Buying a home in Boston is a tough learning process for first timers
Buying your first home is just flat out hard. Buying your first home in the Boston area can be even harder. With so many homes going for more than the asking price, open houses being annoyingly crowded, and places staying on the market for such a short time, being a buyer in Boston metro area is no easy feat.
We spoke with some locals who have just recently moved into their first home or are still on the market to see what they struggled with, what they learned, and what advice they would give to newcomers.
Tal (30) and Lauren (28) Baron
Moved from Somerville to Wakefield in June 2015.
Tal and Lauren were renting together in Somerville when they got married in 2014.
“We liked living there but figured we would start looking for a house a few months after we got married,” Tal said. “We were casually looking in fall and winter [of 2014] and [then] learned our landlord was selling his building.”
That really turned up the heat, especially since the landlord initially told the couple they’d have to be out of their rental by spring of 2015.
Tal and Lauren had already taken a Redfin sponsored class meant to help first time homebuyers, a common step for inexperienced buyers desperate for advice. Now, they started talking to lenders and learned an important lesson: Not all advice is good advice.
“We learned we had to be pre-approved from a bank and that was a really interesting experience,” Tal said. “We were surprised to learn we were pre-approved for a much higher number than anticipated, that was shocking. It almost seemed irresponsible for the mortgage company to tell us we could afford something like this…If we bought something for this much, we couldn’t eat.”
Finally the couple entered the grueling process of attending multiple open houses every weekend, eventually hitting 20 or 30 homes. The stiff competition for houses in Greater Boston made the process even more difficult, the couple said.
“It starts out as a fun experience and then becomes a job,” Tal said. “Anything that looked good went way over asking, like $30-, $40-, $50,000 over asking.”
Lauren said they put their first offer on a place in Melrose.
“We even tried to write a nice personal letter with a picture from wedding,” she said. “It was a sold for way over asking.”
They put a second offer on a place in Woburn that was also outbid and then finally their third offer was accepted on the place where they now live in Wakefield.
Their realtor asked them if they could be flexible with the closing date, which they were able to agree to since their landlord ended up letting them stay until September. The Baron’s think the flexible move-in date is what ultimately won them the bid, which was for the asking price.
As for overarching lessons the couple learned during their process? Be ready to move quickly.
“You might start your search casually and you have to know when the market is the way it has been you go from casual to very serious very quickly,” Tal said. “Things escalate and you have to be ready to make very big decisions with little time.”
Rich Boyle (25)
Waiting on his offer to be approved to move from Allston to Quincy.
Boyle is a hardware design engineer and has been saving for a home since he graduated from school and started working full time. He is renting in Allston and is hoping to get approved to buy his first condo in Quincy in the next few weeks.
“I never expected it to be this quickly,” he said.
Like the Barons, Boyle felt things began to happen very fast once he dipped his toe in the homebuying water in February.
“The most stressful part was deciding if the property was the right one because the turnaround time was so fast,” he said. “We had to go to the open house and be ready to make an offer that day. There is a lot of panic in that moment — ‘Is this the right one?'”
Boyle didn’t attend an official class on buying, but mentioned that having a good real estate team, helpful parents and knowledgeable coworkers was one of the most important parts of the homebuying process to him.
“Surround yourself with a team of good people and people you trust and who support you,” he said, regarding his lawyer, banker, and real estate agent. “I ended up with a team that supports me. I know they will be there and answer [my questions]. Everything has been very smooth because of that.”
Boyle said this was the first offer he has put down after a month spent visiting about 10 or 15 open houses. Overall, he feels positive about his first house hunting experience, but thinks he will make a few improvements next time.
“Now that I know the process a little better there are certain ways I could have been more prepared,” Boyle said. “Knowing mortgage definitions, costs I didn’t know about — it wasn’t exactly laid out for me.”
He thinks with a little more knowledge he could have saved some dollars here or there. He left with a final piece of advice: “Closing fees sneak up quickly.”
Kelsey Kronmiller (27) and Jay Janak (27)
In the process of buying land to build on.
Kelsey, a visual web designer at Boston.com, and her fiancé currently live near the Cape Cod canal. They tried to buy a home last summer and got as far as putting down an offer. But like the Barons, they found competition for a limited supply of homes led to prices they weren’t willing to pay.
“We ended up losing to someone who offered asking price,” Kelsey said. “Which the house was not worth based on its location.”
Rather than heading back into battle and possibly settling for a home they weren’t enthusiastic about, Kelsey and Jay made a choice that guaranteed they get the home they desired. They decided to build.
“My fiancé and his grandfather own a business building houses for a living,” Kelsey said.
Even so, it’s not that easy. In the Boston area, just buying land can be very pricy.
“As of last week, I finished paying off my $50,000 of student loan debt,” Kelsey said. “We can now focus on saving for the ridiculous down payment we need since land/construction loans require 10-25 percent down.”
They are currently looking to buy in Middleboro or Rochester.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com