Is making the life-altering decision of buying your first home stressing you out? You’re not the only one! Listen to the story of first-time home buyers Zack and Chantal. Three months ago, they weren’t in any position to buy a home. They didn’t have a ton in savings and homes in their area were near $500,000! This story is unbelievable, incredible, and aspirational, and the whole thing was, in their opinion, shockingly easy. Who knows, it may just be your turn to shift out of the renting lifestyle!

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First Time Home Buyers Use This Podcast To Buy A Home In Less Than 3 Months. Hear Their Story!

It Costs Less Than You Think And You Can Do It Faster Than You Think – Buy Your First Home Like They Did!

Don’t you think that you have enough savings to buy a home? Don’t believe the myths. This is a real story with real numbers. Zach and Chantal closed on a home and you will not believe their numbers. This is a practical and real-world inspiration for you. They were packing to move to the new home that they never thought was possible. What’s happening? This is another one of our exciting episode success stories in time for the holidays. It’s a holiday time miracle. If you’re new to the show, thank you so much for joining us and hit subscribe because you’re going to want to hear these inspirational stories like this one. It will inspire you to subscribe to the show to start reading this free information. This is the only show out there on the internet that has been geared directly for you, the first-time home buyers that have been ignored by the rest of the real estate industry. The show exists so that you can have a story like this one. You can be the hero of your own story. Like Zach and Chantal, you are the hero. We’re here to find you the right guide to help you find your inner hero. In this particular case, they were here in my neck of the woods in Southern California. I was the guide for them. I am a real estate agent still beyond being the national educator to all you first-time buyers. I work with eXp Realty. My team and I have been helping people buy and sell houses since 2006. Early in 2019, I got disgusted with the way first-time homebuyers are being ignored and mistreated by most of the real estate industry. Rather than quit the business altogether, I decided to create this side passion project and see if it would fly. Things are going crazy. It’s fantastic because we are correcting the injustice and we’re informing you that it’s a lot easier than you think and that you have the power to do this. A great unicorn agent is free to you. You don’t have to pay to get the advice that you’re getting on this show as well as through the entire process. If you find yourself a great unicorn agent, why not go with the best? It’s free. I decided to start this show to help you help yourself and not only walk you through the buying steps of the home, but give you the guide on how the hell to even get started. Planning is the biggest part of the entire first-time home buying process that has gotten dropped off a cliff that no one’s helping you out. The deal is if you plan earlier, that’s going to save you tons of money in the long run. We worked the plan for you 1 to 3 years out before you are even ready to make an offer on a home. It doesn’t matter if you’re 30 days or 30 weeks out. We have step-by-step instructions for you. Wherever you are on the process, we’ve got you covered. If you’re new, subscribe now, you won’t be sorry. As of Thanksgiving 2019, we’ve got six people that have closed on their first home, three more that are on escrow and over 60 people out there in the country that never thought that they could be working a plan and now they are. Each one of you out there is in different places in your own story. Maybe you’re starting out, close to the finish line and maybe you’re looking for some nitty-gritty details. I thought you’d like to hear from someone who got their happily ever after. They didn’t know where they were in the story. It went quick. This can happen. When you hear about how they got to their happily ever after way sooner and way cheaper than they ever dreamed of, hopefully that’ll be an inspiration for you. Like everyone out there, they were confused by the whole process. They weren’t getting any good answers anywhere because the real estate industry sucks. That’s the truth. The whole thing is built on servicing the sellers. You, buyers, are the suckers, as they call them, because they think that you suck. They also think that you’re suckers because you walk into the homes that they have for sale without anyone educating you or helping you. They grab you and turn you into the conversion for their seller, which is their ultimate goal. That’s right, sellers. That’s all they’re looking at. That’s how they become the big shots in real estate. A lot of them do think that first-time buyers suck. They think they suck time and energy talking to people like you. It’s not going to help them get paid instantly so they ignore the renters. If they do have a big team, they’ll pass them off to their trainee agents. They should be paying you since your training their agents on the job. It could be costing you tens of thousands of dollars. If you eventually do close on the home, you help train that agent and don’t get a great deal. It’s unfortunate. The industry ignores the people who want the plan clarified. That’s what this story is here to tell you all about. Zach and Chantal wanted a little guidance, a little help from a real pro, someone who would get them all the information they needed to plan and then execute that plan to the conclusion. As I said, it sucks, but it turns out that this is hard to find in real estate. It is finding a realtor who’s a real pro to help you before you’re ready to buy and who has some experience. That combination is magical, mystical and elusive that it’s rare as a unicorn. We call them unicorn realtors. Chantal found my show and they happened to be in my area. I decided that since they’re such great blog readers, I was going to help them out to the fairy tale happy ending that they were looking for. Don’t fret if you’re not in my area. Unicorn nation is growing. As of Thanksgiving 2019, we got 60, 65, 70 people that we’ve helped. Some of them have closed and some of them are figuring out how to fix their credit. We’ve got them a pro that cares about them in their area. Do you want to know how it’s done? Do you want to be inspired? Do you want to know how little this home cost them for this huge price tag? It’s all coming right up. Here’s the interview.

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This is my second time I got to interview one of our readers to close on a home. These guys are awesome. This is Zach and Chantal. They are in my part of the country, so rather than me having them find their own unicorn, they went to the unicorn master. You closed on a house and you’re packing. We are packing and getting ready to move. Tell me, when did you first start thinking about becoming homeowners? We thought about it years ago when we moved into our current apartment. After trying to look at numbers and not understanding how any of this works, we went with what many of you readers have probably found yourself at a single situation where you look at your finances and you’re like, “There’s no way that I can afford a house.” We did what everybody else does, but we got a new apartment, which in our area is crazy-expensive. It is $2,000 a month for a two-bedroom apartment. We did that because we thought we had no other options. We found ourselves letting money on fire at the beginning of every month until Chantal saw your blog. I started reading David’s show. That became my major course on doing more research and finding a home. I started following him on Instagram. He was very attentive. I messaged him and within twenty minutes, he messaged me for the first time and kicked off from there.

That’s the cool thing about this. As Zach was talking about, you didn’t know anything and you were freaked out. You started reading in August 2019 and we closed on this a week before Halloween. We closed it on October 28th. That’s August, September and on October 28th, we closed on a house. That’s incredible. Tell me the story. You guys found the show and you found out that since I was in your local area, we decided to work together. What did you know about buying a house before that? What everybody had told us was, “You need 20% down for a down payment.” We know it wasn’t necessarily true. I knew basic loans and that’s what we were looking for and that was about it. I went into this blind when I reached out to you. Thankfully, you were answering questions that I didn’t even know to ask. That was wonderful. What would you guys say were your biggest fears or potential obstacles that were holding you back from buying a house? When you said, “We’re going to rent again,” what fears were the reasons why you did that? Find a realtor who's a real pro to help you when you're ready to buy. Click To Tweet At that time, since we were expecting a little guy, we were like, “Let’s focus on one giant life move at a time.” They’re not cheap. We had gotten married after being together for a few years. A lot of big expensive obstacles were happening all at once, especially when you don’t know anything about buying a home. It seems even more daunting and more expense and scary. That was mostly why we held off for so long. The follow-up question would be, once we figured out the financial side of it, that fear that you had before you were even thought about buying a home, do you think that held you back? Do you think they were justified? Were you in need of different information? We were definitely in need of different information. We were always told by our parents and grandparents that you needed that traditional 20%. We went in with $9,000 down for closing costs. We were able to cover that by taking out a withdrawal from my 401(k). We didn’t end up having to ask any of our parents for money. It was obviously much less of an amount than what everyone had told us before. It’s nice to know that now instead of paying $2,000 plus a month for rent, that’s going into our mortgage. That’s something that we own. This show goes everywhere and we’ve been on the phone and texting and talking every day for months. I know how much your house costs, but that’s the punchline to the story. Let’s hear it again. You guys had $9,000 that covered the down payment and then we had the closing costs, which we got the money from the 401(k). How much did your house cost? Our house costs $448,000.

It’s $448,000 with $9,000 in the bank and a 401(k) that we withdrew. It was $14,000. The total is $23,000. You were renting for $2,000 and you bought a house off for almost $500,000. Can you believe that? It still seems surreal to this day until we move our stuff in. We visited the house a couple of times since you can take our pictures. Walking into it, we know that it’s our home but it still feels magical new. It’s ours. We know that but it’s a weird feeling. The night that we got the keys, we were all standing there and you guys are looking around. It became much more tangible. I’m sitting there looking at it going, “This is going to make a great show.” It was like we found the perfect situation. We didn’t think we could afford it. I have bad medical debt. I made a lot of mistakes when I was younger with my finances. My credit score wasn’t the best. I’ve worked for the past year to grow it and make it better. It was something that personally, I never thought that I could do especially right now. It’s been such a treat working with you but hearing that, it’s exciting. You will be able to share this with people. Don’t let the debt fears get in your way. I still can’t believe that 401(k) sitting there and $9,000 and we’re buying a house for $448,000. Those who are in other parts of the country, that’s because we’re in Southern California, it’s pricey out here. Stop lighting your rent money on fire. Click To Tweet Here, $448,000 is cheap. If you still rent for $2,000 and you guys are in this situation, that’s exciting. That’s the big story that we want everyone to know about. What would you guys say other things that might be interesting for folks out there thinking about buying a house? What surprised you about the process? Was there anything that you went, “I never knew about that or that was weird?” Honestly, what surprised me the most was not only your dedication and kindness but everyone that we’ve worked with like the loan officers. I’ve always worked in customer service since I was a teenager. A lot of times in public-facing industries, you get people with different personalities, especially when it comes to such an expensive and giant purchase. People are serious about it, which they should be but never once did I feel scared to ask you a question. You guys made something. Everything’s super clear, especially going in so blind. Everything is so clear since I messaged you on Instagram. That’s true. I think one thing I would say to the audience is when you have that magical team, not just the realtor, but people who understand the financing and can explain those big moves to you. It makes it feel so much less daunting. It’s obviously a naturally stressful situation, but I never once felt the need to cry or I’ve heard some horrible escrow stories. I never once experienced that. That was all magical on its own. I love the unicorn magic. It’s something that’s funny you brought that up. I don’t think I’ve ever talked to my audience about this before. That’s why I like talking back to you, guys. You brought up the fact that you have dealt with a lot of people in customer service. Here is another trick and the reason why my team and the lending team, customer service in the real world is paid for by the boss. As long as it will get complaints, at the end of the day, they get paid. Customer service in car salesmanships, even there may be thinking about repeat customers but not really. Your lender and your realtor, you have the choice to choose people that build their audience through the people they’ve already worked with. That is able to get a buyer’s agent for free is another way that you have the upper hand as a buyer and you don’t even know it. That’s something you definitely don’t know. I certainly did not know to go in at all.

It was far different than your expectations and now you know why. Dino and I, if people work by referral from their clients, if we give you crappy service, we’re toast. That was cool. Was there anything that you thought was going to be scary that wasn’t super scary? Buying a house is the most expensive thing that I’ve ever purchased ever. The closest thing to that was buying a car, which was $16,000, when I have to wire the money to escrow. I was very nervous about that. It is not because I was scared or it was something that was scary, but it was the largest sum of money I’ve ever sent to anybody in my entire life. I double-check the numbers 3 or 4 different times to make sure that is the right information. I called escrow the morning before I sent it because the last thing I want to do is send $15,000 to the wrong address and then never be able to get that money back again. I think that was for me the scariest part of all of this. I remember all the texts. I double and triple checked it because the last thing I wanted to do was send it to the wrong place and it was worth it. I’m glad that I didn’t. I’m sure that I wouldn’t have sent it to the wrong place, but when you’re dealing with this stuff, you want to make sure that you’re sending it to the right location. Other than that, buying a house was so much simpler than I would have ever imagined that it would have been. I’m sure that it had a lot to do with the fact that you did a lot of stuff behind the scenes for us. Sometimes you don’t ask how the sausage is made. Thank you, guys, for all of that. If you get a good team, you’ll find out that there are a lot of good realtors out there that do this. Most of them were on the unicorn nation, but we all hide the fact that we’re sausage makers. What recommendations would you have for people who are getting ready to go through this process or start planning for this process? It sounds like they’re afraid of this process, but you’re going to say, “We did it.” What other recommendations would you have for people out there that are thinking about getting ready to buy their first house? I would definitely say it’s possible. Save what you feel comfortable with. Expect those closing costs and all of that, but you can do it. There are a lot of great resources. For example, your show that is out there, people are willing to help you. Don’t be afraid to ask questions. If you have a team and if they’re not willing to answer your questions, it should be your stop sign. We physically saw eleven houses. We probably saw somewhere close to 50, but you gave us options. You were super patient with us. I would say that if someone’s not willing to assist you, that’s probably your biggest stop. I appreciate the fact that you guys have been gracious with your time considering you’ve got to pack for your house. Thank you for having us. Thank you for all of you, guys. You were amazing. I could never thank you enough for how much you empowered us and made us feel safe. You give us so much information on this giant life experience. You guys are going to be an inspiration to a whole lot of people. I can’t wait until I can throw you guys that big house warming party. Thanks so much. We’ll talk to you later. Thank you.

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What an unreal story. I cannot believe those numbers. This is why I do the show. When they were getting married and getting pregnant, they thought these big life circumstances were going to be a hindrance because most of the time, they cause a lot of time and stress. Those big life moments, they cost money and buying a home can help you become more financially stable. You can stop lighting your rent on fire like what Zach said. That was an interesting part of the show. For me, to realize that if they can do it with a ten-month-old out there shopping in that quick, short amount of time, that’s incredible. Some of the other things I thought was interesting about what they said was that it answered questions they didn’t even know they had to ask. When we answer those questions, it turned out they weren’t nearly as scary as maybe they thought they would have been. I thought it was neat to listen to them talk about not understanding the numbers. In their mind, they thought there was no way to afford it. Zach said they’d gotten another apartment and started lighting money on fire and then Chantal found the show. It became their course education. They don’t teach this stuff in college. They should. If you haven’t heard that yet, keep listening to a bunch of business people. You’ll hear that everybody talks about what should be taught in college. Buying a house is one of the big things that gets mentioned every time. I love the fact that we dispelled the 20% myth. We don’t need 20%. They walked into it blindly. A little time with the show, a little time with me, and a little education. That doesn’t matter anymore. Suddenly, you’re walking into it with open eyes and a good logical plan. One of the neat things about the interview, he had bad medical debt that created bad credit but then he worked on a plan. You can get in that negative headspace and think, “I’ve got this bad credit because of medical debt.” You don’t stop to look up. How long do you work on that before you check in with someone to see if your credit score is where you need it? You don’t have to have an 800 credit score. In fact, over 740 credit score doesn’t matter. For a whole mortgage, anything above 740 is A-plus. There is no A-plus-plus. On the low end, you can get all the way into 600 credit score and still get yourself a house. Finally, the most exciting thing about that for me was not only knowing that they got a house, but realizing that they started reading the blog in late August, early September. That’s two months later on October 28th. They closed on a $448,000 house with $9,000 in a checking account. That’s it, $9,000 in a checking account and a 401(k) that they could draw half out of. That’s $29,000 for 401(k) and they took $14,000 out. Do you understand those numbers? If you’re a new reader and these numbers are not quite clear to you yet, let me help you out. $9,000 in savings and $14,000 from a 401(k), that could have been a loan from your mom, dad or your uncle. All it takes is $23,000 and you can buy up to a $448,000 home because the interest rates are low. If you are approved because you’re probably paying such gigantic rent. If you want even more explanation on that, go back and choose some of the episodes on financial planning. There’s a whole seven-part series in there for anyone, for every level of planning, if you’re at the beginning or right at the end. There are some other episodes we’ve got up there will tell you exactly based on how much rent you pay, what kind of home can you buy. It will also tell you exactly how much money you need to buy a home. Go to DavidSidoni.com and hit on the Blog, scroll through them. They’re all there and they are all free. You’re going to be getting this information from other folks that have closed through unicorn nation and from me. This is real-world information. This isn’t a guess. Most importantly, this isn’t information from someone who bought a home a few years ago or even worse many years ago. Things have changed. Zach and Chantal have $9,000 in savings, $29,000 on 401(k) for a total of $23,000 to buy a $448,000 home. My girl, Chantal, hit on another good point as well. How surprised she was that customer service was fantastic for her during the transaction and that you as the home buyer can realize that going through this tough situation, you should have great customer service. The customer service should be working in your favor. You should not have any of those customer service horror stories. Why? A great team, a unicorn team that equals a different level of customer service because their business growth depends on you. We are self-employed, individual people. We’re not working for a big company in answering phones and we listen to you whine and pass the complaint onto someone else. No, we are growing through your good words to your friends and other people. That growth means you have the power, no salaries, no big companies. We don’t care. It doesn’t matter how many complaints we get, it’s their job to take care of it. Not mine. We are accountable. We like to say in real estate and lending, we have to kick ass for you or we don’t eat next month. That is different than if you call in and complain to a customer service call board. It is completely different. The ball’s in your court. Who you choose matters. If you find a great team as they did, you’ll hardly notice anything throughout the process. It should go easier than you expect because they are working hard for you so that you are comfortable to tell other people that they should work with them as well. It’s your choice. Make it a good one. Find a unicorn and get some magic. Every single time I talked to one of my first-time buyers after they closed on a home, I can recap some of the things that they say, but in trying to express how it makes me feel, it fills me up so much. I don’t even have the words. That’s right. Me, captain podcast mic rambler. I am stuck for words. I meant to say it before when I said that I did almost quit the business. It wasn’t because I wasn’t doing well. It wasn’t because I wasn’t performing in real estate. I was a top producing realtor. I was running teams. I had all kinds of other agents that worked for me sometimes. A lot of times, I was asked to teach other realtors. I am pretty respected in my field. I was doing all right, but I felt something wrong in my gut. Not just my gut, but my brain. Any idiot inside the game should be able to see that the game is rigged for the greedy realtors and not for serving the first-time buyers. Why not start this show and get dumbfounded and speechless with stories like this? People that a few months ago were nowhere near buying a house and now, the day we shot that, they were packing. The day we did this interview, they’re moving in. Doing this and serving the public instead of serving myself in my own cloud to try to be a $1 million agent on Bravo or whatever channel that’s on. Making the sellers the name of your game as a realtor has left a hole wide open for unicorn nation. We’re here to help. It’s happening and I keep getting stories like these. I get a little emotional. I can’t find the words and it feels good. No matter where you are on the journey, take the time to seek out the show. Reach out now to DavidSidoni.com. Let me know what guidance you need. It’s early in the show if you’re reading this in 2019. I’m still at the point where I can answer questions for anybody. You’re not alone trying to figure this out. You don’t need to trudge through the internet and try to figure out that horrible Google page search. Which one of these pages are going to work for me? You don’t need to try to find out who’s trying to educate you, who’s trying to sell you, who are trying to bait and switch you. Try and discover what is accurate on the internet can be rough. I feel that. I know this unicorn nation is here for you and everyone in the nation knows it’s founded by me, a pissed off realtor who is sick of seeing first-time buyers get screwed. I decided to educate, learn and grow. I wanted to help you guys get confident. I wanted to let you realize that the folks, Zach and Chantal, like other folks we’ve had on other interviews, like other people, I’ve talked to through DMs, emails, text messages. You can do this and probably for a lot less than you think. A lot faster than you think and stop lighting your money on fire. Here’s how you do it. Subscribe now and then what else can you do to spread the word? Spread the word, rate and review the show. Write a little blurb right in the iTunes reviews. That will help you, especially if you were inspired by Zach and Chantal. You can inspire some other renter out there who’s feeling lost in the adulting world. Together, we can change things for everybody. Share the episode, be a part of the revolution, subscribe, rate, review. If you’re getting anything out of that, out of this show, that will help us a lot. Do that and I can keep the counterculture show going. I can keep educating you with the right information that you need. It’s true. I did almost quit. With every new story and message and DMs, I get inspired and I keep going down this path. I’ve got things going on the Facebook page. That’s the How To Buy a Home Facebook Page. There’s YouTube and Instagram. Check it out. Look at the other stuff, something you can scroll through but mostly read. Go through everything on it that looks interesting to you. Get a plan. That plan is going to be what gets you to the promised land and we’ve got unicorn guides. What did you think? How’d you like their story? What about you? Where are you? Let’s talk about you. Are you lost? Do you need a guide to help you make your dream become a reality? Do you need a unicorn agent in your area that gives about first time home buyers and has the experience to get the job done? Have you been reading for a while and not reached out yet because you’re still scared? Did you hear those numbers? Do it. Be like Zach and Chantal. Maybe your story can sound like theirs.

Important Links:

• eXp Realty
• iTunes – How to Buy a Home Podcast
• How To Buy a Home – Facebook
• YouTube – David Sidoni & Associates Real Estate
• Instagram – David Sidoni

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!