Home Buying Tips
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Truth About Managing Risk as a Homeowner
Ever since we first toured the home that we’d go on to make our own, there was something literally looming over the house that worried me a bit: a giant tree in the backyard. Specifically, as I’ve learned, it’s a silver maple tree — and, while it does provide some great shade, watching the branches…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Announcing My New (and Free) Homebuyer’s Guide
For the past 18 months, I’ve been writing about my experience 1) buying a home and then 2) discovering everything that being a homeowner entails. Along the way, I’ve covered some topics that I’d never heard anyone else really talk about and have developed a few tips that I think others could learn from. That’s…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Hosting Our First Guest in the House
After more than a year in our new home, we finally hosted our first guest last month. While the ability to have overnight guests was a partial factor in why we elected to upgrade to owning a home versus renting a one-bedroom apartment, the amount of time that it took to actually have someone over…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: Average Annual Homeowner Expenses vs. Mine
In one of my daily searches for financial news recently, I came across a report from the site Real Estate Witch (which is owned by Clever Real Estate) detailing how much the average American homeowner spends on their house — not even including their mortgage. What it found was, heading into 2025, the average per…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: How the Pros We Worked With Are Still Helping Us
A few months ago, I wrote about how the professionals we choose to work with when buying our home made a huge difference and made our experience a positive one. Now, one year later, I’m somewhat surprised to say that they continue to help us out on a regular basis despite the transaction that first…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: One Year as Homeowners
It feels absolutely crazy to say but it’s now been a full year since we closed on our house. Perhaps it doesn’t feel as long since we didn’t actually move in until closer to Christmas — but, either way, time has flown. Before my wife and I got married, her mother said something to her…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: The Problem with Appliance Repair “Quotes”
When we were buying our house, one piece of advice we were given was, “Get three quotes before hiring someone for repairs.” While this sounds like a lot of work, I can absolutely appreciate this tip. After all, even when you’re potentially spending thousands of dollars, saving any money you can is still important. As…
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Lessons From a First-Time Home Buyer: What Fed Rate Cuts Could Mean for Home Buyers and Owners
Yesterday, for the first time since 2020, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates. In fact, to the surprise of some observers, the rate was cut by half a point (as opposed to the quarter point that was widely anticipated). For many people, this update might not mean much — but, for those who have been…
