Siri Norlin spent the past year spiffying up her credit, paying bills in a timely fashion and changing real estate agents before putting the winning bid down on her first home.
Those steps were only a fraction of the work, and worry, required for becoming a first-time homeowner.
Buying a home is never easy, but the process is daunting to first-time house hunters. For Norlin, 31, it required a strict look at her finances — and an open mind as to what her dream house could be.
Norlin nearly found the right house a few months ago, but the inspection process revealed problems too ominous to overlook.
“We were so new to the process, so ready to move into a new house,” said Norlin, who started to question whether this was the right time to buy a home after the experience.
A program provided by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ultimately helped along her decision. The program lets first-time buyers put down just $100 on HUD-designated properties. Norlin is scheduled to close on her new home in the Acres Green section of Littleton on Jan. 7.
Mike Kraft, a Realtor with The Group in Loveland, said first-time buyers have an edge in the current marketplace.
The property they buy won’t have inflated equity, Kraft said, and many sellers are willing to help with closing costs.
“It’s a buyer’s market. There’s a lot of inventory out there,” he said.
First-time buyers can check out a new one-time tax credit made available last year. Just watch out for those strings.
“It’s an interest-free loan that can be paid back over 15 years, or when you sell the house,” said Rebekah Brock, a broker associate with Prestige Real Estate Group. “You have to buy the house in order to take that $7,500 off your taxable income.”
Not everyone can apply for the loan. Those who make $75,000 or less annually can qualify for the full amount, but those who make more get access to incrementally less than the full $7,500, she said. Couples buying their first house can make up to $150,000 in combined income and still qualify for the full deduction, she said.
Former City Park neighborhood resident Molly Norris, 35, said she and her husband, Nathan, began house hunting in August.
“We were renting a 100-year-old duplex, but I wanted to downsize,” Norris said. She and her husband eventually found their first home, a two-bedroom beauty in Chaffee Park.
She pre-qualified for a home loan.
“Don’t look at houses until you know what you qualify for. . . . I’m glad we did that,” she said.
Norris also used the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to provide both financing and the educational tools needed to increase their comfort level with the process. The CHFA aid does come with a catch. The person selling the house must have owned the property for at least 90 days, she said.
The first house she bid on gave her a lesson in what can go wrong during the process.
“The seller was very demanding. We had to walk away,” she said, although the next house she bid on proved to be the right one. “We found pretty much the house that matched our dreams, except it didn’t have a fireplace.”
The Norrises house-shopped for less than three months, but in that time interest rates changed dramatically. That’s something other first-timers should consider, she said, because the loan one gets pre-approved for today might look different in a few weeks.
George Todd, co-owner of Todd Realty Group, said house hunters need to keep the resale value of properties in mind as they shop around.
It might sound counter-intuitive to be thinking about selling a home you haven’t even bid on, but it’s a reality homebuyers need to face, Todd said.
“You want a house that will appeal to the most amount of buyers on the market at any given time,” Todd said.
That doesn’t mean you should forget the home of your dreams, but understand it could take longer to sell when the time comes, he said. So consider a home’s location, asking price and floor plan carefully before placing a bid.
Beyond that, first-timers need to be as patient as feasible during their first home-shopping trips.
“There’s a fine line between looking too much and looking enough,” said Todd, adding that the process gives buyers a good idea of a market’s value.
“I would be loathe to let (clients) write an offer until they’ve seen 20-25 houses. . . . If you need to see 50 houses to find the right one, that’s what you have to do.”
Where to look for assistance
Resources for first-time homebuyers:
First Time Home Buyer Grants in Colorado:
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development:
First-timers also can visit for more information on grant programs available through the federal government.
