First Time Buyers: Case Study

These first-time buyers in Charleston, SC, hung in there through several negotiations that went nowhere, plus a failed home inspection. They ended up scoring the best rate I've seen in years, using seller credits and VA financing. Oh - and they received money at closing!

Newlyweds Justin and Ashlee contacted me in mid-June about purchasing their first home, with the goal to close before their lease was up in October.

The first thing we did was reach out to their lender, Navy Federal Credit Union, to establish a budget that was comfortable for them. Then we set up a home search, targeting the areas of town that would work best for commuting.

We toured many homes over several weeks. They agreed that one of the homes we saw checked all their boxes, so we made an offer. That offer was met with resistance by the seller. After more than a week of negotiations, the sellers were unwilling to see the market as we did, so we continued searching.

[As an aside, this is something I'm seeing rather frequently in today's market: the sellers, oftentimes, are not actually very motivated to sell their property. Even if the house is empty (indicating there's a good chance they're carrying two mortgages), their tolerance for accepting anything less than the price they want is zero. Note: the price they want is not always market value. But we won't get into that here.]

Next, we found a house that by all appearances, was a much better deal, and still checked all their boxes. The owner was an LLC, which I warned can be a red flag, but Justin and Ashlee decided the house was worth the risk. They made an offer, and the seller accepted it.

Days later, the home inspection revealed extensive hail damage to the roof, windows, garage door, trim, front porch columns, gutters, pretty much all over the house. In fact, it was all over the neighborhood. They still wanted the house, so I went to work negotiating repairs with the listing agent. It wasn't a big surprise that the Florida LLC refused to make any repairs to the home. After much discussion, and considering several solutions, Justin and Ashlee chose to terminate the contract. We got back to our search.

We went back to a house in the same neighborhood we had seen previously, that had nearly the same floor plan. The hail damage had been repaired. It was owned by an individual. This was looking like a viable option. We submitted an offer. The seller accepted. Inspection went well. Appraisal went well. Seller made repairs. RATES FELL. We used a credit from the seller to drop the rate even more. We closed. They received a check at closing. Plot twist, what???! Yes, that's right - they financed 100% of the property, AND received money at closing.

Sometimes the road to home ownership is filled with ups and downs and detours. In today's market, it's not for the faint of heart. But, God's timing is always perfect, and this is one of those case studies that illustrates His perfect timing.

Justin and Ashlee shared a few words about their first-time home buying experience here.

If you're ready to learn more about the home buying process, and you're looking for an experienced agent in Charleston, SC, to guide you, let's connect. Fill out the form on this page, and I will reach out to you to schedule a complimentary consult. Or you can schedule a Discovery Call with me here.