Feeling lost in the sea of real estate jargon and online research? Episodes 7 and 8 of the ten essential steps reveal how to master real estate vocabulary and conduct home buying research effectively without getting overwhelmed.
Quote:
“When you have the confidence in this material… fear, it’ll dissolve away.”
Summary:
David Sidoni breaks down two crucial steps: understanding real estate terminology and conducting smart online research. Rather than drowning in internet searches, he guides listeners to build knowledge alongside their professional team.
Highlights:
- Did you know the difference between pre-qualified and pre-approved could make or break your home purchase?
- Could mastering real estate terms like “escrow” and “contingency” actually save you money?
- What if the best time to research neighborhoods isn’t when you think it is?
- Is it possible to use online tools effectively without falling into common traps?
- How can you avoid the avalanche of spam from real estate websites while still benefiting from their resources?
Referenced Episodes:
- Episode 94: Start of A-Z Terms & Definitions
- Episode 10: Molly’s Story (Homebuying While Pregnant)
- Episode 227: Complete Guide to Online Research
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Listen to the podcast here
DIY Education & Online Research: Homebuying 101 – Step 7 & 8
Translating Real Estate Jargon: Understanding The Terms And Definitions
Welcome back to the ten steps that anyone needs before they start to even think about buying their first home. Surprise, lots of these practical action steps, 1 through 10, are not what the internet is serving up to you. That’s because the internet is usually trying to sell you, not inform you. In this episode, we’ll get into how to properly use the best internet resources, and that’s going to be step eight. First, we’re going to start with step seven, breaking down all the terms and definitions you’re going to need to know so you can make sense of the crazy home-buying process.
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What is the haps, my How to Buy Homies? We’re going to start with step seven, translating the freakish terms that the lawyers, the lenders, the realtors all use that make you feel like they’re speaking another freaking language. Some examples of these terms, you need to know the colossal difference between a pre-qualified loan and a pre-approved loan. A pre-qualification and a pre-approval, that’s huge. There are the different names for the types of loans, conventional, jumbo, fixed, variable.
This one’s my favorite. The word escrow, when it comes to buying a home, not everybody uses it, but those of you that do, it can mean eighteen different things. It’s like aloha. Real estate people use the word escrow for everything. The word broker can be just as maddening as well because there are real estate brokers and real estate agents, but with lenders, you’ve got banks, lenders, and, you guessed it, mortgage brokers. Who’s a broker? What the heck does that mean?
When you finally get your offer accepted, depending on where you are in the country, you could be in escrow, under contract, or conditionally accepted. You also have to deal with your contingency period or conditions or option periods. Although you have an accepted offer, you might not be guaranteed to get the home if you don’t understand all that vocabulary. What about, what’s an appraisal? What are points? What’s title? Don’t even get me started on the acronyms. DTI, VA, FHA, LTV, CMA, MLS, ARM, PUD, DOM, HUD, NHD, and FO. Are you kidding me with all of these?
The bottom line with the terms and definitions, it’s a lot. It’s too much. You see, everything you need to know, all the terms, the definitions, the acronyms, and, let’s be honest, all those words that you hate because you hear other people say them and you just stare blankly at them because you have no clue what the word means, but you’re trying to be an adult, so you just smile and nod. Here’s what I did, I explained everything you need to know from A to Z, and it all starts in Episode 94.
I recommend that if you’re getting serious about this process, you go ahead and start at Episode 94 and go right from A to Z. Don’t stop. Just go do that now. We do want you to keep going on the ten steps. Sprinkle in a terms and definition episode when you want to mix things up a little bit. It starts at 94, and there’s a bunch of them, but it’s not mandatory that you read all of those before you start your planning. Many of the terms and definitions are going to be helpful with you after you start the planning.
Step 7: Mastering The A To Z Of Home Buying Terms
You notice that’s why the terms and definitions are step seven. I don’t want you to just jump into these and skip all the rest. Stay in the 1 through 10 order. Get your real estate support team first. You’re going to be setting your goals and doing all those early action steps. While you’re doing that, there’s going to be plenty of time for you to drop in an A-to-Z term episode so you can review and feel more confident moving forward. It starts at 94, but when it comes to the 10 steps, do them in order.
Do not binge through all A to Z before you pick up on step 1, 2, 3, or 4 if you haven’t completed those yet. Remember, this is your journey. Only you know if you’re the person who wants to be super informed before you get into things, or maybe you’re a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants person. As I said before, know thyself and make sure you don’t dive in and get stuck in a binge fest. Many readers have found that the A-to-Z episodes end up being very helpful to them because it helps them gain confidence.
Know thyself and make sure you don’t dive in and get stuck in a binge fest.
My greatest recommendation is you spend more time working on hiring your unicorn team first, then start your plan with them before you get into all the crazy over-researching. I can vouch for the fact that there is so much to learn from the entire home-buying process that you’re never going to feel like you’ve accomplished everything, and now you can start working with people. Start the planning with the pros first, and then get into the terms and definitions to use as a tool while you’re planning with your team.
Confidence Vs. Fear: Overcoming The Number One Human Fear
Many people, just like you, were stoked when they got into these definitions because they’re given to you in layman’s terms, way different than Google, and complete with my very simple and practical vocabulary breakdown. If you can handle all the cringy, horrible dad jokes, you’re going to come out of there with a whole bunch of new confidence and comprehension in the process, and that’s an awesome thing. If you’ve got some fear, I heard a story once about confidence and fear, and it totally blew my mind.
You might, or maybe you don’t know that public speaking is the number one fear among humans. It’s above fear of heights, going to the dentist, flying, enclosed spaces, snakes, or spiders. A British college professor saw this list with fear of public speaking at the top, and he immediately realized that number one fear had a very solvable solution. It was confidence. He asked the shyest student in his class to come up to the front of the class and address the class on the lesson. The student tried and was so freaked out that he practically fainted after the first sentence.
The professor asked the student at the front of the class if he liked football, soccer for you Americans. Being a good English lad, the student said that he had his favorite team, that he was a supporter of, and that it was probably his favorite thing in the whole world. The professor told him, “Do you know the game last week? I thought the midfield play was rubbish, and the manager was a wanker.”
When you have the confidence in the material, fear dissolves away.
Suddenly, the student confidently started addressing him and the whole class in front of the class because it was something that made him feel confident in the information. When you have confidence in this material, our number one human fear will dissolve away. Start at Episode 94, mix in the definitions while you’re working on the big three, and get confident in the material. Get yourself empowered with the knowledge.
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Step 8: Leveraging Online Resources For Effective Home Buying Research
We can go on to step eight. That’s online research. What? Online research? Did I just say that? I can hear some of you right now saying, “What the F, Sidoni?” You told me all the stories about all the people who make the mistake of doing way too much online research on their own before they hire their team. It’s like that PhD lady who realized that if she talked to a pro way earlier instead of going down the internet rabbit hole for months and months, she could have been doing this way sooner.
“What about the whole WebMD story with the doctor? You said he spent too much time online, and now you’re telling me that step eight is to go online and do research.” I get it. I am fully aware that I told you not to waste months or years over-researching the home-buying process online. However, while you’re working with an experienced support team on the big three, you can get a jumpstart on your next level of research on other things besides credit score, debt, savings, loans, and interest rates. That stuff you’ll cover with them.
I’m not saying everything online is bad. I’m saying a lot of it is, but there’s some stuff that can help. The online research that you do, we assume that you already have your unicorn partnership all set up. You got your financial strategy going, and now you want to dig into those tools to help you find the right home. Things like finding neighborhoods, figuring out schools, crime, and all that stuff. When you’re doing that, when you’re looking for homes and you’re doing that research, you can do some of it on your own.
Some of it is with a partnership with your realtor. You and your realtor are going to set appointments, and you’re going to do boots-on-the-ground research. My friends, I’m not saying that I completely dismiss everything on the internet. I know we live in a digital age. Let’s use it to your advantage. We can do so much that will bring you extra knowledge, and you can bring that knowledge to the table with you, and you and your unicorns can talk about everything, and everyone will be that much more ahead in what you’re looking for.
If you do this all the time, great. Your internet stalking skills are finally going to come in handy. Do you over-research your vacations to death? Cool, we can use that. Do you window shop on Zillow looking for the perfect kitchen or the perfect man cave? Awesome, we can use that, too. Way back on May 7th, 2019, it was Episode 10, one of the very first episodes, one of my dear friends taught me a very valuable lesson when I was helping her buy a home.
Molly was pregnant, and most people think that it’s way too stressful to shop for a home when you’re pregnant. It’s impossible to do home shopping right after you have the child. What was interesting was my friend Molly from episode ten found that her maternity time was an awesome time to utilize internet stalking. She looked at homes, neighborhoods, and all kinds of stuff. During her third trimester, she found valuable and effective online research.
Even after she had the cutie patootie, she figured out how to capitalize on nap time for the first few months. I’ve got a great place where I recapped all of Molly’s tips, plus some other things that I’ve been learning from buyers as we go through the years. Some killer feedback and tips. Keep in mind, if you’re reading this in the future, I’m recording this at the beginning of 2025, and who knows, maybe some new sites will have popped up.
Here’s the basic idea. I’ve got an episode where I give you all the best sites on the internet. I also gave you some fun stuff because, as you’re working on the goals, you’re going to need motivation. We want to keep your spirits up. There are a lot of educational aspects. The truth is, you can do a lot of research, and you should have somewhat of a clue of where you want to live. A lot of that is online. You want to feel safe, comfortable, joyful, and content in where you live.
Talk to your realtor and get their information, but do some of your own research on your own. It’s your home. Your opinion is going to matter. All the great places online, everything that you’re going to find in your internet sleuthing when you’re working on looking at neighborhoods, school districts, crime statistics, walk scores, and all the other secrets that Molly told us about, they’re all updated, and they’re in Episode 227. It’s all there. There are only a couple of updates for 2025 that I want to put in here for you.
Do some research on your own. It’s your home, your opinion is going to matter.
One is that Homes.com is fast becoming a big player in the game. It’s rivaling Zillow, Redfin, Realtor.com, HomeFinder, and the rest of the big boys. In Episode 227, I go into detail on how to properly use these big-boy sites to your advantage. Most importantly, how not to get burned by them as they try to steer you into their inferior realtors and lenders who paid them to be on their site, not vetted in any way. We want to do this to make sure that you avoid the very worst outcome that can happen when you’re researching online, the avalanche of spam that comes from the online sites.
The Truth About Home Buying Services Online
Speaking of skeezy, slimy, and gross spam, there’s something else that’s an update since I did that last episode. 2024 had a huge shakeup in real estate. There was a gigantic lawsuit. The thing about it was, it was a giant shakedown by some unscrupulous class-action lawyers. Those guys made $2 million, and the people got nothing. The result is that, on the internet, there is a ton of misinformation out there. Worse, there are now a bunch of new sites popping up that are offering door-opener a la carte buyer agent service.
If you see one of those, run. Close your laptop or your phone, and clear your cookies and your cache. These people are evil, and they will do lower than the bare minimum. The good news is, as a buyer in 2025, you don’t have to accept that type of terrible service. What’s been going on with online services trying to help buyers for 20 or 25 years, internet companies have been trying to sell that you don’t need a team on your side, just use the internet. Here’s where we are.
Even with the lawsuit, as of 2025, getting a buyer agent to be your advocate and your protector is still very much a thing. As of 2025, the data’s in. It shows that, in most cases, even after the lawsuit, the seller is still paying for most, if not all, of the buyer agent fees. You’ve got your choice. You can go ahead and hire the best of the best in your area. Why wouldn’t you hire Patrick Mahomes or Steph Curry to lead your team instead of some weekend warrior on the internet door-opener site? This is going to save you tens, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Don’t believe the hype that internet options and DIY home buying is going to be best for you. It just isn’t because you have the option to hire a killer team. Enough on that topic. If you want to get a list of all the sites that you can use on the internet, the stuff that gives you the best information for first-time home buyers, those complete lists on everything, buying your first home, it’s all in Episode 227.
Why You Shouldn’t Over-Research Home Buying
This is stuff found by me, the unicorns, but a lot of this stuff came to me directly from the audience, the things that helped them when they were doing their first-time homebuyer buying. That’s 7 and 8. You’ve got your homework. Remember, as you dive into all the terms and definitions and all your online research from these steps, this is not an excuse for you over-researchers to stop steps, pause steps, or skip steps.
You don’t get to go down an episode or internet rabbit hole. Start with deciding first. We did that as step one. Step two, get your guides. Stay in order. That way, you’re going to have multiple people working on your custom plan. I’m excited to help all of you because you are human people, and you can multitask. Do it with a caring real estate support team, some would say with unicorn-like qualities, and you can start working all together planning.
While you’re doing that, you can do some learning at the same time. Go to HowToBuyAHome.com if you want to get your super squad. When you have your unicorn, I tell people, don’t be afraid to push yourself when you’re doing these extra bits of research. This is an exciting time for you, but you should go ahead and put some work in. Cut out the music when you’re in the car, commuting to work, or working out. Instead, listen to some A-to-Z definitions for the next couple of weeks.
I did my best to make them palatable and entertaining. You’re not going to feel like you’re just having someone read you a vocabulary list that you’ve got to study for a test. Especially for those of you out there who are new to this, these definitions are a great place to start so you can gain confidence in a short time. Steps 7 and 8 will help you get knowledge, which creates the confidence and that eliminates the fear. You can do this.
Important Links
- Episode 94: Start of A-Z Terms & Definitions
- Episode 10: Molly’s Story (Homebuying While Pregnant)
- Episode 227: Complete Guide to Online Research
- Homes.com
This podcast was started for YOU, to demystify things for first time home buyers, and help crush the confusion. After helping first timers for over 13 years, I knew there wasn’t t a lot of clear, tangible, useable information out there on the internet, so I started this podcast. Help me spread the word to other people just like you, dying for answers. Tell your friends, family, and perhaps that random neighbor you REALLY want to move out about How to Buy a Home! A really easy way is to hit the share button and text it to your friends. Go for it, help someone out. And if you’re not already a regular listener, subscribe and get constant updates on the market. If you are a regular and learned something, help me help others – give the show a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, or write a review on Spotify. Let’s change the way the real estate industry treats you first time buyers, one buyer at a time, starting with you – and make sure your favorite people don’t get screwed by going into this HUGE step blind and confused. Viva la Unicorn Revolution!
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