Buying your first home can be an exhilarating, overwhelming, and ultimately life-changing experience. It’s exciting to finally carve out a space that belongs to you and really make it your own. But throughout the process of choosing, making an offer on, and securing your home, you’ll run into a number of unknowns. You’ll likely have a lot of questions and may make some missteps along the way. Luckily, we can help make that an easier process for you. On our new podcast, we spoke with real estate agent Luke J. Menkes. He shares his best advice for first-time home buyers, outlining everything from what you should consider before starting your home hunting to making the winning offer.
Watch our interview with Luke J. Menkes to learn everything you need to know before buying your first home:
Luke J. Menkes is a real estate agent in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada with over 30 years’ experience in all aspects of real estate. He hosts New Town Big Dreams, an interview-style talk show about the fabulous and fascinating people that make up his great city, in particular those who have moved there to start a new life. They have in-depth, intimate conversations with entrepreneurs, executives, thought leaders, creatives, and anyone who has an interesting story to tell about how they’re contributing to their wonderful new home.
To start off our discussion, we get to know Luke a bit more. He has been a real estate agent for 30 years. How did he expand into hosting a talk show about moving to Kelowna? How has hosting that show informed the way he approaches real estate? Luke shares about his background and how his real estate experience has translated into a successful and helpful podcast.
Now for some of those frequently asked questions all first-time home buyers have. Indeed, buying a home is a daunting task to even think about. What do first-time buyers need to consider when starting their search? Luke presents several tips and examples of what you should think about and look for while house hunting. For example, where do you want to live? What kind of commute can you live with? What are you looking for in terms of quality of local schools, vibrancy of your community, or the amount of parks or restaurants in your area?
Another major think to decide is what kind of home you’ll live in. How can people determine what will best fit their lifestyle and needs? Luke walks us through what you should know about detached houses, townhouses, condos, and apartments, including the kinds of pros and cons you can expect with each. Of course, we all have different needs and preferences, so something one person may consider a con may be a big pro for you! It all comes down to your lifestyle.
If you’ve ever seen a show like House Hunters on HGTV, you’ll know that the people searching for a home may have different ideas of what they want in a home. But how do you differentiate between must-haves and nice-to-haves when looking for a home? How do you determine the value between different wish-list items? And what if you and your housemate are on different pages about what you’re looking for? Luke shares his advice here. He also mentions some things that first-time home buyers should look for, as well as what should they look out for.
Now time for the big move: You’ve found your dream home! How do you go about getting everything ready and making an offer? This can be tough in a competitive sellers market, like the one we’re in now. There will also be a lot of financial and legal details to get into. It can get complicated, but Luke offers some valuable advice and tips here.
Do you have questions about how to buy your first home? Listen to our podcast with Luke for some valuable tips to get started:
For more from Luke J. Menkes, be sure to tune into his interview-style talk show, New Town Big Dreams. You can also follow New Town Big Dreams on Facebook and connect with Luke directly on LinkedIn.
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