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Interview With First Time Home Buyers – Planning For Expensive Cities
How To Make A Purchase In Expensive Areas When It’s Your First Home Purchase
Living in Hollywood can be expensive. Andrew and Lanae moved to the land of showbiz to live out their dreams and work in the glamorous world of entertainment. They discovered that living there was going to end up costing them $2,300 a month for a tiny little one-bedroom apartment. This is their story of trading in that ludicrously high rent for that teeny little apartment to get their dream home that was adjacent to the city of dreams. Here we go.—
We have got Andrew and Lanae. Tell everybody, where are you guys? We are in Claremont, California. For people who don’t know, because we are a gigantic state, I know where Claremont is because of where the Candlelight Pavilion Theater is. That’s my sad life. Tell everybody where Claremont is. It’s the most Eastern part of Los Angeles. It’s like the very edge of Los Angeles County. The interviews, people love to hear these. We have had a couple of nineteen-year-olds that I have interviewed who purchased their first home, which is amazing. You guys are in my neck of the woods. For those of you out there who are possibly looking at some expensive property, Andrew and Lanae can help you. They reached out to me, and normally, I have got friends in LA and the area up there. It takes a gigantic plan. You guys weren’t buying a little $100,000 house. Tell me about your journey to get to where you did some serious adulting. For a while, we had been saving up for a long time. We never knew the exact numbers but we had known for a while that getting a house was something that we wanted, and we knew how expensive it was going to be. As soon as we started having an extra income, we started not being extremely frugal with it but being sure to save up a lot along the way over the years. When we were ready to look into it being like, “We have got some stuff, saved up. Now, what’s the next step,” was where we were. Since the pandemic, we have had people that have options for moving someplace cheaper. Did you grow up in the area? Do you work in the area? What was the reason for staying in the expensive Southern California area for you guys? We didn’t grow up in the area. We are both from New Hampshire originally, which is much cheaper but we came out here for work. Andrew works in and around Burbank in the film and TV industry. That was what we have centered around and what we are looking to stay around for commute times, availability, and whatnot. Claremont was the furthest we were willing to go for his commute that we could reasonably afford something that we wanted. That’s the funny thing. It’s still Southern California, so still Los Angeles County. It’s still expensive but that is why we are far East. Compared to where he works. It was more affordable for us. You guys did the commute thing. There are a lot of people that do that for different reasons. Some people like acreage. You like not spending $2 million. How do you like Claremont? It’s a fun little town, isn’t it? Are you enjoying it? It’s one of the quainter places in Los Angeles. We love it. Honestly, we have been so busy that we haven’t even fully been able to explore it yet, but whenever we do get out to do community things, we love it. For us, it’s that perfect size of there’s a lot to do. It’s somewhere between a city and a suburb like between where we were living and where we grew up. Were you guys city folks that did the whole, “I’m a grownup, I’m going to go live in a house with a picket fence at a cul-de-sac?” Where were you renting in Burbank? Where were you, in a city? Buying out here in Hollywood would just take a big chunk of change. Click To Tweet North Hollywood. We were in the Arts District mostly for the years. Lankershim/Magnolia? Yes. Right there. My wife lived there, and I lived right around the corner. I lived there before there was the train station there, old guy. There used to be a crazy sushi bar that was served by my underage friends. Tokyo Delve’s way back in the day. It’s not there anymore. It’s right next to the theater on Lankershim but they closed down because they served underage people. How long was the rental period for you? Was the plan, “We are always going to buy a house,” or did you get sick of the rent and then decide to reach out? We were renting from 2013 until we bought. It was for nine years. It was less about the payment itself that we got sick making but more sick of what the apartment life was. Especially through the pandemic, our apartment complex decided that was a great time to do all the renovations. Being trapped in the tiny one-bedroom. Working from home through construction. Tell everybody what you were paying on average for that one-bedroom to live amongst the stars in beautiful North Hollywood. That was $2,300 a month there. Did you look at different down payment options or were you always trying to do a big chunk? We were always trying to do a big chunk. We had been living with a roommate for a few years, and then we got our one bedroom. Through promotions or job changes, we decided to stay there and save up as much as we could because we knew buying out here would take a big chunk of change. A down payment was what we were building towards. We did as we learned about the process that decision of like, “Are we putting down 20% or 10%?” Figuring that out was something we were fluctuating through a little bit. We ended up doing 15% down. Expand on that for me, please, because there are people out there who think I am on crack when I tell them 15% versus 20% because they go, “What about the PMI?” If you are buying a larger place and again, we won’t divulge how much your place is but it wasn’t $300,000. Five percent of anything over $300,000 is a large chunk of change. Was having that money liquid a better plan for you and something that could easily offset paying the PMI? Was that your logic behind it? The PMI wasn’t that much in the scheme. For us to even be able to afford this place, it was like that’s the way we can make it happen, and it’s not that big of a deal at the end of the day. If we had done the higher amount, we would have had to get a different house. I say it all the time. PMI is insurance but it is there so that you can afford to purchase something now and you don’t continue renting a one-bedroom for $2,300. You are loaning yourself whatever it is that you need to pay. You guys were in the situation where you could go 15% or 20% but there are people that don’t want to put 5% down because they don’t want to put the PMI. I say, “How long is it going to take you to save 15%? How many months are you going to be renting?”

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I’m going to say it again, I love this job. Helping people who are trying to figure out how to get their dream house. Especially, in some ways, it seems so expensive like it is out here in Southern California. That warms my heart. It’s so exciting. Some great takeaways for you, it’s important for you to know that the contracts are going to be insane. It is a lot of paperwork, so be ready for it, prepare for it, and realize that the first week or two after you get your offer accepted, your part-time job, which sometimes can feel like a full-time job, is going to be doing all the paperwork to buy the house. That means that you want to get all your planning done way ahead of time. That was something that they did. They spent a good chunk of time working with their unicorn, realtor, and lender but especially their lender going over their down payment options. Did you catch that? Fifteen percent worked for them as opposed to 20%. Once again, PMI is not the devil. In this new world of remote working that commuting is something that a lot of people are figuring into buying their homes. If you are in a place that’s more expensive, this is something that you want to start thinking about. Something that you want to start looking into. Perhaps if you need that giant backyard or that extra bedroom, you can look for someplace that isn’t quite exactly in the more expensive city and get yourself out and find yourself something that fits more in your budget. It’s a shameless plug but I’m not saying this because I’m saying go to my lender. Not all of you were in California. You are all over the place. I’m telling you this because this is my insider secret. Online lenders will not be there for you the same way as a local mortgage broker. The industry is changing all the time, and sooner or later, all these online companies are going to take over. That’s where I hear everyone on social media whining about the big corporations taking over. I’m giving you the inside scoop. Take advantage of this while they are still out there. Mortgage brokers are becoming mom-and-pops now. They are getting eaten up by all the online advertising that’s happening but you are guaranteed better service. Most of the time, your local mortgage broker realizes that they are going to be competing with all the big guys out there. They can get you the same rates. It’s a new and exciting world where everybody does everything on these fancy new things called computers. It doesn’t mean that online places can get you better deals. Your local mortgage brokers got a laptop right there. They can get you the same deal but they are going to get it to you with better service. That was great, and I love to be able to interview you someday. If you want more information on how to get your own personal plan started, go to HowToBuyAHome.com. I don’t know when you are reading this, and you might be reading this far in the future. We have got brand new readers every day, and they are reading this back from 2019 when I was stuck in my living room. We have got something very exciting for you there now. It’s the first of its kind. It’s the brand-new first-time home buyer starter kit. Finally, someone gives a damn about you, guys. I’m very excited about it. You can jump on there, and it’s going to walk you through all the first steps that you need to do. Everyone always asks me, “I want to figure out how to buy a home but where do I start?” This is where you start, the starter kit. There are more tips, tricks, tools, techniques, hints, and inside stuff on YouTube. That’s the How to Buy a Home podcast on YouTube, and also you could find How to Buy a Home on TikTok. Some jokers out there on Instagram already took how to buy a home. I see you. You haven’t posted since 2018. If you look it for me on Instagram, look for @DavidSidoni. I’m not a narcissist. I couldn’t get How to Buy a Home. Please share this show. It’s for everyone, whether you are $100,000 or $1 million home that you are trying to buy. We have had some readers over $2 million that used the tricks from this show. This is for everything. You could find your tools, techniques, and all the hints that you need, and most importantly, to help you make sure that you have a killer team so that you can get the dream of home ownership no matter your budget. The goal is to make this process dreamy, not nightmarey. Did I make up a word? I did. If you are renting out there and you’ve got a steady job, and your debt is not out of control, this is possible. Get your personal plan. You can do this.Important Links
- California Coastal Loans
- HowToBuyAHome.com
- How to Buy a Home podcast – YouTube
- How to Buy a Home – TikTok
- @DavidSidoni – Instagram
This podcast was started for YOU, to demystify things for first time home buyers, and help crush the confusion. After helping first timers for over 13 years, I knew there wasn’t t a lot of clear, tangible, useable information out there on the internet, so I started this podcast. Help me spread the word to other people just like you, dying for answers. Tell your friends, family, and perhaps that random neighbor you REALLY want to move out about How to Buy a Home! A really easy way is to hit the share button and text it to your friends. Go for it, help someone out. And if you’re not already a regular listener, subscribe and get constant updates on the market. If you are a regular and learned something, help me help others – give the show a quick review in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts, or write a review on Spotify. Let’s change the way the real estate industry treats you first time buyers, one buyer at a time, starting with you – and make sure your favorite people don’t get screwed by going into this HUGE step blind and confused. Viva la Unicorn Revolution!
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