're some of the top first-time homebuyer mistakes?
- So, I would say the first, the biggest mistake
that I see buyer's making, especially in our current market
where we find ourselves a bit more in a buyer's market
than a seller's market,
is they try to time the market.
And timing the market is just not something
that a person can do with any consistency.
If you could do that,
you should be celebrating on a yacht somewhere
because if you can time the market,
you're gonna do incredibly well.
But the reality is, to be successful in home ownership,
you don't have to time the market.
So make sure that you evaluate your own situation
and that when you buy that property, whichever one it is,
you make a good purchase at that time.
That's really the best that any of us can do.
- If you actually wanna know more about the discussion
we had about buying a home in 2020,
check out the video here and in description below.
So, that's number one, so timing the market.
What's the second?
- Yeah, I see a little mistake that buyers make
is they assume that every house is a good buy
in a buyer's market.
It's funny, right, because you think,
"Well, okay, everything must be on sale."
But that's not actually true.
And the reason why is
because the people that put their homes out for sale
are sellers, and sellers hate buyer's market,
sellers want to hold on to that time in the market
when their property may be worth a little bit more,
when there was less competition,
when it was more special in the market.
So, you really need to be able to determine
is that existing house, that one that I'm interested in,
a good deal or a bad deal based on market conditions,
and even if you do see a home that you fall in love with,
it's, you know, ticks all the boxes,
make an offer even if you feel that it's too high,
make an offer at where you value it
and you might be surprised.
That seller, if he's working with a good agent,
might get advice to sell his home
at the proper market value.
And you know, you could end up with the property
that you wanted.
- So, maybe a personal situation for me.
When we were looking at homes,
we found one and its price was reduced a couple of times,
we thought why don't we pick a price and see what happens.
And luckily, that seller actually agreed to set price
rather than they taking their initial offer.
- Sure.
- But when you see a home
that's been reduced a couple of times, do you say,
"Hey, you know what, that value
"That the seller's putting on it
"Maybe we can go quite a bit lower because,"
- Yeah, I think so.
There is real challenge I think from the seller's side
to come to the market with a real estate asking price,
because if you don't,
you are going to be faced with reducing that price,
and the longer that property is on the market,
the more that people assume
that there's either something wrong or else, right?
It's like, if I was a single guy now, people say,
"Oh, you know, he's an average looking guy,
"He seems like semi-professional."
But what's wrong with him? - Wrong, yeah.
- "Why hasn't he found anyone at this point?"
that's the challenge I think with the market,
is just people have, they develop perceptions of properties.
That being said, a property like that
when you see reductions in prices,
it could also be a sign that
that seller is motivated to sell.
And it might be an opportunity
for you to pick up a very good deal.
- But actually making sure
by doing a quick home inspection, too, right?
- Always, always, always. - Yeah, yeah.
So, we've got two,
we've got timing the market,
we've got assuming that all homes are priced equally?
- Yes.
- So, what's the third one?
- The third one is assuming
that every house is overpriced.
I know it sounds very much like point two,
but in this one, is people will call up,
or you'll see a place and you'll think,
"Oh, wow, that place is, they're asking X.
"So it must be X minus 5,000 dollars.
"That must be the real worth
"Because I'm a buyer and there's very few of us at this time
"My money is gonna go that much farther."
the reality is each property goes on to the market,
maybe in a buyer's market.
But that individual property,
it might be a seller's market for that property.
If it's well-priced, well-presented,
if it compares well against other properties in the market,
there's only one of them,
only one buyer's gonna get to buy that.
So often times, we see even in the market like this,
that homes will sell in the first week.
In fact, a really funny stats that I heard,
don't (mumbling) check me on this, but I think,
I feel pretty confident about this,
was last year, of the homes I did sell,
60% of them sold in the first few weeks.
- Wow.
- And that really means that it's the sellers
that came to the market with an accurate price
that were successful last year.
The other ones, often sat for five, six, seven months
while they try to hope that buyer would come
and spend more money than what the market was going to pay.
- So, I know we are talking
about first-time homebuyer mistakes.
But just a little sidetrack here.
If you were to sell a house,
and you notice your house wasn't selling,
how long until you, like made those drastic changes
such as a price drop?
- Well, it's definitely different on a case-by-case basis,
but regardless the way that you're gonna make that decision
is good communication with your realtor.
Every couple of weeks,
just have that quick, little powwow and say,
"Hey, how's the showings?
"How's the feedback?"
if there's no showings, then you might want to look at,
I think, sooner than later. - Yes.
- If there's a lot of showings,
then you might wanna hold on longer
and stick to your price.
- Got it, got it.
So, Brad, we've gone to three of those mistakes.
What's your fourth mistake?
- So, fourth mistake is buyers just not being ready to buy.
So, you go out shopping, you go check out some open houses,
you go to some show homes,
you find that perfect place on a perfect block
and you wanna write an offer
because it's such a great deal,
and then, all of a sudden, you're not pre-approved yet,
you have all the (mumbling) work to do to get ready for it
and by the time you're ready to put in that offer,
the home's gone.
So the biggest mistake is just not being prepared
when you go out shopping.
- And if you want to know more
of actually how to be prepared when buying your first home,
check out this video, here in description below.
So, I know you have four,
- Yeah. - right?
But actually, what we're gonna do
is Brad's actually gonna make a video on his top five
and that's what you're gonna get the last,
the number one mistake.
- The number one mistake
and it's surprises every one. - Yes.
- But you need to check out that video,
I think you'll like it.
- And I'll leave that video up here
and in description below
so you've got definitely check that out.
So in general, just in terms of mistakes,
do you have anything else to add?
- Yeah, I would say the biggest thing to do
is to really just once again,
to trust people that you're getting some advice from
because they're going to help guide you through this path.
Of all the different decisions and emotions
that go along with making your first-time home purchase,
it feels very daunting,
like there's so much that you don't know,
that you could never make a good decision,
but the reality is there's all these people in place
that can help you, and when you take that,
and you measure against your own sort of logic,
your own life experience,
you're gonna make the best decisions for yourself.
- Perfect.
So the question of the day I have for you is
did you make a mistake when buying your first home?
And what was it?
That is on the comment section below.
So if you want to know more
about first-time homebuyer mistakes,
check out Brad's video here,
as well as our previous video here.
Don't forget to subscribe
and I'll see you in our next video.
(upbeat music)