5 Essential Moves for First-Time Homebuyers
A guide to going from "just browsing" to "keys in hand" — without the expensive surprises along the way.
Buying your first home is one of the most exciting things you'll ever do. It's also one of the few major financial decisions most people make with very little practice. After nearly two decades helping buyers across the South Bay and greater Los Angeles, I've noticed that the people who feel calmest and most in control aren't the ones with the biggest budgets — they're the ones who got a few foundational things right early.
So here are the five moves I walk every first-time buyer through. The first three build your financial foundation. The last two protect you once you're actually in a deal.
Phase 1: Build Your Financial Foundation
1. Talk to a lender before you start browsing
It's tempting to start with the fun part — scrolling listings, saving favorites, picturing your furniture in someone else's living room. But I always ask buyers to do one unglamorous thing first: talk to a lender and confirm your real number.
Here's why it matters. Until you know exactly what you can borrow and what your monthly payment actually looks like, you're shopping blind. I've watched buyers fall in love with a home, get attached to a neighborhood, and then discover the math doesn't work — which is a heartbreak that's completely avoidable. Knowing your number up front means every home you look at is a home you could actually buy. That turns browsing from a fantasy into a focused search.
2. Prioritize pre-approval over pre-qualification
These two terms get used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing — and in a competitive market, the difference can decide whether your offer gets taken seriously.
A pre-qualification is essentially an estimate. You tell a lender about your income and debts, and they give you a ballpark figure. It's a useful starting point, but nothing has been verified.
A pre-approval is the real deal. The lender actually reviews your documentation — income, assets, credit — and commits to a specific loan amount. When a seller receives two similar offers and one is backed by a verified pre-approval, that buyer looks dramatically more credible. In a market like ours, where good homes often draw multiple offers, that credibility can be the thing that gets your offer accepted over someone else's.
3. Budget 3% to 5% for closing costs
This is the line item that catches the most first-time buyers off guard. Closing costs are separate from your down payment, and they typically run 3% to 5% of the purchase price. They cover things like lender fees, title and escrow, appraisal, and prepaid items such as property taxes and insurance.
To put real numbers on it: on a $750,000 home, you're looking at roughly $22,500 to $37,500 due at closing — on top of whatever you've set aside for your down payment. In some of our higher-priced South Bay neighborhoods, that figure climbs further. The good news is there's nothing scary about it once you've planned for it. Building this into your budget early means you're never blindsided at the finish line, and it keeps you from stretching your down payment so thin that you arrive at closing short.
Phase 2: Safeguard the Deal
Once you're under contract, the game changes. Now your job is to protect the deal you worked to win. Two moves matter most here.
4. Avoid major financial changes before closing
This one surprises people, so I say it early and I say it often: between your offer and your closing day, keep your finances boring.
That means no buying a car, no opening new credit cards, no financing furniture for the new place, and ideally no changing jobs. It feels counterintuitive — you're about to have a home, why not get the couch? But your lender re-checks your financial picture before funding the loan, and any big change can shift your debt-to-income ratio, ding your credit, or trigger a fresh round of underwriting. I've seen loans fall apart days before closing over a new car payment. The fix is simple: make your big purchases after you have the keys, not before.
5. Never waive the home inspection
In hot markets, buyers sometimes waive the inspection to make their offer more appealing. I understand the instinct — you want to win — but this is one corner I urge you not to cut.
A home inspection is your window into what you're actually buying. Foundation issues, roof problems, faulty wiring, hidden water damage — these can cost tens of thousands of dollars to fix. One concealed problem can easily cost more than whatever competitive edge waiving the inspection gave you. Winning the home means very little if you inherit a six-figure repair you never saw coming. There are smarter ways to make your offer strong that don't require gambling on the condition of the house.
The thread that ties it all together: start with a conversation
If there's one habit that protects first-time buyers more than any other, it's this: before you waive a contingency or make a major financial move, talk to your agent first. Most of the costly mistakes I see aren't caused by bad luck. They're caused by a decision made quickly, alone, without running it past someone who's done this hundreds of times.
That's the part of my job I love most: being the person you call before, not after.
If you're thinking about buying your first home anywhere in the South Bay or greater Los Angeles, I'd love to walk you through your specific situation, no pressure, just a real conversation about where you stand and what your next step looks like.
Liz Samuels Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties 📧 lizhsamuels@gmail.com | 📞 424.247.3870
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