Our Top 10 Home Buying Tips for 2025

Buying a home is not easy in 2025. We share practical tips to keep you grounded throughout the process. From building a dynamite team to guide you through the process to finding the right home for your future, we'll talk through everything you need to know for this massive financial decision. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Jump start your journey with our FREE financial resources⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Reach your goals faster with our products⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Take the relationship to the next level: become a client⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe on YouTube for early access and go beyond the podcast⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Connect with us on social media for more content⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Bring confidence to your wealth building with simplified strategies from The Money Guy. Learn how to apply financial tactics that go beyond common sense and help you reach your money goals faster. Make your assets do the heavy lifting so you can quit worrying and start living a more fulfilled life. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠NordVPN.com/MONEYGUY⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration blog, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

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• 0:56Brian Preston?

  It's no secret buying a home can get complicated, but we want to make it just a little simpler today.

• 1:02Speaker 03

  Brent, I am so excited about this because we know that buying a home can be one of the most rewarding milestones on your financial journey. But we also know it can be one of the most complex.

• 1:14Brian Preston?

  So today, we're going to share some of those Money Guy insider tips to help you measure twice, cut once, and buy a home that works for you and your finances. With that, let's jump right in.

• 1:31Speaker 03

  So we're going to jump into these 10 tips, Brent. And the first one is so important. And I think even in today's world, it gets missed often. And it is know your why.

• 1:42Brian Preston?

  Yeah, these are unique times for buying a house. And I want people to know, we like homeownership. But I don't want you to feel like you have to have homeownership to build your great big beautiful tomorrow.

• 1:53Speaker 03

  Yeah, I think so many people tell you, you have to be a homeowner, have to be a homeowner, have to be a homeowner. It's just not true. It is indeed possible to build financial security, to build to financial independence, even if you're just a renter. I mean, we even see a lot of our clients who opt to not be homeowners as they Enter into retirement as they enter into financial independence because it gives flexibility. So don't let someone else tell you you have to buy a home in order to be able to move forward in your financial journey.

• 2:20Brian Preston?

  I think if you, if you want to know, because this is, it fits in perfectly with know your why. This has to go beyond just the finances.

• 2:26Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 2:27Brian Preston?

  This is like, your life is going to benefit from actually homeownership. And what I mean by this is if you want to set up roots in a, in a community in a certain way. Now, look, I've actually had a lot of people who've written comments that say, hey, you can rent and actually be in a community and set roots as well, but we just make sure that it's those elements beyond finances that make it into your decision matrix.

• 2:49Speaker 03

  And when you're thinking about the why, it doesn't need to just be the why for today. When it comes to buying a home, this should be a long-term decision. So when you make the decision to make this huge purchase, you ought to have the idea or the mindset. I'm going to be here for at least five to seven years so that I can make this giant financial decision make sense. If it's something where you have a shorter timeframe than that, homeownership might not be for you.

• 3:13Brian Preston?

  So let's jump into tip number two. Let's say you have decided, you've gone through and you say, yes, this is what I need in my life is to buy a home. We got to start building that team early.

• 3:26Speaker 03

  That's right. And you want to think about, okay, if I have a good team in place, again, you have to wrap your head around the idea. For most people, buying a home is the single most expensive thing that you will ever do. It's the, the largest thing you'll ever spend money on. So you want to make sure you have experts in your corner, helping you navigate that well. So when we talk about building a good team, here's some of the professionals we're talking about. A real estate agent, maybe a mortgage lender, a good inspector. You need to know what title company you're going to use. And then obviously you're going to do, need to be able to insure this asset. So you're going to need an insurance agent as well.

• 4:01Brian Preston?

  Now, look, I, I just added this up. We've got real estate agent, mortgage lender, inspector, title company, insurance agent. This is like a basketball team.

• 4:09Speaker 03

  It's a basketball team.

• 4:10Brian Preston?

  This thing, we have, we have stacked it in. So let's go ahead and make something that seems complicated as easy as possible. Let's start with, I'm going to mix up all the analogies because we just did basketball team. But I'm gonna say, what we need is a quarterback here.

• 4:21Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 4:22Brian Preston?

  We need somebody that's gonna wrangle this all together, and that starts with a really good real estate agent.

• 4:26Speaker 03

  That's exactly right. You need a great quarterback on your basketball team. You heard it here first on the Money Guy Show. Let's talk about how you find that person. How do you find a really good real estate agent? Well, first, let's talk about what you should not do. Don't just use a friend. Now, don't miss here. So if you have a friend that's a real estate agent, we're not saying don't use them necessarily, but you want to make sure that the person you're using is actually going to work in your best interest. Again, this is a huge purchase, a huge decision. You want to make sure that you do it right. And so you don't want to just use a friend simply because there's a relationship connection there, and you might not just want to use someone that some random website like Zillow recommends that you use.

• 5:09Brian Preston?

  Yeah, so let's jump into how you actually do this, because I've done it both ways, by the way. I've had some real estate agents that you're like, oh, man, this seemed like almost a part-time gig, and they're just collecting a commission check. And then I've had other agents that, holy cow, I still am using some of these agents that I think are just world-class. And that's why we wanted to put together a list, so you can make sure you end up on the world-class side of this. And the first thing is, go get a referral. Talk to people. If you have somebody in your sphere of influence that you know is buying and selling real estate, go ask them, who do you work with that you're really impressed with on the real estate agent side?

• 5:44Speaker 03

  And another thing you do is look at reviews. And if you can't find anyone that has like positive experiences, they might just be starting out. And again, that's not necessarily a bad thing, but if there's no review of the person that you're working with, and you have no feedback about why you should select this person, you might just want to think through the decision before committing to go forward with them.

• 6:06Brian Preston?

  And then see what they've actually sold recently. Here's a stat that kind of blew my mind, but it makes sense when you think about 70% of real estate agents sold five or fewer homes in 2025.

• 6:15Speaker 03

  That's wild.

• 6:16Brian Preston?

  So that means that there's a lot of people who are more, hobby's not the right word, but it definitely does not look like they're not doing a lot of transactions. So this is something you need to find out. And by the way, it's not wrong to ask, tell me how many transactions you're doing in a year, so you can use that as part of your assessment process.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  So then, as you think through this, here are some things we want you to look for when it comes to selecting a really good agent. The very first thing is, they're not a salesman. You don't want someone who cares more about the clothes, who cares more about the transaction than they do the person who's actually involved in the transaction. You want someone who's actually going to be an advocate for you through the process.

• 6:57Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, I think about some of my good real estate agents, they've helped me with the contracts, they've helped me with inspections, they've helped me, you know, fill in when I'm trying to figure out things. And they are, they really are the most versatile player when you're figuring out who your folks are. And they even will help you, what I think is a good real estate agent, they'll even try to help you find reasons not to buy the property. Yes, they have a conflict of interest potentially because they get paid by the transaction. But a really good agent is going to be your advocate, not get caught up in that conflict. And that's why, pay attention to, are they telling you where the warts are on this property that you're looking at as well?

• 7:35Speaker 03

  Yeah, you want a real estate agent that can communicate very easily with you, but is also willing to answer your questions. So if you want to know a little money guy insider tip on how to kind of suss this out, ask your real estate agent questions like this, hey, what do you most dislike about this property? Or hey, I want you to give me one reason why I should not buy this property. And if they give you some very softball answer, like, oh, this is all the driveway's long, when there might be other underlying issues, like, oh, man, the roof looks worn, or there's mold in the basement, or something like that, they may not be looking out for your best answer. So make sure you ask good questions and make sure when you ask those good questions, the agent is able to give you really good answers.

• 8:17Brian Preston?

  Now, I think this is, this is going to be a big shortcut. Once you figure out that you've got a good real estate agent, remember how we had a list of five people you had to have in your corner helping you out? A good real estate agent is going to, and I'm going to use an old school term, Rolodex, where they're going to have the numbers for a lot of those other players that you need to have in your corner. So lean into that, ask you, and you can use that as part of the interview process. Hey, are you going to be able to help me find a good mortgage broker? Help me find a good title company. These things are important and it's all part of your due diligence process.

• 8:52Speaker 03

  Now, when you think about mortgage brokers specifically, this can be a great resource to help you shop around for the best deals. They can help you find potentially significantly discounted rates compared to what your initial quote might be. So a broker is going to shop a number of different lenders for you. So it's not a bad person to have in your corner. Again, if you don't know a broker, you don't have a relationship. If you have a really good real estate agent, a really good quarterback on your team, they will likely be able to help you find the broker that can work in your best interest.

• 9:23Brian Preston?

  And I've already kind of given the point about having a good real estate agent. I would also tell you, don't procrastinate.

• 9:28Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 9:28Brian Preston?

  You do not need to just sit on your hands. Don't wait until the last minute. You're going to find out real estate is an illiquid transaction. And so time is one of those things where you're going to need to have extras because we're going to show you need to get some things in order. Get your ducks in a row, but you also need to have time to find the right property because it's not an easy overnight process. So you need to be prepared and do a lot of work on the front end.

• 9:51Speaker 03

  And a great thing is if you can start the conversation with a real estate agent early enough, it's also going to allow you to figure out how you work with this person. So perhaps you start with an agent and you determine they're not the right person. If you figure that out early enough in the process, you can then make an adjustment that's a better fit for you. All right, Brian. So let's talk about the third tip. And this one I think is a little surprising, but browsing is okay. It's all right to do things like go to open houses or to go online and see what homes are available and what's realistic in the place that you're looking. You don't just have to show up to an open house on the day that you're prepared to actually make an offer and buy.

• 10:30Brian Preston?

  I don't want you wasting real estate agents' times if you're really not in the market. But there is nothing wrong with the fact that, I mean, I can tell you, my most recent deal down in Florida, I think she was probably, she's a great agent by the way, but she, I think she was starting to wonder. Is this family serious? Cause I mean, we probably did three or four fact finding missions.

• 10:50Speaker 03

  Sure.

• 10:50Brian Preston?

  And every time, meeting up with her, going out there and looking at properties, that's just part of the job. They understand that is that even good buyers, cause to find the right property, remember this is a transaction. It's not like they're commoditized.

• 11:03Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 11:03Brian Preston?

  You actually have to, if you're like, for us, we were looking for a ranch in the main part of town with this, this, this. We had like four or five must haves and we were going to just keep looking until we found that right thing. I think as long as you're honest with the, with the agent and you're transparent with what you're looking for, browsing is an okay part of the transaction.

• 11:24Speaker 03

  And one of the great things that browsing does is it allows you to send properties to your realtor so that they can begin to understand what it is that you like, what it is that you're looking for. If you show up on the day that you're ready to go make an offer, they don't really know what to show you. But if you've sent them, hey, I like this house, or hey, remember we looked at that one? They're going to be able to better curate for you, high probability homes that you might like. So the earlier you do this work, the earlier you do the research, the more prepared you'll be for the buying process.

• 11:52Brian Preston?

  And speaking of being prepared, tip number four is go ahead and get pre-approved. Now, when we talk about pre-approved, cause everybody uses that term way too easily right now is we're not talking about going on some online questionnaire and answering two or three things and getting a rubber stamp pre-approval. That's more of just a process. That's a marketing thing to kind of make an introduction to you. We're actually saying, get in there and find a bank or a lender that is actually going to work with you to help you facilitate this transaction.

• 12:25Speaker 03

  Yeah. So what we're saying, don't do is don't start looking at dream homes, just thinking, okay, I can make it work. I'm going to go, wow, this house is, is $3 million. If $3 million is nowhere in your price range. We want you to get pre-approved so you understand what's realistic. But just like you said, we don't want you doing the online pre-approval system that just asks two or three basic questions. Cause that's not going to be an accurate, realistic representation of what you can actually borrow. When it comes to getting pre-approved. There are some things we want you to actually do, and the one that matters the most is actually get a legitimate lender to underwrite you and your unique and specific financials so that

• 13:08Speaker 03

  they can take an in-depth look and actually give you an accurate representation of what financing is truly going to be available to you.

• 13:15Brian Preston?

  And this is going to require a little work. I want to go ahead and be transparent on the front end. You probably got to share pay stubs, you got to share tax returns, you're going to have to unlock, if you have your credit report frozen, your credit record frozen, you're going to have to unlock it. It is going to require a little work on your front side of things, but this is important because you guys, what happens with real estate is it's slow, slow, slow, and then really fast. And if you'll do this pre-approval process, it at least lets you go into a transaction knowing what you're going to be able to get financing for, and that time is going to be super, super valuable, especially you get into a competitive situation, you're going to know exactly what you can afford and be ready to act on that very quickly.

• 13:55Speaker 03

  Now, a word of caution, the lender is on your side. So don't feel like you have to lie to them, or you have to fudge your numbers. Be sure that you're honest with your lender so that they can give you an accurate representation of what affordability looks like for you. If you're trying to inflate your income, if you're trying to decrease the debts that you have, it's going to come out in the wash. So be honest and be truthful. If you do that, it's going to set you up for our next tip, tip number five, you're going to be better able at this stage to know your numbers.

• 14:26Brian Preston?

  Yeah, I mean, I felt like this is, I love that these kind of go togethers. When we say know your numbers, we want you to run your own numbers. Because, look, you could be working with the best lender in the marketplace, but they're just trying to make sure you look like you can pay for the house. They're not thinking about your savings goals, they're not thinking about when you want to retire. So you need to have that in the background. So maybe you don't take the maximum amount that the lenders tell you you can have. You actually think about, how do I have some life so I'm not house-rich, life-poor? Build all that into your process by knowing your numbers.

• 15:00Speaker 03

  I love that. And then the other numbers we want you to know when it comes to running your numbers is that there are costs. Associated with purchasing a piece of real estate and there are really two that you need to be aware of. There are the upfront initial costs that you're going to bear, but then there are also the ongoing monthly costs. Now, when we're talking about upfront costs, we're talking about things like down payment. For first time home buyers, this is often somewhere between like three to 5% for second home purchases or people that are upgrading. This could be as much as 20% down. There are also going to be closing costs, which a nice rule of thumb is somewhere around 3% of the purchase price of the home could be the closing costs. And then there are maintenance and furnishing costs. Okay, how much is it going

• 15:43Speaker 03

  to cost for me when I get in there? Do I need to paint the walls? Do I need to replace the carpet? Do I need to go buy the furniture for the home? Those are all costs at the very beginning that you need to factor in.

• 15:55Brian Preston?

  Yeah. And by the way, several of these things, the down payment, the closing costs, you need to once again, do your research on this is because a lot of times with closing costs, it is kind of in the industry, it says the seller will pay the closing costs.

• 16:09Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 16:09Brian Preston?

  Not always the case. That's why we made sure we listed it on here. So you can ask the question or build it into the process. So you're not caught holding the bag going, oh my gosh, I didn't take into account that I'm not only going to need the down payment, I might actually need some money for the transaction costs, costs of even closing on this piece of real estate. And then that leads to the other, you know, costs that most people don't think about, Bo. And this is a big one. I know with both of us, we bought our homes, the maintenance and furnishing costs. Just because you can get in the house, doesn't mean that you know about the blinds.

• 16:43Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 16:43Brian Preston?

  About the lawn mowers, about the target run. You go buy the ladder for the house and all the cleaning supplies and all. It's amazing. All these things that you just don't think about. Even some homes, this is going to sound crazy. Toilet paper holders and towel, towel.

• 16:59Speaker 03

  I was looking about to say my first home, the toilet paper, there were no toilet paper holders. So I just like set it on the back of the commode, not realizing I had to go out and buy that stuff.

• 17:07Brian Preston?

  So, so you need to do your research to know what you're getting into because it's not just the transaction cost. It's actually, how do you make this a usable asset for you and your family?

• 17:16Speaker 03

  So that's the upfront cost, the cost that you're going to bear basically at the time of acquisition, then shortly thereafter. But then there are ongoing monthly costs and you need to run the numbers on these. And these are your principal, interest, taxes and insurance, which makes up most people's mortgage payment. And there's another one that A, that's association dues. So if you're moving into a neighbor, neighborhood that has a HOA, if you're moving into a condo that has association dues or fees, you want to make sure that you factor those costs in because those are the costs that you're going to bear month after month after month. And those are the costs that you're going to be on the hook for, for the entire time that you own this place unless you pay off that mortgage in full.

• 17:58Brian Preston?

  And I don't want people to sleep on the A, because let me give you some examples. When we were down in Florida, looking at this, this last transaction we did, the condos were, you know, you could buy these condos for a few hundred thousand dollars. You're like, oh my gosh, what a deal.

• 18:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 18:14Brian Preston?

  This is so great. And then you'd find out that the condo association fees were $900 a month. You're like, wait a minute, this, the equation for affordability just changed a lot. Even when we moved here to Tennessee, I was shocked at how many HOA fees were $250 a month and greater. And you're like, okay, for $250 a month, is this like a gym? Is this a swimming pool?

• 18:36Speaker 03

  Tennis courts, all of them.

• 18:37Brian Preston?

  No, these were just expensive. There was, my builder, he tried to convince me to move into his new neighborhood he was doing. And I said, okay, I'm paying $75 a month for my HOA. What's the new HOA fees for your new neighborhood? Cause you know, I'd like to have a bigger lot and so. I think he was like $675 a month. And I was like,

• 18:55Speaker 03

  What does that come down?

• 18:56Brian Preston?

  That is, it was nothing.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  Nothing.

• 18:58Brian Preston?

  It was because it was a gated community and you had to cover the roads, you had to cover. So guys, pay attention to that A. It's not just the principal, it's not just the interest, it's not just the taxes. You have to make sure you're taking into account even those HOA or those condo association fees because they could blow up your cash flow if you're not careful.

• 19:15Speaker 03

  And when it comes to running the numbers, as you're calculating, okay, what will my mortgage payment be? We want to make sure that we understand rates are higher now than they have been historically for the last five, six, seven years. You need to be okay with the current rate because while rates may come down and you may have some reprieve, it's not a guarantee. So we don't want to see you rush into a mortgage, assuming that, okay, it does, I can't really afford it right now, but if rates come down to 5%, then I can afford it. We just don't know when that will happen. So make sure you're comfortable with the current rate. And if you're confused or you want to figure out, how do I calculate all this? How do I actually know what I can't afford? We have a great resource for you. Go to moneyguy.com/resources and play with

• 19:56Speaker 03

  our home buying calculator. It will actually help you determine for yourself in your unique situation, how much house can I afford? We want you to marry what you uncover with this tool with what you're pre-approved for from the lender. And if those two meet nicely, you're going to have a very solid idea of what the price range of homes you should be looking at is going to be.

• 20:17Brian Preston?

  Well, this-

• 20:19Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

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• 21:14Brian Preston?

  This leads to step number six or tip number six. I want people to look into assistance programs. This is, look, this is a big transaction. This is one of those big life decisions. There's so many things in my life that I look back on and I go, if somebody would just tell me so I didn't have to figure this out. Even like when I went to college, I didn't know how to apply for scholarships. I didn't know how to do that. And then I think about how true that is probably for the typical American. It's the same thing with you buying your first house. If you're your first time home buyer, realize that is something that the government and a lot of states treat as like a noble cause is they want people to be able to buy into their first home. So they try to incentivize these processes. So we've tried to figure out, hey, for all of our financial

• 21:55Brian Preston?

  mutants out there, how can we help you on this big transaction kind of get a shortcut? And the good news is there's actually a resource. First time home buyers, you can go out there. Nerd Wallet has created a great website for you can go to a portal and do just look by state what you qualify for that first time home purchase.

• 22:15Speaker 03

  And sometimes it may be you get favorable lending through the state in which you live, or it might just be they offer classes around home affordability or things you need to know if you're a first time home buyer. There's a reason that these programs are there. So make sure you take advantage of them. All it takes is a quick little Google research to figure out what's available in your state to determine if there's something unique. Cause if you qualify, it may make sense to look at something like a VA loan, or perhaps it makes sense to look at an FHA loan. And these programs that are in place for specific people, for specific circumstances, might just be the thing that allows you to actually get on the side of homeownership that actually allows you to participate in this transaction that you may not have been able

• 23:00Speaker 03

  to do otherwise.

• 23:02Brian Preston?

  All right. We've, we've thrown out a lot of tips already through steps, I mean tips one through six, but let's get into another preparation thing. And this is tip number seven. Start saving early. A lot of people will ask us, they say, Brian, Bo, how does home purchases fit into the financial order of operations? And we do build it into it. It's just, we got it. You gotta start the planning as soon as possible because it's going to make it that much easier.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  That's right. The earlier you can figure this out, it's just like most other financial goals. If you can figure it out early on, the steps required, the steps necessary become much, much easier. The longer you wait, the more arduous, the more difficult it is. So figuring it out early is going to make the whole process a lot smoother, a lot more seamless. And like you said, Brian, it does fit into the financial order of operations, but it's not the broad base, step one through nine. It's your specific food, based on your specific goals, based on your unique circumstances. For some people, homeownership might be very, very early on in their financial order of operations. For other people, it might not be something that they've already made it all the way through the financial order of operations. We won't

• 24:12Speaker 03

  be able to answer that question for you. It's a question that you're going to have to answer for yourself, but there are some ways that you can work through figuring out how to do that.

• 24:20Brian Preston?

  Yeah. Anybody who's been on our channel, you know, we say for big life decisions, put on your 3D glasses. And what does a 3D plan entail? It means that I want you to look at every big decision in three different ways. Let's first talk about it in the dream way. The dream way is, hey, you are crushing it in your financial life. You're saving and investing 25%. And you get to that level, you say, okay, now I can start just stacking money in the background for a home. That's great. That's the dream. That's not the way life typically happens. Because what the down-to-earth plan is, somebody who backs into, and they say, hey, look, a home is so valuable. I've got a growing family. I want to set roots in this community. It's not getting easier to get a home, so I need to get on this train as fast as possible. I might have to cut down my saving and investing. Instead of doing

• 25:05Brian Preston?

  the 25% that I'd prefer, cut it back temporarily to 10 to 15% because that is what it's going to take to get in this house. We are okay with you having that down-to-earth plan. And then, of course, the do-do plan is, you have to move ASAP. Turn off all of your investments because the financial order of operations is one of those things where you're like, you're going to have to use some resources, do other things to make this happen. We're okay with that. We're just saying do the preparation on the front end. So you're not caught where that do do plan actually disrupts and challenges your financial life. So you never get out of the gates.

• 25:41Speaker 03

  But we want to make sure that the do do plan does not turn into the disaster plan. That's why while we say it does depend on your specific foo, it does fall after step four. It does fall after a fully funded emergency fund because what we don't want to see happen is you don't have that emergency fund built up. You go acquire this house and all of a sudden you have no liquidity and then something happens that unknown unknown happens, that Tuesday uh oh happens, that job change happens, that whatever that thing may be liquidity is your friend. So we do not encourage anyone to move into homeownership. If you've not made it past step four of the financial order of operations.

• 26:18Brian Preston?

  Okay. So I think probably if you're watching the issue catching on because we said start saving early because very realistically, this is going to be a multi-year process to save up for this down payment because this go basically be an extension to your step four emergency reserves. You're going to need to start squirreling away in the background. But we have the question all the time when people say, does that mean it just has to stay only in cash? Or is this money that needs to be invested? What do we tell people on where they need to put this money?

• 26:45Speaker 03

  Yeah, normally as we answer most financial questions, the answer is it depends. It depends a little bit on your timeline. If you're someone who's thinking about buying a house and it's going to happen inside the next five years, we believe that you ought to be just saving for that in cash. We want you to have liquidity available, but maybe you have something to where you don't know the exact timeline. Maybe you're starting so early that you buying a house is seven, eight, maybe 10 years in the future. If that's the case, it's okay not necessarily to build it in cash. And maybe you want to dollar cost average in the after tax account through some sort of like low cost index fund or some close dated target retirement fund. That's all right, but you have to determine what is my timeline? What's the highest probability of when I'm going to make this acquisition?

• 27:31Speaker 03

  And then depending on the answer to that question, it will dictate which of those two options you go with pure cash, pure liquidity, or do I try to invest some of these dollars to grow for the future?

• 27:40Brian Preston?

  All that is so important to kind of know where the timeline, how to bring it together. So you can be as effective as possible with the saving and doing it often and making it happen. That leads to tip number eight, know what not to do, you know, blind spots is one of those things we talk about is, and by the way, Bo, I feel like we're really good at this tip number eight.

• 27:59Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 28:00Brian Preston?

  Because we really share all the mistakes that we've either done or things we've seen clients do in the past, and we just want you not to fall in these same traps.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  Now, you may be thinking, oh, okay, guys, obviously you're going to tell me, don't borrow more than I should, don't buy too much. No, no, no, these are mistakes that we've made. These are mistakes that we see actual financial mutants make, not errors of commission because they meant to do something, they're errors of omission. They didn't realize, oh, maybe that's a bad idea. And there are a few different camps that this falls into. The first is the decisions you can make that might affect your lending. Maybe you didn't realize, oh, I'm in the process of buying a house, I'm in the process of moving and improving and changing my life and right square in the middle of that, I'm going to change jobs. I have this new opportunity presented myself, and so I'm going to change jobs. Well, now, all of a sudden, you don't have the same earnings history that you once had.

• 28:53Speaker 03

  And they say, hey, show me your past couple of months of pay stubs. Oh, well, I was kind of out of work for these two months because I just got this brand new job and here's my pay stub. It could affect your rates, it could affect the ability of the lender to loan you those dollars.

• 29:07Brian Preston?

  Yeah, now, don't mishear us because I see so much bad content out there on real estate purchases. First of all, don't do any fraud. You know, I don't want you telling somebody that if this is like, if you were, we're doing primary residence for this show today, but a lot of you guys have seen content out there for people buying rental property, say, just check the box that it's your primary. No, that is fraud. And it's the same thing when you even think about these big life decisions like on lending is that, look, we're not telling you that you can't. You're going to have to make big life decisions, but we're just saying, just take it, take the timeline into account with this big transaction. It ties into what Bo was just saying. If you know you're thinking about changing jobs, but you also want to buy a house, you need to build those into the plan together.

• 29:52Brian Preston?

  It's because if you change jobs right before you buy the house, your lender probably doesn't have the same variables to go off of. And that can be a big problem. So those big things that are going on in the background, make sure you're building that into your timeline. It's the same thing also with moving large sums of money. Anytime we've done underwriting, banks are, the lenders are going to immediately ask you for this in multiple months of your bank records. The reason they do that is they want to see what your monthly history, your cash flow looks like. They also want to know, where did the money come from?

• 30:25Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 30:25Brian Preston?

  And, and if you all of a sudden have huge transactions coming in and out of your account, they're going to want to know what that is. So just be very aware of, you're going to have to be able to explain where's the down payment coming from. It can't be mystery money. So you have to be very careful with how you're structuring and where this money, what it looks like, so that the lender's not scared by large chunks of large transactions all at once.

• 30:49Speaker 03

  But not only is it, could it affect your lending? Some of the decisions you make may actually affect your credit score. Might actually affect the terms that you get because of stuff that you do. Some really easy examples of this are, hey, I'm going to buy a house. I have a friend who did this, Brian.

• 31:03Brian Preston?

  Oh, no, you can tell them it's me. I don't mind being honest because I think I shared it in Millionaire Mission.

• 31:08Speaker 03

  Well, tell them the story. What happened?

• 31:09Brian Preston?

  I've screwed this up so bad. Guys, this is how much my, remember I don't come from money. So I'm just like a lot of you guys, if you're in your twenties and you're watching this content, like, man, I wish somebody would just tell me so I don't make mistakes. I made the mistakes is because my first home purchase, we were looking at furniture. And, and the first thing, you know, they offer you when you buy like a table and you buy a couch and this stuff, they, they tell you, hey, if you open up a line of credit with us, with a store credit card at this furniture store, we'll give you 10, 15% off the bill. Well, I'm a financial mutant and I'm like, hot diggity dog.

• 31:42Speaker 03

  That's free money.

• 31:43Brian Preston?

  I'm spending thousands of dollars. We're going to cut hundreds of dollars off this bill. I paid for it and then some because it screwed up my mortgage application. Cause I had a credit hit right before I went to go get the mortgage. That is a mistake. The other thing that I'm such a knucklehead about, I was like, you know what? I am such a good person with my money. I've always been so disciplined. I don't do credit card debt and all these other things. I had like two or three credit cards and I was like, you know what? I bet what the banks want to know is that I'm not actually, I don't have access to a lot of debt.

• 32:15Speaker 03

  I'm not using all this debt.

• 32:17Brian Preston?

  So I was like, so I had three credit cards. I went and closed one of those credit cards. Cause I was like, you know, what would be better is if I actually closed this credit card because it would now show that I didn't have access to even more credit. That is a false. If you don't know how credit bureaus do things, access to credit actually can be a better thing for them. Also, don't lower your credit amounts thinking that's, that is not the type of window dressing. Any type of closing old credit limits, you know, or letting credit access levels go up or bringing it down. Don't do all that rigging or moving around at the last minute. You'll more than likely hurt yourself more than help yourself.

• 32:54Speaker 03

  You may be asking them, how do I know this? Like what, like what are, how would I even know these things? Remember, if you have the right team in place, they can answer these questions. You should have these conversations with your lender. You tell your, hey lender, I'm thinking about buying a car. Is that going to affect this home purchase? Hey lender, I'm thinking about paying off my car this month. Is that going to affect any decision that you make that could have something to do with your credit? Ask your team professionals and they might say something, hey, I love that you're paying off your car. Just don't do it this month. Wait two months. Wait till we get past closing. Wait till we get on the other side of this transaction, then do these things so that it doesn't send up any red flags. This is the reason why you have a team in place. And that leads us to tip number

• 33:36Speaker 03

  nine. We want to make sure you're doing all this stuff really well. Again, the home is likely the largest purchase you will ever make. So when it comes to making such a big purchase, we want you to take your time and really think through the decision.

• 33:50Brian Preston?

  Yeah. I mean, this one, this isn't even on the list, but I don't mind sharing is that I remember my first closing, my wife and I just showed up with a checkbook. You can imagine, we get into the attorney's office and he's like, okay. We never got the wire.

• 34:03Speaker 03

  He's a wire. No, no, I got my checkbook right here.

• 34:06Brian Preston?

  Remember, we don't come from money. So it's not like we had parents that are like, hey, make sure you show up and do this. Well, I showed up with a checkbook thinking this was it. So I'm telling you, that's why you don't have to, we want you to know what you're getting yourself into. And that's why it's okay. Deep breath, slow down, measure twice, cut once. So you don't screw this up. And that's why I would tell you the same thing is don't get over excited on that first house. Just, you know, you get excited with the process. I want you to actually get a house that you like, that fits your needs. Don't just feel like you have to commit to the very first house you tour and see, because it might not be the best house, just because it's your first house.

• 34:46Speaker 03

  And don't fall so much in love with a house that you put blinders on to things that you should be paying attention to. We saw this in recent years, where rather than people getting a full inspection, they would just waive that and say, hey, I don't need the inspection. No, no, I don't need that. I just need a cursory look. It's worth it for you to make sure you have someone, actually make sure that this house is exactly the way the seller says it is. I'm even a proponent, even though it costs more money, I think it makes a ton of sense to pay for an independent inspection where you hire the inspector to inspect the house and give you a report, because that inspector doesn't work for the bank, it doesn't work for anyone besides you. And you want to get that full understanding of all the great parts and wonderful parts about this house that you love, but also all the warts and the creaks and the cracks that

• 35:29Speaker 03

  you should be aware of before you enter into the actual closing.

• 35:34Brian Preston?

  Yeah. I mean, every, every real estate transaction I've done in the last 10 years, I've done inspections upon inspections. If you're buying a new home, get an inspection of the processes. Don't assume just because it's new, it doesn't need an inspection. If you're buying a used home, there's all kind, you can look into mold, you can look into this, all kinds of things. Don't be scared. This is your chance to kind of make sure you're getting it right on the front end. So take advantage of those inspection periods and do the work on that.

• 36:00Speaker 03

  And then don't get pulled into a bidding war you can't afford. Again, so often, we go see a house, or maybe we're late in the buying process, and we've seen 100 houses, and we finally found the one that we are convinced, we just love this home, love this home, love this home. But all of a sudden, someone else loves it. And so they make an offer that's a little bit higher than yours. And then you make an offer, and then it goes back and forth. And before you know it, you forgot all about that work you did when you got pre-approved. You forgot all about that work you did when you did the home buying calculator, and you get yourself in a situation that you cannot get out of. Do not do that. There are going to be other homes, there are going to be other opportunities. And one of the things you can do to help keep yourself grounded, is when you're looking at homes, and even when you find that home

• 36:43Speaker 03

  that you love, go visit it a number of different times. One thing that I always do before I ever buy a piece of real estate, because I did this wrong the first time, is I go to it if I can on a day that it's raining. I want to see what water management looks like. Does the place stay dry? Does the water go the places it's supposed to go? Or is it operating the way that it should operate? I would visit the house a number of different times. I'd visit it in different weather conditions, and I would visit it at different times of the day, because I think it was someone on the content team said, "Yeah, yeah, bought a house, had no idea there was a railroad track so close." If you had done the due diligence, you might have figured that out. So take your time. Don't feel like you have to go

• 37:25Speaker 03

  fast, because you don't want to make a very, very fast, very, very poor decision.

• 37:29Brian Preston?

  Go drive to the kid's school that they'll be going to, or commute to the job that you think you're going to, so you can see the traffic flows.

• 37:36Speaker 03

  Do it at 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. every day.

• 37:38Brian Preston?

  Don't just assume it's going to be perfect, because you know how those traffic patterns can definitely be impacted. And that leads, that's to the 10th tip, is there is no one perfect home.

• 37:47Speaker 03

  That's right.

• 37:48Brian Preston?

  I mean, we're not perfect people, but homes definitely are not perfect. And that's why, we just want to make sure you go into this with your eyes wide open, so that you turn this into, you know, something that brings joy, happiness, and even financial fulfillment to your life, and it's not a big regret or a money pit.

• 38:07Speaker 03

  And it's okay to have some musts. Hey, this house must have the master bedroom on the main floor. This house must have a yard that's big enough for a pet, whatever. It's okay to have must haves, but just recognize that there's not going to be a perfect home that has everything, unless you have. Have the budget to be willing and able to do everything. And so one of the things you may want to think through is when it comes to buying a home, is there a home? Do I want to buy an already constructed home or do I want to go with a new build? Because with a new build, I do get to pick the things. I get to pick small things like the types of flooring or the paint colors. Or maybe I even get to do big things like floor plan layout.

• 38:49Speaker 03

  But if I go that route, there is going to be a premium associated. I'm going to pay more likely if I'm going that route. So I want to make sure it still sits inside of the affordability that I have for my unique financial situation.

• 39:01Brian Preston?

  Now, we do this, we're doing this in, you know, the latter part of 2025. And there is a unique thing, typically exactly what Bo said, there is a premium for buying new construction. But this housing market is so unique right now. I just saw the headline come out in the last few weeks. Is that right now, because of incentives, because with these crazy high interest rates and other things, incentives that builders and others are offering right now. There's actually, we're in a unique time where sometimes a new construction can actually be a better deal than even an existing home.

• 39:32Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 39:32Brian Preston?

  And I'll tell you, from my own experience, when I was moving to out of state to a new community. Uh, the new home was the only way I could get a house is because houses were moving so fast and I was out of state. There was bidding wars. New construction was that bridge that allowed me to get into the community. And here's another thing that's not financial. I liked moving into a brand new neighborhood because everybody else was a transplant in the neighborhood too. And it helped me build community with my neighbors.

• 39:58Speaker 03

  Yep.

• 39:59Brian Preston?

  That much sooner. So take these things into account because like I said, no home is perfect. But there's definitely things you can do for your, in your best interests. That's going to help you come out, land on two feet and just get the best opportunity out of this big transaction.

• 40:16Speaker 03

  Yeah, uh, home is a used asset. So just because one property you find, maybe the first one that you fell in love with it likely doesn't mean it's going to be the only one that you fall in love with. And if you can go into the buying process with that mindset, there's not one perfect home. There's not one perfect solution, but there's a good chance that we could make any home, our home, you're likely going to set yourself up to make a much better decision for the long term. These 10 tips hopefully will help you figure out, how do I do this well? How do I navigate this well so that I'm not one of those people that was surveyed in 2023 and 2024?

• 40:55Speaker 03

  That regrets making the home buying decision. We'd rather you be someone like us who have loved all the homes that I've bought and I've loved every one of them and the unique things about them because I made the decision very slowly. And I approached it with the gravity that the decision of buying a home should have.

• 41:14Brian Preston?

  Look, this is an emotional transaction that's got big numbers attached to it. So that's why it was so important for us to give the tips that both had the perfect balance of the analytics, meaning the dollar and cents, but also getting the behavior or controlling the emotional side of this. Guys, if you're not going to moneyguy.com/resources and taking advantages from our checklist and our calculators, I think you're missing out. But some of you are also saying, man, this seems like a lot of this decision making. It goes beyond just homeownership. I'm going to have bigger decisions like retirement, estate planning. There's a lot of things. It seems like these guys have done this several times. I've only done this once.

• 41:53Brian Preston?

  Maybe I'll take this relationship to the next level because these guys love giving out the abundance cycle and just giving away tons of free advice. If that, if you resemble that, I want you to consider going to moneyguy.com slash become a client. Guys, we're going to leave the porch light on. We love creating content. We love educating people so they don't make the mistakes we made. And you can live your best life and also build your great, big, beautiful tomorrow. I'm your host, Brian Preston, Mr. Bo Hanson. Did I say handsome?

• 42:21Speaker 03

  I think you said Bo handsome and I'll take it.

• 42:23Brian Preston?

  I'm your host Brian Preston and Mr. Bo Hanson. Money Guy team, out.

• 42:28Speaker 03

  The Money Guy Show is hosted by Brian Preston and Bo Hanson. Brian and Bo are partners with Abound Wealth Management. Abound Wealth Management is a registered investment advisory firm regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission in accordance and compliance with the securities laws and regulations. Abound Wealth Management does not render or offer to render personalized investment or tax advice through The Money Guy Show. The information provided is for informational purposes only, may not be suitable for all investors, and does not constitute financial, tax, investment, or legal advice. All investments involve a degree of risk, including the risk of loss.

• 43:00Speaker 04

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