First time home buyers are what I love best about selling real estate. Donald often asks me when I get one of these clients if I have "adopted" another child. My usual answer is yes.
They aren't the easiest clients. They sometimes are at the bottom price point and always have tastes that exceed their budgets, but I don't mind digging to find out what the MUST haves are vs. the "but I really want" that list. I have several that really stand out in my memory.
One was a cash buyer. And a lot of you will probably laugh when I tell you that I helped this buyer find a house she could live in for $14,000. It did need new carpet and that was also in her budget. But she really wanted to stand on her own two feet and not have a mortgage payments and she'd saved money for three years and came to me with her dream. I wasn't the first broker she'd approached, but I was the first that said I would work with her.
It's years down the road and she still lives in that house. On moving day her movers broke her water line. And although the bill was just slightly less than the amount of my commission I paid a plumber to go over and fix that water line and I negotiated with the water company to adjust her bill for the leak.
Another is a young college professor who was a renter and wanted a house where she could grow her family. I found her a loan officer who was willing to find the best fit for her mortgage which turned out to be a USDA 100% financing loan. Now that meant that not only did she have to qualify for the loan, but the house did as well. In her price point again, it was no easy task. She ended up with an REO that required some repairs for the loan to close. Now the listing agent was certain that the bank was NOT going to make these repairs. But we sent the request in writing and the repairs were approved and made. She wrote my very first unsolicited review on Zillow and has sent me countless other buyers over the years.
Then there was the young man who I had done a bit of work for his grandfather who was a builder years ago... He also bought a prior foreclosure that was being flipped by an investor. When we found out that it was going to cost $3,000 to get the water turned back on we negotiated the seller to pay that cost to keep that buyer in a position to buy that home. He has since married and become a county commissioner. I later also sold his brother in law his first home which was the house he's brought all three of his babies home to for the first time. They are currently in the market to find a bigger house.
The most recent stand out first time home buyer that captured my heart was Connecticut. ( that's my pet name for her) It was one of those late night I picked up the phone times and we chatted. I signed her up on my web site and she planned a trip through my town where were had ONE day to find THE house. To date that 12 hour experience was my longest one day appointment. Granted she ended up with a fixer, but she ended up with one heck of lake view and she's really just my other daughter now. In May she's going to be one of my daughter's bridesmaids.
All of those first time buyers come from different walks of life, but the thing they have in common is I'm still in their phone contacts and I still hear from them all on a regular basis. Buyers and sellers have come and gone from my life, but never have I lost contact with a single one of those first time home buyers. I'm delighted to call each of them a friend. And I feel like each of them know that if they picked up the phone and told me that there was something they needed from me that I'd be right there with it just as quick as I could get there.
So yup, without a doubt, first time home buyers are what I love best about my job. And honestly I've learned so much from each of them as well. When last year about this time my daughter was under contract for her first home it was a much easier task because I had such a vast amount of experience with first time home buyers. When she would spaz out and they ALL do when it's their first time I was prepared. They range in age from not much younger than me to almost right out of high school and I love all of them. If it's not part of your niche and you're feeling a little eh about what you do for a living, take on a first time home buyer and I promise you'll get excited about real estate again.
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