The final four questions from the 20 most-asked by first-time buyers — including real-life success stories and crucial myths to stop believing now. In this episode, David Sidoni closes out the 7-part series on the 20 most common questions from first-time homebuyers. Questions 17 through 20 tackle some of the biggest decision points in the journey: What type of property is best for you? Are HOAs really that bad? Who actually pays your agent? And should you wait to buy? With clarity, empathy, and strategic insight, David unpacks each question using real buyer stories — like Melissa’s bold move into a condo with an HOA in pricey Southern California — and explains why the biggest cost you face might be waiting too long. He also breaks down how commissions work after the 2024 legal changes, and why building your homebuying team early is not just smart — it could save you thousands. If you’re serious about buying but still wrestling with doubts, this episode is your crash course in cutting through the noise and making informed, confident choices.
Highlights:
- Should you buy a condo, townhome, or single-family home? Depends on your long-term plan — not your dream aesthetic.
- Real buyer story: Melissa chooses a condo with a $450 HOA fee and still saves money versus renting.
- HOAs aren’t evil: 80% of new homes include them, and rejecting them limits your housing options.
- You don’t pay your buyer’s agent. Even post-lawsuit, most fees are still seller-paid.
- Why hiring your real estate team early (not just a lender!) makes all the difference.
- Waiting for the “right time” can cost you more — it’s about time in the market, not timing the market.
Referenced Episodes:
- 154, 319 – Condo vs. SFR
- 324 – Melissa
- 322, 75, 110, 220 – Inspection
- 175, 176, 177 – Bidding wars
- 229, 275 – Unicorn and disclosures
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David Sidoni, the “How to Buy a Home Guy,” is a seasoned real estate professional and consumer advocate with two decades of experience helping first-time homebuyers navigate the real estate market. His podcast, “How to Buy a Home,” is a trusted resource for anyone looking to buy their first home. It offers expert advice, actionable tips, and inspiring stories from real first-time homebuyers. With a focus on making the home-buying process accessible and understandable, David breaks down complex topics into easy-to-follow steps, covering everything from budgeting and financing to finding the right home and making an offer.
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Real Answers Pt 7: Condos, HOAs, Realtors & Timing
Welcome to the show. This is the finale of the twenty most frequently asked questions by first-time homebuyers. Let’s wrap it up.
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Condo/Townhome Vs. Single-Family Home Decision
What is happening, my Inquisitive How to Buy a Homies? This is part 7 of the 20 questions that you need to clarify everything you want to know about buying your first home. We got four more to go, so let’s wrap them up, starting with question seventeen. “Should I buy a condo, a townhome, or a single-family home?” This one’s a classic, and the answer’s a classic, too. It depends.
I know. You’re not going to get some cookie-cutter response for me, but I also understand that you hate, “That depends.” It’s not my favorite answer to give, but it’s the one that I’ve been giving for decades. Like most everything else in this crazy journey of first-time homebuying, the right move for you is going to be based on your situation, your market, and most importantly, your long-term plans and goals with this purchase.
I know that a lot of you are curious. When it comes to buying a condo or a townhome, that information is also on the show, starting back in January of 2023. That was in episode 154 and episode 319. If this is your most burning question, go there and get the full details. What I’m going to do here is I’ll give you some real-life homie stories, reader interviews, people who have been in your shoes and figured out which decision was right for them. Hopefully, we’re all going to be able to learn from them.
Melissa was featured back in episode 324. She bought a condo in southern California. That is one of the most expensive markets in the country when it comes to buying a home. What helped her pull the trigger for the right decision for her was shifting her mindset. She told me the biggest eye-opener was realizing that an HOA fee, hers was $450 a month. For her math, it was still more affordable than trying to wait and try to save up for a detached house that was going to cost her $1,000 more in a monthly payment.
She told me, “Everyone was telling me, David, ’Don’t do an HOA,’” but she said those people who were telling her that weren’t living in this market. That’s right, Melissa. That’s why it depends. First, you have to understand the basic math of the entire housing market. You have to understand it for yourself, and then you make the decision that’s right for your own personal rent replacement strategy or your personal strategy. That’s why there’s no cookie-cutter answer to this.
Melissa didn’t want to wait for her to start building equity, so she found a compromise with the HOA and found a place that she loved. She was stoked to be able to stop renting. If you had your heart set on a single-family home, condos and townhomes don’t need to be looked at as a compromise. It’s a strategy. Melissa was facing insane prices, and she used a condo to get her foot in the door. You start with a condo or a townhome, build equity, and then level up to a house later.
“You wouldn’t do surgery without a doctor. Why try to buy a home without a pro?” – David Sidoni
As for the HOA debate, this one I have been talking to people about for ages. I go into full detail on the episodes of Condo vs. Townhome vs. Single-Family Home that I mentioned earlier. I hear so much animosity from everybody, whether it’s online, people reaching out to me, comment sections, or subreddits. People freak out about HOAs, so let me briefly touch on it. Melissa figured out that for her, they weren’t the devil, and everyone else was wrong.
The first thing is that 80% of the new construction homes built in America have an HOA. About 30% of all homes in the United States, including those, all have an HOA. For you as a homebuyer, if you don’t have all the information and you’re listening to people’s negative comments about it instead of making an informed decision, then you’re drastically limiting your options. That’s 30% percent for all the homes in the US and 80% if you’re looking at new ones. That’s not a good thing if you are limiting your options.
There’s one big thing going on with real estate. Say it with me, everybody. Low inventory. Condos and townhomes have a monthly fee that covers the exterior maintenance, the landscaping, and sometimes, your utilities or insurance. The big thing that they also cover, especially if you are in a condo or a townhome, is your roof, your foundation, the exterior of the home, and all of your big-ticket items.
If you are still looking at the math and going, “That sounds cool. Plus, I don’t feel like mowing my lawn or getting up on the roof for the first couple of years I own the home, so I’m down with this,” the other thing that’s important about getting all the information about an HOA is that you also budget a line item that you need to factor into your full math, your spreadsheet, your rent replacement strategy, and your comparison. It’s the gigantic insurance payment that you don’t make with an HOA but that you are required to make with a single-family home. There’s a lot more on this debate in those full episodes, so make sure you check those out.
What’s the answer for you? The best property, whether it be a condo, townhome, or single-family standalone home, is the one that gets you out of renting and into equity. Understand that it might not be your forever home, but maybe it’s a stepping stone. You can use that right away, so you stop making your landlords rich and start your own wealth journey. It’s your first step, and that step is going to change everything in your life.
The best property, whether it’s a condo, townhome, or single-family standalone home, is the one that gets you out of renting and into building equity.
How Long It Takes To Buy A Home
We’re going to question eighteen. “How long does it take to buy a home from start to finish?” Buying a home isn’t instantaneous. It’s not Amazon. You don’t click on it. It’s a process that can take months. A lot of first-timers are curious, some of them even anxious, about how the timeline works. I see people asking all the time, “How long does it usually take to buy a house?” or, “If I start looking at houses now, when can I realistically close on the home?”
I get it. I understand why people are asking these questions. It’s a practical question if you’re looking at a lease ending and you’re trying to time it, you’ve got a family thing, maybe a marriage or a pregnancy, you’re going to be moving in with somebody, or maybe it’s a job relocation. Understand that the timeline is important.
When you go online and look at the answers to this question, most of the answers you’re going to find are extremely technical. They’re breaking down the exact timeframe of getting a loan approval, shopping for homes, and then once your offer gets accepted, the closing process. It tells you all the details on how long that’s going to take.
What I’m going to do right here is I’m going to give you a humongous, enormous, redonkulously big insider secret. This one is going to help a lot when it comes to your timeline. The real estate experts generally estimate a timeframe of 3 to 6 months for the whole process, from start to finish, in a normal market. If you work a pre-timeline preparation before that standard 3 to 6-month timeline starts, you can cut that in half.
Why is that important, and how the heck do you do that? Let’s say you have a date that you want to hit because of moving in with someone, marriage, pregnancy, job transfer, end of lease, or whatever. Let’s say it’s ten months from now. If you explore in this pre-preparation period, you can give yourself options to be nimble when you get ready to start writing offers. You can make the whole move in 45 days instead of 6 months. You have more options. Here, Options is the magic O word. Options are the key to saving you tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. That is the big difference that you do that will help you get your dream home.
Your timeline and flexibility provide the most options. Thus, the answer to the question, “How long does it take to buy a home from start to finish?” Technically, it’s 3 to 6 months. If you create a more accurate and tighter timeline for yourself with the work that you do before you begin all the technical parts of that 3 to 6-month timeline, it could be much shorter. Thus, giving you flexibility and making you more attractive to the seller buying the home.
To do this, you go back to episode 164. That’s the Chutes and Ladders episode. That’s where you find out where you are on the Chutes and Ladders board. It’s 100 spaces, but I talk about there being 100,000 spaces when you’re trying to figure out where you are starting in the process. Go back and read the episode to understand what I’m talking about.
You then set up your last lease ever program. That could be 6 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, or 2 years. It doesn’t matter. Start up action steps. Start up simple, easy, and very baby, nice steps that you can do once a month. You are working on the big three, which are your credit score, your debt, and your savings. That’s it. There’s no intense research, no webinars, no classes, and no workshops that you need to pay for. There is nothing you need to run out and spend hours of your time. Easy peasy. Start that program, and that’ll help you with the technical timeline when you get there.
How long you’re going to need to do that is going to be dependent on where you’re sitting on that first-time homebuyer Chutes and Ladders board from episode 164. What square you’re on on the Chutes and Ladders board is going to give you your individual pre-timeline timelines. It lets you know all the steps. The cool thing is you don’t have to do it on your own. You can work with a fully vetted unicorn or a unicorn-like team.
If you do that big insider tip, that’s going to be a huge difference in how long it takes from start to finish. You won’t be following just the stock answers that you find on the internet. With this tip, you’re going to gain so much more control over the extremely hard-to-pin-down, tremendously fluid calendar of home and loan shopping and closing on a home.
What I’m going to do is I’m going to give you the details from that 3 to 6-month timeline, the average standard time it takes if you don’t do a bunch of pre-preparation preparation. It breaks down like this. There are a few weeks of mortgage pre-approval paperwork, a couple of months of house hunting, which could be longer, and then the closing period and the escrow period. That’s usually about 30 to 60 days from an accepted offer until you get the keys at closing. That’s where they get the 3 to 6 months. That’s for your average non pre-prepared buyer.
For you, it’s a lot better. If you work the last lease ever, your loan approval can get done months, even years, ahead of you going out and looking at homes. That part of the equation, instead of being a couple of weeks, it’s zero days. It’s done. You’re also working on a continual process with your financial situation as things change along the way.
You are taking a look at your own individual big three, but you and your lender partner are taking a look at what’s going on in the market. You might not even be home shopping yet, but you’ve been making corrections, looking at options, and finding creative solutions even before you ever go look at a home. That means you’re more prepared than 80% to 90% of the people who are touring homes the same weekend.
You’re starting at zero days for a loan. They say the next step, shopping for homes, takes a couple of months, or it could be longer. The cool thing is if you’re working a pre-preparation with your real estate support team, already using the internet drive-bys and getting to know neighborhoods, you can chop that down to a weekend or two. That’s because you guys have already been window shopping, checking out the details on the communities and school districts, looking at the new home construction options, triple checking all your financial parameters, and dozens of other things that you do while you’re working in that pre-planning phase.
How are we so far? Loan process, zero days. Your shopping process, a couple of weekends. We get an accepted offer, and you’re officially under contract. This period of under contract is called different things in different states, like under contract, in escrow, pending, contract to close, the closing period, the closing process, the option period, etc.
The standard time for this particular time period is 30 to 45 days. The standard period for this time is 30 to 45 days. This is when you do all your due diligence, including doing the inspections, getting the appraisal, getting the title information, reviewing all those documents on the title, looking at the HOA and the HOA documents, and checking out the city and state requirements, documents, and all that stuff.
The bulk of your time in that period is going to be spent on getting your loan to the underwriting department of whoever is giving you the loan, so be prepared. If you do your inspections quickly, negotiate everything you need on that, and get everything done, you could be ready in as little as 5 or 7 days to fully commit and be like, “I’m in. Let’s get the loan done. Give me my keys.” That’s where the underwriters come in. The bulk of that 30 to 45 days is for the loan underwriters.
You’re going, “I already had my approval for my lender.” The underwriters are not the lender that you’ve been working with for 6 months, 1 year, or 2 years. They are not the person who gave you that full loan approval. I know. I don’t like it. It’s deceiving. You get a full loan approval, but it can be a real kick in the groin when you find out, “Wait a minute. This is a full loan approval, and now you have to send it to someone else?” That’s the way it works.
The banks can’t get full approval until there’s an accepted contract with a very specific property. There are so many factors, numbers, and equations that go into it that the true full approval can’t happen until you have an accepted offer, no matter how much work you do. Since everyone’s got their information, the bank wants to double, triple, and quadruple-check before they loan out hundreds of thousands of dollars.
For the underwriter, what they do is they verify everything. They verify all the specific information on that specific home and let the financial institution know, “This is the loan, and this is the exact amount.” This isn’t like a car loan. You don’t have that blank check to walk into the dealer. This is specific to which property you are buying, and it has to be under the accepted contract.
You’re dealing with an underwriter or two, or three, who are a bunch of randos that you’ve never heard of until you got under contract, and they’re going to financially strip you naked. They’re going to ask you for documentation that you’ve already provided to your lending team three times already. It truly happens. That’s why we have the 30 to 45 days to get the full money in the wire, ready to buy the home.
Here’s where the magic happens. If you do the pre-preparation preparation, you can cut that 30 to 45 days down to sometimes 21 days, even with underwriting. I’ve even sometimes seen good lenders work with the underwriters and get it down to 15 days. Why would you want to do that? It’s because what if that’s what the seller wants? What if that’s what the seller needs? That’s a super strong negotiating tool for you.
Remember, real estate all boils down to two things. From the seller’s perspective, they’re trying to figure out time or money. The more options that you can provide for the seller on time, if that’s something that becomes important to them, then the more willing they’re going to be to negotiate on the money part, which works in your favor.
Grand totals. Zero days for the loan approval, 2weeks to home shop, and a 21-day closing after you get your offer accepted. That means you could do this whole thing in five weeks. Should you do it in five weeks? Who knows? It’s your individual thing. If you do the pre-preparation preparation, then you have this option. That could mean if somebody needs that, if the seller with your perfect home or a seller who’s given away an incredible bargain has that home there and they need to do it in 21 days, you can pounce on it. Not to mention the fact that you can always have this in your back pocket when you’re trying to time it perfectly with the end of the lease, a big life moment, job promotion, or even a vacation.
You always have the option to not do it in 21 days and take your time and shop for homes. You got a fully approved loan that’s ready to go to the underwriter. Your finances are way in order, so you can look at things for two, three, or four months. It’s your call, as long as you’ve done this all ahead of time, you studied the market, and you made the strategic decision that weighing the economic ramifications of waiting and taking your time is going to benefit you.
As long as you know where the market is going, where interest rates are going, and you’re not going to miss anything, it’s a little bit of a gamble, but you have the ability to do that when you do the pre-preparation preparation. You get yourself as ready as you can so you can offer the most dope daddy offer possible when something pops up. It’s all about options. You can get more options with the pre-planning planning period before you enter what the internet’s going to tell you is a 3 to 6-month period to buy a home.
It’s all about options. You’ll have more of them during the pre-planning phase—before entering what the internet often describes as the 3 to 6-month homebuying period.
The interviews with the real-life homies who have done this process have tons of examples of people getting pre-prepared and prepared. They could time their purchase perfectly with the moments in their lives. There are so many stories. They were doing the math and decided, “Maybe we should break our lease,” or they tried to time it exactly with their lease.
It could also be that they decided to move faster because suddenly, they got a ridiculous $300 or $400 rent increase. I even had one that was like, “We’re pregnant. Our timeline has moved up.” You can keep an eye. If home prices start going up or interest rates start dropping, you’re ready to go. You don’t have to scramble and get shoved into that 3 to 6-month timeline. With options, you could do things as quickly as you like, however is the most advantageous for you.
Here’s the final thought on timelines. Once you’re prepared and you start doing things for real, buckle up. You could find the perfect deal on your first day out. Here’s the warning. Once you have an accepted offer, the first 10 to 20 days are going to be a whirlwind or a tornado of paperwork, inspections, appraisals, texts, emails, and phone calls. Gen Z and Millennials, you’re going to have to answer the phone. You’re also going to have to read emails, but just for a couple of weeks. You can then get a relationship with everyone and text everybody.
That time period can be crazy. I have a lot of first-time homebuyers who took vacation time or used PDOs in the days after their offer got accepted. It becomes a part-time job for a couple of weeks. The best way to make that as stress-free as possible and the smoothest ride you can get is to start now, even if you think you’re eighteen months out. Future you is going to thank you.
Importance Of Home Inspection
Question number nineteen is, “Should I get a home inspection? What if it reveals red flag issues?” In most cases, you should get a home inspection. Especially if you’re a first-time homebuyer, that inspection is going to be one of the most important things during the entire process of buying a home. I said most of the time.
In some cases, if you’re buying a condo or an apartment where a lot of the big ticket items, like the roof, the exterior, the foundation, or whatever, are all covered by an HOA and the competition is crazy fierce, I know that sometimes, people have had to waive the inspection. That can be okay because that might be the only option for them to be even looked at to make a purchase, as long as you and your real estate team have looked at everything very thoroughly and you understand exactly what is and what is not covered by the HOA or the building. For most of you, you’re going to want to do it, for sure.
As for what to do and how to calculate the importance of your home inspection findings, this is a big one. There’s too much for me to do here, so check the episodes. We’ve got full episodes where I broke it down all the way down in heavy detail because this is important. I also know that several of the homie interviews have shared stories that underscore how important the inspection process can be, and sometimes save them from a disastrous purchase.
A lot of homies, when I interviewed them, tell me about the one, two, or multiple homes they backed out of that they thought were their dream home after the inspection uncovered anything from structural issues, a roof leak, septic or plumbing issues, electrical scares, or other things that aren’t visible when you are touring the home in an open house or with your realtor. I could tell you from those interviews that there were a lot of people telling me that it busted them up. They had broken hearts.
Having the right team to help you know when to walk away is going to make sure you avoid a complete disaster later that would stomp and crush your heart, but it would also take a big chunk out of your wallet. The right quality support team can help you make sure that maybe this is one you want to walk away from. Sometimes, they can get you a different happy ending because they might be able to help negotiate a full repair on a big issue, like $10,000 or $20,000, or a straight credit from the seller so you can do the repair yourself.
The big thing they’re going to help you do, and something that I heard in a lot of the interviews, was that they were so grateful to have that unicorn team walking them through the 80-page inspection report to help discover and decipher what’s a critical issue, what’s a safety issue, or what’s cosmetic. The key takeaway is that a great inspection with a great referral to a great inspector don’t chance out there, and a fantastic unicorn realtor support team that’s going to help you interpret is going to be your game-changers.
When you have a quality agent, they just don’t hand you the report. They help you understand it. They’re going to know when to walk away, when to negotiate, and when that is maybe a squeaky floorboard instead of a complete deal breaker. Make sure you have an expert team you trust because you need expert interpretation. Otherwise, you risk overreacting or missing a serious red flag. This is a fantastic segue into our last question.
Necessity Of A “Unicorn” Real Estate Agent
The twentieth most asked question was, “Do I need a real estate agent? How do I choose a good one?” You need a real estate agent. You need a realtor. Most of the time, the seller is the one who’s going to pay for most and, oftentimes, all of their fees. Why in the world would you not hire the best, most experienced, most first-time homebuyer-centric, and dedicated agent? Why wouldn’t you hire the best one? That’s why you don’t just need an agent or a realtor. You need a unicorn realtor and a unicorn lender. The difference between a standard realtor and what I call a unicorn realtor can be the difference between a dream outcome and a complete financial nightmare.
Why the name? Why unicorns? It’s because they’re rare. They shouldn’t be, but in the broken real estate system, a lot of the realtors either don’t know what’s going on or they won’t give you the time of day unless you’re buying your 2nd or 3rd home, all cash. A unicorn treats you and your $200,000 starter home plan and eventual purchase like it’s a cash $5 million deal. They grow their business through wonderfully satisfied and happy clients. They’re not looking at everyone like a number. They’re looking at everyone realizing that this is the biggest step of their life.
The unicorns have real experience, not just a real estate license and a car magnet. They’re willing to put in the time and compassion it takes to guide a first-time homebuyer like you. They’ll help you save money and stress, not by negotiating the home purchase, but by connecting you early with a unicorn mortgage Pro. That early planning means more options. More options are the best possible outcome for you.
Unicorn realtors don’t just open doors and write offers, and unicorn lenders don’t punch numbers and give you a PDF approval. These people are planners, educators, neighborhood experts, and full-on first-time homebuying strategists. Truly, whether you use this show and ask me for a unicorn or whether you go out and you find one on your own, that’s fine with me. Whatever you do to make sure you have a unicorn-style team behind you is the most important part about, “Should I use a realtor?”
You can go to HowToBuyAHome.com and get one of our fully vetted, elite group of unicorns, or you can go out and find one on your own, but here’s the separation. Here are the seven tips to look for. I call it the seven tips to unicorn spotting. Number one, planning and education first is what they focus on. Regular agents might jump right into the house hunting, but a unicorn is going to walk you through your personalized plan first before you even start looking. They understand there are tons of different options out there for you, and maybe some that might take a little bit of time to build up, or maybe some you’d never even considered.
These guides and advocates who are looking out for you in your best interest help you understand the credit, the savings goals, the local market trends, and even which lenders might be best for you. Months before you even go out showing, they’re going to help you figure all that stuff out. They’re going to make sure that you’re laying the groundwork so you’re not caught off guard down the road and, most importantly, so you can fully utilize all the options at your disposal and do your absolute best. Buying a home can sometimes get a little overwhelming.
The second thing to look for is local market expertise. Unicorns know their neighborhoods inside and out. They’re not just picking listings off Zillow. They know which streets are going to flood, which homes sit on bad foundations, and which listings are overhyped. Their insider intelligence can save you tens of thousands of dollars and future headaches.
The third one is something a lot of people don’t think about, but reputation. A unicorn, a unicorn team member, or someone representing you with great local name recognition is huge to the sellers, but most importantly, to the agent that’s representing the home that you want to buy. Think about it. They want to get their seller the best deal, but much more than that, they want to be assured that the buyer and the agent bringing the offer are legit.
The worst thing that can happen to a listing agent, someone selling a home, is them having to tell their seller who got an accepted offer and is packing their bags and their boxes, “Sorry, Mr. Seller. The deal fell apart. We have to start all over.” Reputation counts. Who writes your offer can be as important as what you write in your offer.
The fourth unicorn spotting tip is that unicorns are not part of the 71% of agents who didn’t sell a home in 2024. They’re not part of the 87% of real estate agents who only last in the business for 5 years before they quit because they take their careers seriously and spend countless hours honing their craft to offer the highest level of service possible. The saddest secret in real estate is that the minimum required to be a licensed realtor is so insanely pathetic. It’s poultry. It’s minimal. You want to make sure that you have an advanced, trained individual who’s gone well beyond the minimum requirement to get a license.
Tip five for unicorn spotting is empathy and advocacy. It’s someone who’s got your best interest at heart and someone operating with a first-time homebuyer mindset, making sure that they’re completely in tune with this process. It could be emotional and overwhelming. They’re going to make sure that they dedicate the time that it takes to give you confidence and comfort of being able to move forward, not feeling like you’re being pushed into anything without understanding the whole process. The bottom line is they hear you and they treat you with respect.
The sixth unicorn spotting tip is strategic offer crafting. This is huge, especially in the competitive market we’ve got and had for the last few years. Writing an offer without overpaying but still making sure you win the bid is both an art and a science. Unicorns come armed with all the tools I’ve talked about in episodes 175 through 177, like escalation clauses, appraisal gap strategies, a perfectly timed negotiation with where it is in the market, and all that stuff.
They can coach you through all the best tips so that when you are in a showdown with twelve other people, sometimes, you can even get the home without being the highest-priced bid because the agent builds a strong rapport. They structure the right terms, understand what the seller’s agent and the seller want, and present the cleanest offer.
The seventh tip is one that not a lot of people talk about. It’s getting someone who does post-closing support. It’s not that hard for you to figure out. The last thing you want is to work with someone where you become a notch on their belt, or you’re a line item in their spreadsheet for how many homes they sold this year or how much money they made, and then they never talk to you again. You can find this out pretty easily.
When you’re interviewing people, ask them, “Do you stay in contact with the people after they buy the home? What do you do? Do you have events for these people? Do you do anything within the community? Do you have a list of vendors that you recommend to these people?” All that stuff, they might have some stock answers for.
I’m not kidding. You could find out by looking at their Instagram and their Facebook page the things that they do to market. Do they talk about, “This is when we had a get-together with all my clients because I’m still here for all my clients, helping them with contractors, CPA recommendations, decorators, gardeners, and anything else that they need.” That’s something you can check out early. Aftercare of a client shows you that someone’s got some serious, good unicorn tendencies in their business. Those are the things that you’re looking for. I’m not a thirteen-year-old girl. I say unicorn because it’s rare. All those tips, there’s not a lot out there.
A quick truth bomb. Get ready because salty Dave is about to come in hot. I don’t just talk about the unicorns because they do a better thing for you. I also talk about it to help people avoid what can be a real problem and could end up costing them tons of money. If you’re out there and you’re thinking that you can do this on your own, or you’re trying to find a way to game the system, you might be exploring hiring a discount agent because they offer you a kickback.
Let me be real with you guys. The money that you think you’re going to save is going to be absolute peanuts compared to what a unicorn realtor and a lender could help you with. It’s not just in the savings, but the money you’re going to earn down the line. It’s all going to come through the initial negotiations. The system to hire a unicorn realtor versus one of those discount agents who might give you money on paper right away is set up so that the seller pays for most or all of it.
The truth bomb is that if you’re looking for a deal when you hire your agent, that’s like looking for a discount attorney for your murder trial because they have a Groupon, even though you have enough money to hire the best attorney. If you are still stuck on that and that’s your strategy, this is the wrong show for you.
Let’s go back to the question from the internet. Do you need a realtor? Yeah. We’ve made that pretty clear. You could try to do it on your own or try to go it alone, but why would you? If you want to beat the game and come out a winner, you don’t need any agent. You need an agent who’s going to do the best for you. You can go to HowToBuyAHome.com and ask me for a unicorn or figure out how to find a unicorn yourself. Whatever you do, get yourself a unicorn.
That’s it for the twenty questions answered. Don’t hit stop on this show and then go back to scrolling through homes on Zillow. This is your moment to do something. If you are serious about buying a home, not just dreaming, but doing it and starting a plan, then it’s time to stop winging it and get yourself a freaking unicorn. Get the real deal, someone who knows the local market, someone who gets first-time homebuyers, and someone who’s going to fight for you to win like it’s their own mortgage on the line.
The biggest tips from my answers in these twenty questions usually involve getting a unicorn early and a professional guide ASAP, whether you’re buying a home next week, next month, or next year. There’s a reason for that. The preparation creates options, which will end up with you getting the best deal. I’m going to say it one more time. This isn’t a sales pitch to get you to use one of my vetted unicorns. If it were, then this would be the worst, longest sales pitch ever. I’m doing a seven-part series on answering your questions. It’s a little drawn out, don’t you think? We’ve got 350 episodes. It’s the best, most intricate, and most complete tips that you can find anywhere, and it’s all free. It’s not a sales pitch.
Preparation creates options, which ultimately helps you get the best deal.
My mission back in 2019 was to start a revolution, and it’s in full swing. We got thousands of homies turned from renters to homeowners. There are tens of thousands that I don’t even know about who have used this free education and empowerment tool, so they could be part of the next wave of homebuyers doing it right. The revolution is happening, and you can get in on it, too.
Be better than the average buyer. Things are different. You need to be an outlier, an early adopter, and an innovator. You have to be ahead of the curve with the best team in your area, working hard for you and with you way before you ever go out and start touring homes. Get on it. Go to HowToBuyAHome.com. Hit that big old button and tell me where you are. Ask a question if you want to, but get in there. Get yourself a unicorn team. I’ll hook you up with a unicorn realtor and help you start building a plan that works. No fluff, no BS, no obligation.
There are over 3 million licensed agents and only less than 300 unicorns. They’re the best of the best of the best. You can talk to them for free and decide if you want to hire them. Whatever you do, hire the best. Get yourself your own unicorn, especially in 2025 and 2026, because you are not just buying a house. You’re setting up your financial future. You can do this.
Important Links
- Ep. 154 – Condos vs. Single-Family Home – Which Should You Buy?
- Ep. 319 – Condo vs. Townhome vs. House – Which One is Right for You?
- Ep. 324 – How a Unicorn Realtor Helped Melissa Win Her Dream Condo (INTERVIEW)
- Ep. 322 – Am I Ready to Buy a Home? The 5 Questions You Must Ask
- Ep. 75 – Inspection Red Flags, New Tips For 2022 Bidding Wars, And…To Wait, Or Not to Wait?
- Ep. 110 – Home Inspections For First-Time Home Buyers
- Ep. 220 – Interview With Clarisse – Home Inspections: When And How To Walk Away From The Deal
- Ep. 164 – The Basics: 10 Steps to Buying Your First Home
- Ep. 175 – How to win in BIDDING WARS in the 2023 market – Part 1
- Ep. 176 – How to win BIDDING WARS in the 2023 market – Part 2
- Ep. 177 – How to win in BIDDING WARS in the 2023 market – Part 3
- Ep. 229 – What Is A Unicorn Real Estate Team?
- Ep. 275 – Market Update & Unicorn Disclosures