Home buying 101: What to know when purchasing your first home
Experts say there are some first-year moves that homeowners can make to set them up for short- and long-term success.
It was almost midnight when the smoke detector went off again. Angel Santiago expected his new home to have some quirks: It was built in Salem in 1812. But he’d failed to uncover why the attic smoke detector continued to beep in the absence of smoke. A recent first-time home buyer, he headed upstairs and unscrewed the device.
“Oh my gosh, [it was] just full of ants,” he said.
As insects and their eggs cascaded to the floor, Santiago shuttled the alarm outside, an early lesson in homeownership underway. He learned that ants nesting in smoke alarms can trigger the device. It would be the first of many lessons.
For some first-time homeowners, year one can serve as a crash course — from finance to maintenance to design — following an already complex purchase process. The barriers are high, and those who manage to do it are fewer than ever. The market share of first-time home buyers sunk to a historic low of 24 percent in 2024, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).
Once in a new home, experts say there are some first-year moves that homeowners can make to set them up for short- and long-term success. You can start before the keys are in hand.
“The ones I get most worried about are the folks that are taking every dime they have and putting it into just getting the house,” said Elliot Schmiedl, director of home ownership with the Massachusetts Housing Partnership (MHP). “They have very few reserves available to them after they close, because you never know when the boiler is going to break, or the roof springs a leak, or the sewer pipe gets clogged, and these things are increasingly more and more expensive.”
Many home-buying courses are aimed at pre-purchase education, but MHP also facilitates HomeSafe post-purchase classes designed to support stability.
George Koutsos, a mortgage loan officer with CrossCountry Mortgage, counsels clients to keep three months of mortgage payments on hand for emergencies (and ideally, six). Staying in touch with lenders can alert owners to future drops in interest rates. For long-term security, consider establishing a trust, and it’s never too early to draft a will, said Koutsos.
Understanding which public resources may help in the early days can ease startup costs, said Jin Min Lee, homeownership and counseling program manager for the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation. Lee was a home buyer education student in that program before taking on her management role.
In the early days of home ownership, self-advocacy is key, said Lee.
“I do feel like there’s this kind of posture of… curiosity and humility and persistence that’s required through the purchase process and also your first year,” said Lee. “Because most of us just don’t know what we don’t know … It’s okay to ask questions, it’s okay to really be persistent, and where there’s one closed door, I’m gonna find another door that’s open.”
Scheduling a Mass Save home energy audit is one example of a great early resource, said Lee, as is applying for resident tax rates for the new address, which can save hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
New homeowners can be attractive targets for sales pitches, and knowing how to navigate them will help.
“I think everybody who buys a home is going to quickly get started getting solicited,” said Schmiedl.
Instead of rushing into potentially costly improvement projects, slow down.
“Live in it for a year,” said Schmiedl.
Rushing design changes can interfere with function before owners get a chance to live in the home.
Allison Tilly Carswell and Andrea Canty, of Red Door Design + Staging, suggested pausing before rushing toward trendy upgrades, such as recessed lighting and open floor plans. Recessed lighting is really best used to illuminate the path in hallways, or to light a kitchen work area. Lamps are more configurable elsewhere.
“We’ve walked into a space and said something like, ‘You might enjoy your home more if there [was] a wall here separating the entryway from your living room,’ and the homeowners say, ‘Oh, we took that wall down,‘” said Carswell.
To figure out a design that fits your lifestyle, prioritize heavily used rooms first, said Canty. And paint can go a long way to refresh previous renovations that may not match your tastes, such as on cabinetry.
“Don’t try and fill the house right away,” said Robin Gannon, a Lexington-based designer with national clientele. Live with what you have in order to help you assess the flow and use of a space before investing in higher-quality pieces. In week one, that won’t be clear.
“You’re buying somebody else’s taste,” said Gannon.
Spend some time reflecting on your own style, she said. A few quality placeholders can help along the way, such as Sisal rugs to unify a room. Try a bold wall color. And in a year, you can always repaint.
“Don’t listen to your friends — listen to your gut,” said Gannon.
Social media and AI design schemes can intrude on taste. Algorithmic churn can be self-reinforcing, as it spits out more examples like what you’ve already looked for, said Gannon.
“I always say, you can like something but not necessarily want to live with it,” she said.
To break that cycle, Gannon suggested cross-referencing magazines and different manufacturers rather than following a social media rabbit hole.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed in the first year of homeownership.
“There’s not a thing in this house that’s not your responsibility,” said Santiago, who said he has made an effort to do his own repairs when possible, saving hundreds on smaller projects. He was quickly able to swap out the smoke detectors and manage the ants himself.
“If you break it down and do one thing at a time, it’s very manageable,” he said.
Santiago paid $656,500 for the three-story, two-family home with town house-style units (front and back), which he said helped qualify for the loan. A first-generation homeowner in his family, he saw gaps in home buyer education, which he said didn’t address post-move issues. Santiago has since acquired his own real estate license with the hope of providing a different experience for others.
Establishing a home in the first year can mean more than new boilers and bathroom renovations.
“Home is a home, but it’s part of [a] community as well,” said Schmiedl. “A lot of good can come from that.”
As Santiago began work on his home’s exterior, he discovered several bottles and silverware items dating back to the 1850s. But the project turned up more than artifacts.
“From all the hours and hours and hours of work… I met all of our neighbors,” he said. “You never know what’s gonna be on the other side. “Maybe you meet somebody new, or maybe you find a cool bottle.”
Lindsay Crudele can be reached at [email protected].
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