Timeline for First-Time Home Buying

Why Most First-Time Homebuyers Aren't Prepared

A. Lack of Early Financial Guidance: Many first-time buyers are younger and still building financial stability, so they often don’t have a financial advisor. Even when they do, most financial advisors aren’t trained in mortgage planning or underwriting guidelines, which means critical housing-related advice is often overlooked.

B. Education Gaps and Sales-Driven Advice: The home buying and mortgage process isn’t covered in school, and most online resources are designed to sell products, not educate consumers. Many professionals in the housing industry are sales-oriented, focusing on closing deals rather than providing objective financial advice that prioritizes the buyer’s best interest.

C. Uncertainty About The Future: Many younger individuals don’t know where they’ll live or what their life will look like in three years, which makes homeownership planning feel premature. As a result, most people don’t take action until a life event forces the decision, leaving little time to prepare and optimize financing.

The Murray Mortgage Solutions Timeline

3 Years Before Purchase: Financial Planning Consultation

3 Years before you plan to purchase a home, we'll take a broad look into your finances and provide various recommendations based on your short and long-term financial goals. We'll also provide various Excel tools and other resources so you can start tracking and visualizing your financial picture. Here are some of the main topics we'll cover to set you on the right track.

• Most efficient savings/investment vehicles for your initial down payment/closing costs

• Key financial principles such as the time value of money, future and present value and compound interest

• Introduction of mortgage underwriting and qualification requirements such as debt-to-income ratios, front-end ratios and consumer debt ratios

• Buy versus rent calculations

• Creating an accurate cash flow tracking system to track

• How to build a strong credit history

1 Year Before Purchase: Financial Check-Up

1 year from when you plan to purchase a home, we'll review your finances to determine your progress. We'll also discuss what your current qualifying credit score looks like and ways to improve it. Similarly, we'll identify certain debts you will want to start paying down in order to reduce your debt to income ratio. You'll want as much time as possible to strengthen your credit score since it's a key determinant for the interest rate you'll receive.

6 Months Before Purchase: Pre-Qualification

At the 6 month mark, we'll complete your Mortgage Pre-Qualification to determine if you're ready to pursue buying a home. We'll also re-review your credit strength to make sure you're best prepared for the Pre-Approval/Final Application at the 3 month mark. Visit our Purchase Page here for all of the steps we'll perform as part of the Pre-Qualification. 

3 Months Before Purchase: Pre-Approval

After you've decided you're ready, we'll complete your Pre-Approval which gives you and your Realtor 90 days to secure the home. You'll be fully prepared and confident for the offers you submit on the home knowing it's within your budget and helps achieve your long-term financial goals. You'll also know you took all of the right steps required to obtain the lowest interest rate possible. Visit our Purchase Page here for all of the steps we'll perform as part of the Pre-Approval.

Conclusion:

If you don't plan ahead years in advance you're going to end up paying more in taxes (from not using the optimal savings vehicles), receive a higher interest rate (from not strategically building your credit score), pay more in mortgage insurance (from not saving enough on the down payment) and feel generally nervous/hesitant about your decision. Our goal is to end the notion that you only reach out to your Mortgage Broker once you start to look for homes. Purchasing your first home will be one of the most consequential financial decisions of your life, start planning for it now.