Welcome!

Welcome to the Home Stream Hustle website. John Houston and Elliott Thomas are here to empower homeowners with the tools, trends, and truth in the real estate market. This post focuses on the first step in the home buying process.

You can also listen to the podcast episode HERE

Thank you for joining us. We are really excited to bring this to you guys. Home Stream Hustle has been in the works for a while but it’s finally here.

Why do we call it the Home Stream Hustle?

Well, let’s talk about why we call it the Home Stream Hustle. We want to empower homeowners with the tools, trends, and truth in today’s real estate market. In essence, we want to give our clients, subscribers, friends, and family a glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes of a real estate transaction. We want to empower you with the knowledge on how home buying and selling is handled in today’s real estate market. We want to help you streamline your investments as well.

So we are going to focus on what is the first step in buying a home. A lot of people don’t own multiple properties already, so that’s where we are going to start. And obviously we are giving you our opinions so take that for what it is.

Your first steps to buying a house

Step 1: Find a lender

Your first step should be to get in touch with a lender. Talk with your bank because you need to get a reputable mortgage company on your side to get you pre-approved and determine how much you can buy. Even if you can’t buy now, it might be good to know how much you can buy one or two years from now. Your lender will be able to spell it out, give you tips on how to save, or what you need to do to get your credit score up. So, that’s really where you should start.

And it is important to do so because you don’t want to start looking for a house and get your hopes up. You might be looking at homes around the area, walking around and you might end not be able to even buy any of those. Or your purchasing power might be $50,000 less than the price point you have been looking at. Don’t waste the seller’s time, don’t waste the agents time if you have an agent, get pre-approved, it is really easy.

John, how many times have you got a call from a potential new client where they just don’t know which lender to call first? They don’t know where to start with that lender. I have had few of those clients that just don’t know where to start or don’t know who to trust. When it comes to that first step to buying a house, find out how much you can afford. They don’t know what are the right questions to ask that lender.

Step 2: Find a real estate agent

Well, if people are stuck and they can’t really get going with what kind of lender they should look for, have your real estate agent or realtor help you with that.

It kind of goes along with getting pre-approved because if you have an agent which you should have if you are buying or selling a home, they have a lot of resources in their tool belt. They can help you get in touch with a reputable mortgage company because they deal with lenders on a day-to-day basis. So they know who to trust, the companies, the names and they can help you out with that.

I think it is a great point to make, absolutely, it all starts with working with somebody that you know that you trust. And you trusting that individual, that agent, getting a team together that is going to help you be successful in this venture. There are different types of lenders out there, your particular situation may not be best for a certain particular lender. So, it’s all about having that conversation with your real estate agent and helping them understand your situation to whatever extent they decide to share.

Step 3: Get pre-approved

So once you decide to narrow down and choose your lender you will get put with a loan officer. At this point, you will be given a few different programs hopefully what you will be qualified for. You can determine which one looks good to you. We can go into this later when we actually have a loan officer on the show. But they will give you rates whatever looks good to you, sometimes you might have points, we get all this down the road.

But there are a lot of steps. Once you get the loan officer then you will get the ball rolling on your loan approval. That’s just nice little pretty statement from your loan officer telling you basically what your purchasing power is. At that point, you are good to go. You can start looking. You are with your agent, start house hunting and find something that’s within your budget that your pre-approval letter has given you. This is why is incredibly important to get pre-approved and determine how much you can actually spend.

Story about John as a first time home buyer

So when I bought my house in 2010 with my wife, I had not been pre-approved and we went out and we were house hunting by ourselves without an agent. We had in our minds how much we could spend and how much we could afford on a house. We did all this work and went through the process and in the end our buying power was a lot less than what we thought it was going to be.

So when we got hooked up with our agent, Jack Miller, he taught my wife and I valuable information. We are going to going to talk about him later down the road because he was a huge impact on my career in the real estate business. I learned a lot from that experience and why it is so important to get pre-approved because we wasted a lot of time looking at homes that we just could not even afford.

I grew up in Nashville so I knew the area I wanted to live in and start a family. Without a pre-approval from a lender we were looking at a price point we just could not get to. We thought we could buy these homes that we couldn’t.

How much can I afford to buy a home?

Think of overspending. It is another great idea that you just want to meet with the lender first before you start any process because you may still be approved for that amount but is that the right decision for you.

What is House Poor?

They call that term House Poor, you don’t want to be in that situation. You need to live within your means. Find a house that is in the right area and in the right budget. With all those variables you want that lender to find out those numbers first for sure. Definitely! Save everybody some time, right?

You don’t want to just talk with one lender. It’s good to play the field, get to two or three different opinions from your lenders. See what each one can offer because not all lenders can offer the same thing and determine what fits you and what is right for you.

Relationship

It is also a personality match, you might find some lenders that are easier for you to connect with and like their communication style better. You might like the fact that they actually communicate. Sometimes it is hard to get these people on the phone to even start a conversation. So you might like the fact that, that lender called you back, that was impressive to you. So it’s all about finding that personal connection. Plus another good place to start is with the agent you are working with. Because they probably already have those relationships in place.

Referrals

Think about the value of that, it may be stepping into this whole new idea of buying a house. You may think that you might ask your friend which is another good place to start because they might have already used a lender. That is a good reputable source. A really great alternative is to get those referrals for lenders from your agent. Because those relationships are in place, they know who is going to work well for you, quickly for you, and be a right match for the market that you are working in.

Home buying process time

Home buying is typically not a quick process. If you are getting a loan things take time. More often than not you won’t be moving in the next day. That’s not how it works unless you use cash. Nine times out of ten you will be waiting over 30 days, maybe 45 days now. So it’s kind of building a relationship with the people around you when you are buying. Getting a loan officer who you trust, who you get along with is actually really important. You don’t want to deal with someone who does not communicate or has people that they pass you off to that they work with. And the same is the case with your agent you want somebody who you get along with. They know what you need.

Signing off and your next steps

First and foremost, we want to say thank you to all you guys for listening to the podcast and reading the blog. Without you, this is not going to happen and it won’t be as successful as we hope it will be. This is created by us but it is obviously for you guys. Everyday people seeking to streamline their investments. Whether you are a first time home buyer or a seasoned investor this is a place you can come and get value from.

Real estate is more than bricks and mortar. It is your income, your lifestyle, your memories and much more. So we hope you enjoy it and can get value from it.

This is about you so why don’t you give us your feedback, what do you want to hear? What’s important to you? And tell us your stories, if this isn’t your first time buying or selling a home. If you have experienced it yourself and have something to share then be sure to tell us more about how this has been for you. Let’s make this thing conversational.

Appreciate you reading. Hit the subscribe button and check us out on Facebook. Hit like and stay tuned. Hustle. Hustle baby!