If you’ve been following my blog for the past few months you know that my family and I have spent the spring going through the process of buying our first house. Since this is a major decision I have tried to share with my readers the lessons we have learned (here and here). Now that we’ve finally found a home I wanted to look at some pitfalls for first-time home buyers. Some we narrowly avoided, others we fell right into, but they are valuable things to think about when facing this milestone. The following are 7 common first-time home buyer mistakes:

1. Don’t Ask Enough Questions - It’s often the case that people avoid asking questions when walking a path they know little about. This seems counterintuitive, but the fear of looking stupid or immature drives many first-time home buyers into making really poor decisions. Smart people ask questions.

When my wife and I decided to start the search for our first home I had my dad get me in touch with a good friend of his who had been a successful real estate agent for several decades. I spent 45 minutes on the phone with him one morning asking him every question I could think of in regards to buying a home. The knowledge I gained through this conversation was immense…not only did it help me avoid potential pitfalls, I acquired in 45 minutes what would have taken me weeks or months of reading and research to discover. ASK QUESTIONS!

2. Underestimate Additional Costs - If only the cost of buying a house was wholly represented by the sticker price, life would be so much easier. Unfortunately the purchase price is just one of many costs included in purchasing a home. Earnest money, lending fees, closing costs and home owner’s insurance are the obvious ones that come to mind, but often people fail to account for other future costs as well.

For example, the landscaping for the backyard was not included in the purchase agreement for our house so we will need additional money to put up a fence, lay sod and plant trees and shrubs. On top of this we will have to buy paint, supplies, window dressings, etc. And then comes utilities, maintenance, the list goes on and on. Because the purchase price is the most visible, first-time home buyers often unconsciously think of this as the single cost that drives their purchase decision rather than one part, albeit significant, of a much larger equation.

3. Overestimate How Much They Can Afford - I wrote a post earlier on determining how much of a house you can afford. Unfortunately, many first-time buyers either don’t take the time to really determine this or they take the largest amount that they qualify for as the amount they can afford…not necessarily true. The lender is simply using a few different formulas to determine what they feel they can safely loan you, but this doesn’t mean you can really afford this much house.

When you find the perfect house that costs a little more than you can really afford, it’s easy to think that you will just suck it up and find the money. Reality is often far less kind. The last thing you want is to be stuck with a house that is a major drain on you and your family, leaving you with the sick, heavy feeling of financial drowning. Be realistic about what you can afford and stick to it.

4. Forget About Resale - As exciting as buying your first home can be, chances are it will not be long before you are ready to sell. According to Realtor.org the average first-time home buyer only stays in their home for 4 years. Characteristics about a house that makes it uniquely perfect for you might not be as attractive to other home buyers.

For example, my wife and I don’t have school aged children, but we realized that finding a house in a great school district will be important, not for us quite yet, but for the majority of other home buyers. Things like school districts, age of house and major features like the roof, plumbing, electrical system, and type of community developing around the house and neighborhood all play important roles in resale.

5. “Tim the Tool Man” Syndrome - Home repair is much like driving…everyone considers themselves above average. The tendency of many first-time home buyers is to look for “fixer-uppers,” partly because of the reduced price and partly out of the naive romanticism of building your house with a hammer, some nails and the sweat off your brow. In home speak, “fixer-upper” normally means “money drain.”

Watch any house flipping show on television and you’ll see that remodeling a home almost always costs more, takes longer and results in far less enjoyment than owners expect. Obviously there are some that have the skills, patience and desire to take on projects like this. But, for the rest of us, put the drill back in it’s case and buy a home that requires only minor improvements.

6. Forget They’re Buying a Neighborhood - Many first-time home buyers are so excited to get into their first house that they become like a horse with blinders, falling in love with a house, but failing to see the terrible neighborhood surrounding it. Location is the number one driver in real estate. Having the best house in the neighborhood can actually be a terrible thing when it comes to the future value of your home.

Look for the least expensive house in a really nice neighborhood. It’s age-old advice, but true. This isn’t always a sure thing, but it definitely will get you on the right track when it comes to buying in a good location. After all, the nicest starter home on the market is worthless if your neighbor likes to keep rusted cars in his front yard and wild hyenas in the back (You laugh, but stuff like this happens, trust me).

7. Buying Before They’re Ready- Sometimes it’s a much better decision to continue renting rather than buying a home. This is hard for some people to swallow being that home ownership is often touted as the greatest single investment one can make. This is true in some cases, but all one has to do is look at the current mortgage mess and see that often times home ownership is actually a financial disaster in the making. Ramit Sethi makes some great points concerning the benefits of the recent meltdown and I must say, I agree completely.

One of the best things to happen from the real-estate bust that we’re undergoing is to make people think twice about real estate as an investment. That’s right — to actually consciously think about why they’re making the biggest purchase of their lives, rather than just buying a house because “it’s the next thing to do.”

Buying a house is exciting, fulfilling and can often times be incredibly rewarding, but it’s a decision that each person must make for themselves. It should be researched and discussed thoroughly, not jumped into because it seems like the next step in the “becoming an adult” process.

What mistakes have you made in this area? What would you differently if you could purchase your first home again? Comment below with your answers.

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Warren Buffett is to investing what Michael Jordan is to basketball with one twist, Buffett hasn’t retired. For those of you finding yourself confused and humming “Margaritaville,” here’s Buffett’s bio. I could write for hours on this blog about why I prefer certain investment strategies over others or why I’m a huge “Random Walk” fan, but at the end of the day it is much better to hear from someone who has mastered their craft.

Last month Buffett talked to a group of students from UT Austin and Emory about investing, life, leadership and other topics. What can I say, the man is incredible. I remember first being introduced to him in my Personal Finance class by my professor Lt Col Steve Fraser and his partner in crime Lt Col Jim Parco (at the time just lowly Majors). They would annually take the class to the Berkshire Hathaway shareholder’s meeting in Omaha, NE…or as they liked to refer to it, “Woodstock for Investors.”

Since that class I have always kept an eye and ear open to anything coming from Buffett so today I share some of my favorite pieces from his recent Q&A session, the full transcript is here:

On diversification:

I have 2 views on diversification. If you are a professional and have confidence, then I would advocate lots of concentration. For everyone else, if it’s not your game, participate in total diversification. The economy will do fine over time. Make sure you don’t buy at the wrong price or the wrong time. That’s what most people should do, buy a cheap index fund and slowly dollar cost average into it. If you try to be just a little bit smart, spending an hour a week investing, you’re liable to be really dumb.

On happiness and love:

I won the ovarian lottery the day I was born and so did all of you. We’re all successful, intelligent, educated. To focus on what you don’t have is a terrible mistake. With the gifts all of us have, if you are unhappy, it’s your own fault.

I know a woman in her 80’s, a Polish Jew woman forced into a concentration camp with her family but not all of them came out. She says, “I am slow to make friends because when I look at people, I have one question in mind; would they hide me?”

The most powerful force in the world is unconditional love. To horde it is a terrible mistake in life. The more you try to give it away, the more you get it back. At an individual level, it’s important to make sure that for the people that count to you, you count to them.

On humility and personal influences:

I was lucky to have the right heroes. Tell me who your heroes are and I’ll tell you how you’ll turn out to be. One of your most important jobs in life will be raising your children. They will learn more from you than they will in graduate school. My father was a huge influence, and later on Graham came along. I was also never let down by my heroes.

On the current credit crisis and economy:

What we are seeing is a huge repricing and evaluation of risk, correcting for problems of the past. I don’t know of good credit propositions that are going unfulfilled. There’s lots of cheap credit for sensible deals, which I don’t define as anything that happened over the last 12, 18 months. A lot of things that didn’t make sense are being washed out of the system. It is painful for bad decisions. Comparatively, this is not a credit crunch. In 1982 the prime rate was 22% and money was very expensive. In the late 60’s, we made a sound deal there wasn’t any money to be had. That’s not the case now. The Fed has opened the window, and rates are down. It doesn’t mean there won’t be a major recession.

On individual investors finding opportunities in a market dominated by institutions and hedge funds:

Markets are efficient most of the time about most things. But for these opportunities, nobody will tell you about them. They won’t be on CNBC and they won’t be in brokerage reports. You have to go find them yourself. In 1951, after I graduated from school, I used Moody’s and S&P manuals as my sources of information. I went through them page by page. I was like a basketball coach looking for 7-footers. I still have to find out if he’s coordinated, and can stay in school. But if someone comes up to me that’s 5’6” and says, “Wait ‘til you see me handle the ball”, I say “No thanks”. On page 1443 of Moody’s, I found Western Insurance Securities. It had earned $21.66 per share 2 years ago, and earned $29.09 last year. Over the past year the stock was selling for between $3 and $13 per share. I still had to do the work to make sure the earnings were valid. The markets will get it right eventually. But they are there. You don’t have to find too many. Finding 10 of these opportunities in your lifetime will make you so rich. But you can’t be wrong. You can’t have any zeroes. A list of big numbers multiplied by zero will equal zero. You can’t go back to “Go”.

On picking the top contemporary investors:

I know guys who can make 50% a year with $5 million, but not with $1 billion. The problem with guys that do well is they attract so much money that it neutralizes their advantage. It’s hard to identify them, and even harder to make a deal to keep them from attracting other capital. It’s like betting on a 12 year old horse that won at 3 years old. It’s also important to avoid managers who use leverage. It’s the reason that investors with 160 IQs flame out.

On positioning yourself to deserve success:

Keeping score is terrible in marriage and terrible in business. I put myself in the seller’s shoes. With most humans there is a great desire to reciprocate. If you do something for them, they will do 2X for you. How rare is it to work during lunch hours and be the first one there in the morning. You’ll get noticed if you do something extra. It’s good to have a willingness to pitch in when you aren’t going to get credit for it.

On corporate tax rates and national debt:

Relative to GDP, government taxation is 18.5% and spending is 20%, so we borrow the balance. The national debt should not be a scary topic and the fact that it’s gone up is fine as long as it’s proportional to GDP. Where do we get that 18.5%? There’s 2.7 trillion in government revenues. 2.2 trillion comes from individuals, and less than 1% of that comes from the estate tax. 1.1 trillion comes from income taxes, with payroll taxes consisting of 900 billion, but it’s capped at the first $100,000 of salary. We want a tax system that encourages greater prosperity, but it needs to take care of the family.

I was perusing the archives of one of my favorite bloggers, Ramit Sethi, and came across this great post highlighting the differences between one being cheap versus frugal. There is a definite difference between the two, but they are often thrown in the same pot. Here are some of the highlights from Ramit’s post contrasting the two:

Cheap people care about the cost of something.

Frugal people care about the value of something.

Cheap people try to get the lowest price on everything.

Frugal people try to get the lowest price on most things, but spend a lot on items they really care about.

Cheap people are inconsiderate. For example, when getting a meal with other people, if their food costs $7.95, they’ll put in $8.00, knowing very well that tax and tip mean it’s closer to $11.

Frugal people won’t order a Coke if they’re on a budget, so that when the bill comes, they don’t look cheap.

Yes, being cheap and/or frugal can be a cultural quality. I won’t spend much more time on this one.

Cheap people keep a running tally with their friends, family, and co-workers. Some frugal people do this, too, but certainly not all.

I think the difference between being cheap or frugal comes from one’s attitude and philosophy towards money and possessions. Someone who is cheap generally has a view that 1) they deserve the money they have 2) their money is for them only. Frugal people on the other hand often have the attitude that money is not an end in itself, but simply a means to achieve other goals. They believe they are stewards of money rather than owners. Frugal people are often generous while cheap people are not. Cheap people place accumulating money above relationships while frugal people use money wisely to enhance relationships.

One of the most interesting aspects of this issue (pointed out by many commenting on Ramit’s post) is that people who are cheap constantly live in fear. Fear of not getting their money’s worth, fear of getting ripped off, fear of not getting what they feel they deserve. In the end, a cheap person ends up becoming a slave to their money rather than its master.

Due to my love for finance and my ability to throw out the random buzzwords like “asset allocation” and “diversification” to sound really smart, many of my friends have begun to come to me for investment advice. “Cameron,” they ask, “this investing stuff is just too complicated, I am (insert an age) and still haven’t invested in anything, I don’t even know where to start.” The first question I always ask is whether or not they have a Roth IRA? Judging by some of the responses I have received I think it’s time to explain what a Roth IRA really is and why if you are young (college, twenty-something) and you don’t have one, you are throwing piles of cash down the toilet.

IRA stands for Individual Retirement Account, basically a simple way of saving money for retirement — remember though, it is just an account, not an investment itself. With an IRA you can choose where you want to invest your money. Think of an IRA as a basket in which you can throw various kinds of investments. Most people choose to throw a mutual fund in their IRA which is why you will hear the terms getting thrown around and mixed-up most of the time. As long as you remember that an IRA is simply an account to place investments in, you’ll avoid a lot of confusion.

Traditional Vs. Roth - These are the two main types of IRAs. I will save you the trouble right now and tell you that if you are under the age of 50 and you don’t make six figures then Roth is the way for you to go. The main difference between traditional and Roth IRAs are how you are taxed. With a traditional IRA you get a tax break when you deposit the money in your account each year. This means if you make $50,000 of taxable income in a year and place $3,000 in your IRA you will only pay taxes on $47,000 that year. Your money will then grow and when you take the money out after age 59-1/2 you will then pay taxes on the money in your IRA. A Roth IRA is different because while you get no tax break up front, your money grows tax-free in your account and when you take it out come retirement time, YOU PAY NO TAXES, not even on the earnings. Another way of saying it, traditional IRAs are “tax-deferred” and Roth IRAs are “tax-exempt” savings. American Funds has a great comparison chart comparing the two types.

Some Rules to Know - First, being that it is a retirement account you will be heavily penalized if you take the money out early, meaning before age 59-1/2 (there are a few exceptions like a first-time home purchase). This means put money in your IRA that you won’t need in the near term.

Second, for you overachievers, the maximum contribution has just changed from $4,000 per year in 2007 to $5,000 per year in 2008.

Finally, to be eligible for a Roth IRA you must make less than $101,000 as a single filer or $159,000 as a joint filer in 2008. So, if you’re raking in some good money already and you exceed these limits you will only be able to invest in a traditional IRA, still not a bad thing.

How to Set Up a Roth IRA - First, remember that banks and investment companies want your money, so they’re going to make it as easy as possible for you to give it to them and if they don’t, shop somewhere else. All you need to set up your account is your W-2 form showing you have earned income. There are a few different places you can go to set up your Roth IRA: bank/credit union, mutual fund companies, or discount broker. The bank route would be for the ultra-conservative investor that wants to use CD’s or money market accounts as their investments (if you’re under the age of 50 this is probably too conservative).

Next would be opening it through a mutual fund company. My favorites include: Vanguard, American Funds, USAA (All of these links will take you to the page dealing with opening an account with the company). By going through a mutual fund company you can then purchase shares in one or multiple funds from the company and put them in your Roth IRA. This method also helps ensure greater diversity being that with a mutual fund you are automatically investing in hundreds of companies rather than just one or two, spreading out your risk substantially. Plus, many times the minimum investment is lower when opening a retirement account than it would be with a normal brokerage account. The final avenue would be using a discount brokerage service, similar concept as above.

Once you have opened your account the next step is setting up an automatic investment plan (takes out money from your paycheck and automatically puts in your investments) so you can harness the power of dollar cost averaging (DCA), an investment principle I wrote on earlier The World’s Easiest Guide to Understanding Retirement Accounts - Ramit Sethi (the man)
- Why You Need a Roth IRA - Kiplinger.com
- Roth IRAs: A better IRA for almost everyone - AmericanFunds.com