A Season of First Time Home Buyers

Every night before I go to bed and every morning before my feet hit the floor, I spend a few minutes talking to God. In my opinion, it's the very best way to start and end the day.

Now... I'd love to tell you those conversations are always peaceful, organized, and full of deep wisdom.

They're not.

Some mornings my brain is in about twenty seven different places, and my prayers sound a little something like this...

"Dear God, thank You for allowing me to wake up this morning and for all the many blessings You've given me... shoot, I forgot to place my grocery order... Lord, I pray that You'll guide my thoughts and my steps today and use me however You see fit... did I ever email my accountant back?... I pray You'll continue opening doors in my business and send me the clients I'm meant to serve... oh goodness, I still need to set up Mr. Stokes on that MLS search... and I really hope I remembered to send that seller's guide... okay... back to praying... Amen."

It's not exactly the picture of perfect concentration.

But somehow, in the middle of all those scattered thoughts and unfinished to-do lists, God still hears every word.

Lately, one of the prayers I've found myself praying over and over is that He would send me the people I'm meant to serve, and boy has He, one first time home buyer after the other.

And through this current season I have realized that being able to work with someone who has never been through the home buying process before is extra special.

I actually find that the fact they have no idea what they’re doing is one of my favorite parts. A blank canvass that I get to help educate and shepard through the process.

A few weeks ago I was showing houses to a sweet couple, and somewhere between house number three and house number four, one of them looked at me and said,

"I’m so sorry for all of these really dumb questions..but I have another one..”

I couldn't tell you what the question actually was, but if I had to guess it was probably something along the lines of asking for a potential repair or how do I submit an offer..But one thing I do know for sure is I told them there really wasn't such a thing as a dumb question.

Because truthfully unless you've bought a house before, how in the world are you supposed to know any of this stuff? To be honest I have been selling real estate for 6 years and I still sometimes have questions myself!

New buyers see the words inspection, appraisal, escrow, earnest money, contingencies, and suddenly feel like they’re being spoken to in a different language..which I guess they sort of are! And somewhere along the way, I think people convince themselves they need to have everything figured out before they call a Realtor to start the process.

You don’t.

In fact, I'd almost rather you call me before you know anything.

That way I get to walk through it with you from the very beginning instead of trying to untangle misinformation you found on TikTok at two o'clock in the morning.

One of my favorite things to watch is what happens after we've looked at a few houses.

The first showing usually goes something like this...

"Is this a good neighborhood?"

"Is this a good price?"

"Do you think this is a good investment?"

Totally normal questions.

Then somewhere around house number six they're opening kitchen cabinets because they're trying to figure out where they'll put the crockpot.

They're measuring walls for furniture.

They're standing in the backyard talking about getting a dog.

These are usually the moments I know things are shifting and they've started imagining a life there.

Buying your first home can feel overwhelming and I get that! But it should also be exciting.

You don't have to understand every contract before you reach out.

You don't need to know what every real estate term means.

And you definitely don't need to apologize for asking questions.

That's quite literally what I'm here for.

So if buying your first home has been sitting in the back of your mind, consider this your sign to stop trying to figure it all out by yourself.

Call the Realtor..aka me, and ask all the "dumb" questions that I promise probably aren’t even dumb…but if for some reason they are, I won’t judge and we can laugh about it together in your new living room.

xoxo, Mary Elizabeth