The First-Time Buyer's Playbook
Eight steps to buying your first home in Michigan, in three phases — what you actually need saved, the state program that lends qualifying first-time buyers $10,000 interest-free, a worksheet for what a house will really cost you each month, and the offer terms worth settling before you're settling them under pressure.
What it is
Eight steps, in the order you'll actually need them
A working document rather than an article. Each step is one thing to do, with what to say and who to say it to underneath, and the contents page links straight to any of them.
Step four is a worksheet you fill in with a pen — every line of what a house will really cost you each month, including the two lines people forget. Step eight is the checklist of offer terms worth settling before you're settling them under pressure.
What's inside
Three phases, eight steps
The steps are sequenced by when they actually matter, which is not the order most people do them in. Nearly everything that decides how a purchase goes happens in the first two phases — before you've seen a single house.
Before you call anyone. Two steps on what you actually need saved, and the Michigan program that lends qualifying first-time buyers up to $10,000 toward it, interest-free. Most people skip straight past both and lose years to a number they never needed.
With your lender. Three steps covering the difference between pre-qualification and pre-approval, a worksheet for what a house will really cost you monthly, and the two federally standardized documents that let you compare lenders line by line. That last one is the closest thing to a free lunch in this process and almost nobody uses it.
Before you write an offer. Three steps on what a one-month-supply market demands of your timeline, the single phone call that tells you your real property tax bill, and the offer terms worth settling while you're calm rather than on a Saturday with competition.
Who it's for
First-time buyers — and earlier than you'd think
If you're buying your first home, this is written for you. But the useful moment to pick it up isn't when you start looking at listings. It's the months before that, when you're still wondering whether you're close enough to start.
Almost everything that decides how your purchase goes — which lender, whether you qualify for assistance, what you can genuinely afford, what your ceiling is — gets settled in that window. And that's exactly when most people haven't spoken to anyone yet.
So: sooner than feels reasonable. There's nothing in here that commits you to anything.
Take it with you
Download the First-Time Buyer's Playbook
A printable version you can write on, bring to a lender, or hand to whoever you're making this decision with.
Enter your email and the worksheet is yours right away. No waiting on an inbox.
For more information
The longer argument behind this one is in the first-time buyer post.