Over the 20-plus years I’ve been helping people buy homes and providing a seamless mortgage experience, I’ve seen the good, the bad and the ugly. But I’ve also bought and sold a few homes of my own and each one has taught me important lessons.
My Biggest Mistake You know how hindsight is 20/20? Well, a few homes ago, we were moving several states away and there were next to no homes available in our budget. Time was running out. I was losing patience and I settled for something just to be done.
I know buying a home is give and take. But I was so focused on just being DONE with the process I bought I home I didn’t really want. We ended up selling that home just two years later and it remains my least favorite home I’ve owned.
It is important to be clear what’s important to yourself and try to stay patient when it comes to finding what’s best for you and your family.
My Biggest Regret We built our current home with a builder who owned a piece of land in the area we wanted to be. He seemed fine and checked out on paper. But even early on he was underwhelming, and something seemed not quite right. We kept giving him the benefit of the doubt because we wanted the house to be done so badly. Then we realized things were really off and he wasn’t paying the people who had done work on our house.
We ended up firing that builder and hired another to finish the home, but not before the unpaid companies sued the builder and us.
We eventually got the liens lifted and we do love our home … now.
But for a long time, there was a lot of headache and heartache about it all.
My biggest regret was not speaking up earlier and standing my ground sooner to get to the bottom of things.
My Biggest Secret Let me share a secret that might surprise you. You should know I’ve bought and sold real estate multiple times and over 20 years I’ve helped thousands of people with their mortgages.
Even with all my experience, I’m a little freaked out every time I buy or sell real estate. It can be intimidating.
But this is the biggest thing that’s helped me win at the real estate game. I’ve learned to make my decisions based on calculated risk. I try to take emotion out of it. I think of all the what-ifs and figure out how I can mitigate the scariest ones and then I got for it.
So just know that even for seasoned homebuying veterans, we might secretly be a little freaked out when it’s our turn to make a move, so it’s totally normal to be scared.
I hope this helps some of you in your journey and follow to learn what you need to know about buying a home.