Each month
Ownership budget
Decide what payment and ongoing property costs you are willing to carry.
← For buyers
First-Time Buyers
You do not need to know every real estate term before you start. Understand your budget, the offer and the questions to resolve before committing to your first Bay Area home.
You are not short on motivation. You are short on information.
That is true of nearly every first-time buyer I meet here, and the Bay Area punishes it faster than most markets.
When I started in real estate at 23, having just moved to the U.S. from Belarus, there was no social media and very little accessible information about how any of this worked. I had to figure it out on my own. That is exactly why I explain things now instead of expecting people to already know.
What we do before you look at a single house
We separate two numbers that get confused constantly: what a lender will approve you for, and what you can actually carry without resenting the house. The gap between them is usually large.
Then we walk the whole path, start to keys, so nothing in it is a surprise when it arrives. Pre-approval, offer, contingencies, inspections, appraisal, escrow, closing. You should understand the shape of it before you are emotionally attached to a specific house.
Get pre-approved, not pre-qualified. In a competitive situation that is the difference between an offer that gets read and one that does not.
Keep these amounts separate
At closing
Available cash
Ask the lender for the funds needed for the purchase and when they must be available.
After the move
Money kept back
Preserve a reserve for repairs and other expenses instead of using every dollar to close.
The part that catches first-time buyers out
List prices here are strategies. Some homes are priced under market on purpose to start a bidding war. Others are priced high and will sit. A first-time buyer reading them literally will either overpay or skip the house they could have won.
So you get taught to read them, and on anything serious I tell you what I think it actually trades at before you write.
The other one is emotional. You will fall for a house that is wrong for you. When that happens I will say so, and you can overrule me, but you will not be able to say nobody told you.
In Russian if that helps
Contracts and disclosure packages in a second language are genuinely hard, and skimming them is how people agree to things they did not intend. We can do the consultation, the paperwork and the negotiation updates in Russian.
Your first-home budget buys a different trade in each county
A first-time budget should not be stretched across the Bay Area as if every result were comparable. In San Francisco, an entry point may change the ownership structure through a condominium or TIC. In San Mateo County, it may change the property type or move the search between the bay side and coast side.
Santa Clara County can make the attendance boundary part of the price. If stock compensation supports the purchase, the lender and tax adviser also need to confirm what can be used and when. Alameda County offers several distinct searches across the inner East Bay, the 880 corridor and the Tri-Valley. Contra Costa may offer more space while adding a commute, inland cooling needs or a parcel-specific assessment.
None of those is automatically the best first home. The right entry point preserves the parts of your week you cannot change and makes an honest compromise on the rest. We narrow the geography, verify the property obligations and read the local comparable sales before you decide that a listing is affordable.
A first purchase should teach you the market without trapping you in a trade you never intended to make. Clear geography is part of the budget.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it a bad time to buy?
It depends entirely on your situation and your timeline, not on a headline. Plenty of people have been waiting for a better moment for three years and have paid more rent than the difference. I will give you an honest read on your specific case.
What does it cost to work with you as a first-time buyer?
The first conversation is free with nothing attached. Ongoing compensation is set out in the Buyer Representation Agreement, and it is negotiable and agreed between us before showings start.
How long does buying take?
From serious searching to keys is commonly a few months, but it varies hugely with how competitive your price range is and how quickly you move when the right one appears.
The method
The R.E.A.L. Home Buying Process
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Ready to make your move with Kate Fomina?