Home Buying Tips In A (Crazy) Hot Market

the Spending Symposium. We are quite tired, quite fulfilled, and very excited all of the things that happened after a crazy fun high of an experience and now talking about spending on housing, the largest purchase most of us will make in our lives. So hopefully we've learned a lot from the Spend Symposium that can help to inform those of us who are looking to buy a house currently. Yeah, but we'll also turn to the internet like we normally do. Yes,

we will turn to the internet. And also my personal experience of having just bought another house. We bought a house in and we closed in May on another house, and we will be weaving some of that Um and Jill closed down a house in So we'll be weaving all of our knowledge of previous home buying, current home buying and research from experts to help you decide whether it's the right time to buy a house and how to do it. But first, this episode is brought to

you by the Frugal Friends Club. So we've reimagined our membership to be more accessible and more affordable for more people, and we can't wait to show you what's inside. So a few of the things that you will get is the Radical Middle Method video series and it's going to walk you through step by step in designing your dream life, writing your one page financial plan to get there. And every month you'll get a new challenge that will help you save smarter, not harder, so you can live a

frugal life in pursuit of your financial goals. So we have a ton of new members as we just wrapped up the summit yesterday, so it is the perfect time to join. If you're looking for community, if you're looking for a hive mind, if you're looking for something to keep you motivated on your journey or to figure out where to go on your journey. It's a great resource. So head to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to join in our July challenge, which is called the

Mindset Makeover. If you are coming off the summit just like we are, and just wanting more and feeling sad to miss all of your friends. Join us in our in our membership club, because there's just more like that coming at you constantly. Yes, So if you are looking to buy a house, uh, then there are a few other episodes you might want to que up for after this. We've got episode one sixty one, which is tips for first time home buyers with Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen

of Bigger Pockets. We've got episode one four which is how to save money when buying a house or refinancing, and then episode sixty seven talks about if buying a house is the right frugal move for you. So one, six, one and sixty seven are really good ones to queue

up after. But with the caveat that, with the exception of one st one, this is a really unique time, and this is a really unique market, and we're going to talk about some of the nuances of it and maybe why some of the advice you've gotten previously from people who may have bought houses five ten years ago may not be worth listening to, and so we're going to dive into some of that in both of these

articles that we're checking out today. So the first one is twelve tips for buying a home in a hot real estate market, and it's from meta share dot com for some reason, but they took it. It's a syndication from another website. So don't don't let that. Don't let the healthcare sharing website fool you. It is syndicated. Um. I know the writers and they are extremely smart women. So we're going to go through all of these and uh talk about some tips for buying. Jill start us off.

So the first one, if any of you have watched House Hunters, you're familiar with this up clarify your housing needs versus wants. It really is good to get this on paper. I think thinking through processing what do I want in a home can also help us figure out whether now is a good time to buy. There's some dual purposes in thinking through what do I want, what do I need? Why do I want a house right now?

And put that in writing and then prioritize those things of what is a high ranking need this is in many ways a non negotiable and what might be lower priority. And the article indicates that if we maybe buy a house that has some of our lower priority needs but not our highest priority needs, we could end up regretting it. So having that time, taking that space to think all of those things through will help because for many of you who know right now, with how hot the housing

market is, decisions have to be made very quickly. It's very fast paced, and in any type of market, buying a house can it can feel like wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, okay, do everything right now. So have knowing these things ahead of time and being really clear about them will help in some of those very quick decision making moments that you will most likely find yourself in. Yeah, it definitely

is a hurry up and wait kind of scenario. And this list is super important because you will get to a point where you're like, give me anything, I'll take any house please. But it is it is worth taking your time, even in a market this crazy, it is worth taking your time. Pay for the month to month rent,

It is worth it to make this decision right. So definitely look at your non negotiables, but being negotiable with a lot of things like if you're looking for the waterfall courts, countertop island, like that's probably not a non negotiable, So be realistic about your wants and needs and recognize

what can be done once you're in the home. It always made me laugh watching house Hunters when they're like, they don't have stainless deal appliances, and for that reason, I'm out and I'm like, you're gonna not buy a couple hundred thousand dollar home just because of the appliances when you could buy the appliances that you want once you're in the home. So looking at more of the foundational pieces that are must have that would be very hard to create on your own versus the lower hanging fruit.

That's like, all right, it doesn't have this, but in time, I the space. Can I can create that in this space? Yeah, when we're talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars in a purchase, like you can get a stainless Deel appliance package from home depot for three four grand, So like, don't let that be a big difference for you. Second is to get your finances in order. So let's really dive into this one. So I've made a list of the most important points from this one. First, credit scores matter.

Don't let anybody tell you that credit scores don't matter because they get you a better rate. If your credit score is zero and you plan to do manual underwriting, you will pay a higher interest rate and you will need to put down, and putting down in this market is unnecessary for a first home. Three and a half percent will get you in the house. You will need extra money in your bank account. Even if you're like, oh, I can afford to put five or ten percent down,

you will probably need extra money just in case. If you do an appraisal gap on your UM on your when you're under contract and it appraises for four but you're like, I'll do a ten tho dollar appraisal gap um, and you might have to pay an extra ten tho out of pocket that the bank won't pay. So it's more advantageous to you to have the money to do the three and a half percent down if you can, um,

we did five percent down on our house. But you can also say like you can put down on like when you're putting in your offer, that's the word I was looking for offer. You can say I'm gonna put down, and then you go to your lender and you're like, I'm doing three and a half like they don't communicate

until there's a contract, you know. So I'm not saying lie or do something unethical, But you can change your mind at any time, Like if you say on the offer and you're like, man, I'd rather do three and a half, that's fine. This one set this article says to consider to get pre approved for at local companies, at local banks. I have found that I love credit unions, but they're taking a really long time, like forty five days to close, and nobody's gonna very few sellers are

doing a forty five day clothes. They're preferring to sell to hedge funds that can do a you know, two week clothes all cash, which we'll get into that later. But look at local banks, but also compare national. We ended up doing going with a national bank because the interest rate was lower than what we could get at a local and you can always refinance into local. That's what we did with our first home. We went national,

and then we refinanced to our credit union. So get pre approved at several lenders, so local and national, and get all compare apples to apples, so like what you can get at the same percent down with the same like price house like all for just estimate sake with no points and see what, see what you get at all of them. You need to get pre approved. I don't even think anybody's pre qualifying right now, so I don't think that's a problem. But they will do a

soft credit check. And then also whatever you are quoted is just the mortgage payment, and you want to be sure to add about thirty to that to predict your taxes and insurance and p M. I. So whatever you get, add thirty and that just times it, you know whatever, two thousand times point three and then add that to the two thousand and and that's really closer to what

you'll probably get your monthly payment to. So but if you take anything away from this, credit scores matter, and don't even look at putting more than three and a half percent down. And as so, I'm not a real state expert per se. I'm speaking from immediate experience and what I experienced, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I'm our market is hotter than most other markets in the country too, so I'm a bit more jaded. But yeah, and everyone's situation is going to

be different. If you've got and extra then then go for it. I think it can be great. Everyone's p m I is different. I know for some people it's an extreme weight when you don't put down, and for someone like me, I think we put seven percent down and it's like an extra thirty bucks a month for the p m I. So to me, it's like that's way better than having stretched to put down. It's it's pennies for now until you know we can get up to the point where we've paid off of the house.

So all that to say, there's permission to do the three and a half, and especially to make sure that there's room for the additional expenses, not just in the closing, but what you're going to run into with homeownership and if something goes wrong or you want to do renovations, so you can keep some cash in your pocket, especially if your interest rate is pretty low. Number three on here is to find a responsive and knowledgeable real estate agent.

I could not agree with this more and that, especially when we're talking about first time home buying. This I just could scream from the rooftop. I think it can be meant really incredible if you want to help a friend out, but if you know who's just getting into

real estate. But my suggestion is this is a big purchase and if you've never done it before, it is best case scenario, especially in this housing market, to have someone who's very knowledgeable, knows what's going on, knows the neighborhoods, knows how to get in a deal, get it approved. I think we got our home because of the amazing real estate agent that we had. I don't think, I pretty much know we wouldn't have gotten this house if it weren't for him, because the seller told us that.

So so, speaking from my personal experience, having someone responsive and knowledgeable, so not just knowledgeable, but like they say, responsive available, someone who is able to answer their phone of all hours of the night, you know, someone without a family espouse at home, and so there are boundaries

in work. So I never expected to talk to our agent past nine pm, um, and we actually had like a we lost a house because our real I mean because of the stupid like if you're doing business at eleven pm, I don't really I don't want to do business with you. But but yeah, so I don't. I don't think that's right. I don't think it's right to be working at all hours of the day, but every

time I needed our agent, he was there. And so I call up several get offered, like start out working with several, and stick with the one who you feel best about, who's bringing you the most deals, who is the most invested in you. We tried out, I mean, we went with so we were trying to work with investor friendly agents because that's what we were most looking at. And then it just ended up that we couldn't compete with investors and so we had to like switch to

own or occupied. But we got um I mean three or four agents, and they either wouldn't give us the time of day or didn't know didn't understand what we wanted. And this one came from a referral. We hired a real estate coach. Shout out to Sarah Weaver, you can find her on Instagram, and she recommended um our agent Calvin to us UM and so that's who we ended up going with because he was the most responsive, he

understood us the most, he was local. So we started out with several and then we just winnowed it down over like a few weeks. And so that's more. You are not contractually obligated to any like agent at first, you can definitely try them out, um and see who's going to go to bat for you, and then pick that one. Like, don't everyone in their mom is a real estate agent. You're not obligated to Anybody who's not doesn't know their stuff will go to bat for you.

Finding someone who's full time is recommended, absolutely, absolutely, especially right now. So number four, I really liked this one. Tell everyone that you were on the hunt for a house. Just tell everyone. Don't let it be a secret because if you tell everyone, tell your mom, tell you, tell

your friends, your mom's friends, tell everyone, um. Because if there's a chance you can get an off market deal through word of mouth, you can save a ton of money if you can get something like you know, my mom's friend, um, my, my mom's mom's friend died and they didn't know what they were going to do with the house, and so we kind of looked into if we could buy the house, and they ended up just

like selling it because the market was so hot. But if it was a closer like friend or relative, I'm sure we could have had more common versations about that. So just tell people what you're doing and see if that's something that can happen for you to get an off market deal. Number five, Watch for new listings and then stay in touch with your realtor so you don't have to only let your real ittor do all of the work and just call you up when they find something.

If you are actively wanting a house, you need a house now, sooner rather than later. You can also be a part of that search process. It is very possible that you could find something that is not on your realtors radar, but yet they could be an incredible help and then making that final sale happen. This was my in Eric's experience. He actually found a house that was

only listed on Zillo for sale by owner. Our realtor never did see it, so the fact that we were able to find it and then utilize him to kind of close the deal was incredibly helpful. So definitely be on those sites, be searching. It's very possible that you might find something just as it's listed and be able to pounce in the right timing that the place could be yours. Yeah, we had the same experience for our

first house. It was for sale by owner because the flipper was also a realtor and so she just represented herself and didn't put it on the MLS for some reason. So and then this one we founded ourselves. So, like you, you have to be proactive, you have to be doing your own research. And everyone looking for a house is on Zillo night and day. So this isn't something that we have to reiterate, um, but just know, like you, you have as much, if not more access to everything

that's out there than like your realtor. So next we're going to combine six, seven, and eight. So these are basically getting your offer in order. So six is to put in a strong, clean offer, seven is to consider contingencies, and eight is don't make demands of the sellers. And these are all very true. Uh We So we were looking for about six months UM and and our story started.

We were looking for an investment property. Initially, we had saved up enough to put down on an investment property, and we were going to do hard money, which is considered like a cash offer, so we were we went in very well prepared. In any other market, we would have been very well prepared to buy an investment property, but there were too many investors looking at the houses that we were able to afford. With that you know down they were paying for those houses in cash, two

week close, no inspection, no contingencies, all cash. As is like if these were the offers we were competing with, and we just we couldn't compete. And I know other people are looking at the same like first time home buyers. We were standing next to them, you know, the same deal. They were going to put down even less, and they wanted traditional mortgages and just there was absolutely no competing

against them. And it's made me truly embittered, honestly by the process of I don't hate real estate investors, like we are real estate investors now technically, but corporations and hedge funds going in and buying up communities like there are communities where thirty percent of all homes purchased were purchased by corporate rations and hedge funds, and in predominantly black communities like they are they are consuming, they are wiping out the market for first time home buyers and

mom and pop investors, and it is it has embittered me to the process. Um so if that comes out, I'm super sorry. But so the so what I experienced is definitely to put in a strong offer is really one that two people who bought a house five years ago would would seem stupid, Like it would seem very stupid. We in February, our realtor was saying, like he lost four millions, put in offer, four million dollars in offers that got lost, and the ones that got taken they

were seeing. We were seeing sixty two seventy k over asking, no inspection, all cash, and so in a lot of it. In a lot of the country, it's about fifteen to conservatively that's being pot all cash. Um. We're seeing twenty five in a lot of places in Florida. It's about half half of homes sold in recent months. I can't I'm looking at like at a different article for these facts, but it's half of home sold. We're paid for in cash,

according to the National Association Real of Realtors. So there are companies that will help you make a cash offer that are not hard money. So you've got companies like Ribbon and home Light that will charge you one to one and a half percent of the homes value um, but they will make a cash offer on your behalf. And then in the time in the month that you're closing, you have time to switch that to a traditional mortgage, but the offer looks stronger because the offers cash um.

There's also orchard that's just in Texas. But so if you want to look into Ribbon and home Light and orchard, these you will pay a little bit more for it, but they will do cash offers on your behalf. So yeah, there is an but even still with ribbon, they require three day inspection period. So there you you have to go in. Your realtor should know the state of the market. You need to be asking them how much over asking our houses going for? What are the contingencies, what are

the inspection like? Ask all these questions so you know in advance what to expect for your offer. If they're like the offers that are winning are are fifty k over asking three day inspection um, traditional mortgage or cash offers, then you know you need to go. You know, if it's ca shofers winning, you know you need to go with a with a cash offer. If they can't answer these questions, you need to move on to a realtor

that does know what offers are getting accepted. And then you also want to ask which offers are not getting accepted, what's the common denominator between offers you see not getting accepted, so you know you can't do that in your offer. It's going to be a little different in different places throughout the country, but your realtor really is your asset when deciding what a strong, clean offer is all at all is going to take a bit more fortitude in

this market for a buyer. It just there's just a lot more stacked against It's that it's not saying don't buy, but certainly consider all these things that are being said and talked about in these articles of whether or not now is the exact right time for you. You know, some of us it's not an option, and we for various reasons it is necessary and so this episodes for you.

But if you don't have to, or or you're not sure that you're cut out for what all it's gonna take right now, just consider that number nine is talking about including an offer letter. So this was something new to me. I don't know within the past few years that people might take a more personalized approach and write a letter to the seller of what attracted to them to the property, mentioning personal touches that you admire, sharing some of the memories that you hope to make in

the new home. And it's definitely and this is not a part of the homebuying process that you have to do. Some people choose to some people don't. I know, Jen, you are not a fan of this, so curious to hear your perspective. So I had asked, I was like,

would it help if we did this? And our realtorm made a really good point is that there everybody is advising against it because it it actually goes against fair housing laws, or it can go against fair housing laws where if somebody doesn't want somebody of a certain religion on their street, or of a certain race, or of a certain like interest group, I don't know, if they see that in the letter, it could actually hurt their

chances um or it can um impede diversity. So if somebody wants somebody who looks like them entering the neighborhood and they see that through a letter and choose them versus somebody who maybe of um a different you know, religion or race, that could slow down um diversity coming to neighborhoods. And so really it's not a great idea.

Realtors are starting to advise against it some if they do, if the buyer really does want to send a letter, they'll redact um names and just make it very generalized. But it doesn't really help anymore. Realtors are advising against it, and I think there's probably going to be he are realtor thought there was going to be something nun that actually stopped it from happening. Yeah, prohibitive so nice. Yeah. Ten is be ready for a bidding more and it's

it's happening, it's there. Be prepared, Like we put in an offer every week for about six weeks, so be be prepared to do that for at least a few months. And just get up your resolve because remember that first part one, Step one is make your lists of non negotiables, and you need to be prepared to, you know, to not put in an offer on something that like doesn't meet those non negotiables. The more you get into it,

the less the more negotiable those non negotiables become. But you just need you need to be prepared to put in a bunch of offers and to just keep doing it. That said, too, though, I think it's important for you to be clear on what is the top of your budget. Because I think through this process and going through many bidding wars, folks can get really worn down. But please don't find yourself house poor at the end of this having maybegotten at home, but you actually can't afford it

even if you were approved for it. So that blends into number eleven and twelve. Be patient and be persistent. I think there's a whole other emotional self care and regulation piece that's connected to this, because it really can be an emotional roller coaster, not only for your your home, your living space, but also investing a ton of money into buying a home. There's a whole lot of emotional, relational, physical,

mental dynamics that go into this. So also engaging in some of those exercises that are going to help you to maintain that per assistance, maintain that patience knowing that something is going to work out, and it might seem devastating when the place that you thought was perfect doesn't work out, but finding something that's going to be anchoring

to you through the process. Because home buying is stressful to begin with, and again we are in a really extra difficult housing market for buyers, So practice some of those resilience pieces that will carry you through this time, um and hopefully find a support network through it as well. Yeah, and if you, I mean, if you want to buy a house, you will buy a house. It will take time, it will take perseverance, but you can do it. And

I'm not going to say don't buy a house. I just bought a second house, like and I didn't need to do that and I just did it. So like, I'm not going to tell you not to buy a house in this market. It's just you have to be I just we just want you to be prepared. I wrote down here offer lose cry, drink wine, start again. That was my process pretty much every week. And yeah, and then I needed even more wine when it came

time to get approved for the mortgage. That is difficult, they really, I mean, lending is super I mean because everybody wants a house. There's a shortage of housing, and so they're like they don't care. They just they want everything from you. They want to make sure you're the best possible candidate because if they don't get you, they can get someone with more money, or they can get an all cash offer. So like lending is I mean very intense right now, so they want everything from you,

and they want everything at the last minute. So know that on both of the houses we were under contract on two houses two and a half before we got ours. Everything was left to the last minut it. So, speaking of lending, we wanted to spend a few minutes. We won't hounded on this for too much longer because you've pretty much these are all the tips, but we wanted to spend a few minutes looking at a second article called Housing Market Predictions for and so this was written.

UM this is a collection of expert studies and data across multiple different real estate data companies, updated monthly. This one was updated in April, I think because we just finished May when we're recording this. But so, yeah, we're not going to go super deep into this, but we did want to touch on a few of the housing market forecasts. Why the markets hot, why it's going to cool down but not um but not crash essentially, and why why XP it's predict this. So, Jill, I know

you did not love this article. I just I mean, I think we we know, we don't know, none of us know for sure, and I think sometimes with predictions there can be various motivations for the predictions that people make given their interests, and what is going to be

useful for them to say. But I think it's worth listening to a lot of these different voices to inform our own decision making, because if we are of the mindset of, well, soon something's going to have to happen and I'm gonna be able to scoop up homes for dirt cheap, that that might not be the case. Like if if we're holding out, we're deciding not to buy right now, it can be helpful to know, well, what

are some of the experts saying related to this. So yeah, on the one hand, I'm like, we don't know, None of us know. We've got to do the best we can with what we've given and then ledge that we have.

But it can be valuable to look at it. So they're looking at the next three years of what what we think is going to happen with the housing market, what they think is going to happen with the housing market, And it can be informative of if you're holding out because you think something is going to change drastically, well, experts are saying it might not, and so you know, we're just read off a couple of quotes that stand out from this article, the one being that explaining that

prices are rising because of the mismatch between supply and demand,

but that doesn't mean that it's a housing bubble. That previously many people were predicting that the pandemic would cause a housing crash similar to what we saw during the Great Depression, but that hasn't happened, and experts are saying it most likely will not happen, and that the market is in far better shape today than it was a decade ago, and that the housing industry has had a boom in the last year, with the largest annual gain

in a single family house values and rentals, historically low for closure rates, highest number of home sales in fifteen years. So just kind of indicating that it doesn't look like much is going to change. We might see some things that might be a bit more favorable, but if you're waiting to be able to scoop up homes for under two hundred thousand, I don't know, it just might not

might not be a reality. Yeah, I heard UH family function a few months ago that um Travis's uncle said that he was waiting for another crash to Um for he told his daughter not to buy a house to wait for the next crash, And I'm sitting there like this is not great advice. Like highs and lows happen. We see it in this we're seeing in the stock market, and we see it historically. So there will be a

slow down and possibly even a correction. But there's a lot of legislation that's been put in place and a lot of money that's been put into place to ensure what happened in two thousand eight does not happen again. So we won't see something like that. We would see something different. And so I think the biggest I mean, let's not look at speculation. We'll just look at facts that the article talks about is that millennials have been

delayed into home buying. And there's more millennials than any other generation currently um buying houses, and there their first time home buyers. So there is there has been a decade long shortage of new home production. Uh, and so there is a discrepancy between lower inventory of starter homes essentially and more millennials trying to buy homes right now.

So normally it's just kind of paces um, but a lot of millennials have been delayed, and so a lot more are looking to buy in one cramped period of time. And then also there wasn't a lot going on in home sales um, you know, for for reasons we know, so there's also a little catch up that kind of plays into why there was the highest number of home sales in So those things all combined is that the decade long shortage of new new building and all the

millennials trying to buy, and the pandemic. So this all has created a perfect storm of to to create the hot market. And so we know that it also takes time to build new houses. There's also a labor shortage, so the speed at which houses are still being built right now still isn't fast enough to close that gap um in the next three years. That's the prediction that could change too. But so and like I said, it's

very difficult to get a mortgage. You have to be very qualified, and of houses are being paid for in cash. So the factors that were there for the last crash we saw are not there now. So it would have to be something different and unique that would bring on a crash. So like the things we're seeing now are indicators of of one, and then we have the rising mortgage rates, which would in a normal sense say like, oh, it's gonna you know, turn into a um a buyer's

market now. But again, because of the low inventory, so many houses being paid for in cash, it's just not it's not The experts say, it's not enough to flip it. Yeah, we were chatting a little bit about this before we pressed record, and I think that helps to answer some of my questions around why are we seeing this nationwide within the states of what people are calling a housing shortage.

It makes sense in the Tampa Bay area where you and I are, everyone wants to move to the amazing weather and beautiful turquoise water, but like, why is Indiana experiencing this too? Indiana is great too for their own reasons, and and that that helps to inform why are we seeing what we're seeing, so that we can wrap our heads around it makes sense of it again, be informed with the decisions that we're making of Okay, this is why, rather than just feeling so out of control and like

what's going on? Because there's a lot of that that's happening when we're trying to buy currently that can be really frustrating. So even just having an understanding of how did we find ourselves in this place, what's the trajectory moving forward? What do we see could be some helpful shifts? What not shift? So then how do I want to shift around that with what is inside my control? So all of this is just informative, I think, and we'll see,

we'll see what happens. But you know, it can be helpful to know that folks are not predicting a housing market crash like what we've seen in the past, and you know, there's real reasons behind what we're seeing. It's not just arbitrary because of the number of millennials that are first time home buyers right now. Yeah, but I'll also point out that only in April, only eight percent of buyers were first time buyers, while seventeen percent were

investors or second home buyers. And historically, first time buyers account for approximately forty of the market. And so we are seeing a shift to more hedge funds and corporations buying usually that that's seventeen number, um I saw it in somewhere else in this article is about twelve per cent,

So that is increasing. And while first time home buying is decreasing, and I can't tell you the reason for that, um, But I can tell you what I've experienced is that first time homebuyers don't have a chance in this market for what they can afford because investors are buying everything. Like we had to buy something that was definitely not a starter home in order to be able to get

back into the market. Uh. And so all I want to say is like, stop selling to hedge funds, tell your parents, tell your parents friends, stop selling new corporations, because that's really where this is coming coming to. Is people are listening to the commercials on the radio and TV and the flyers, and they quit clothes, all cash, no hassles, Audi, YadA, and it seems really easy and it is, um. But it's created this shift where it is easier for an investor to get a house than

it is for a first time home buyer. Um. And So that's I mean, that's the reality. And I don't know what that's going to do to the market. I it's not sustainable. I just I don't know what it's going to do to the market. UM. But and yeah, foreclosures and short sales are less than one percent of sales in April two so which is down um from from two percent in April. So it's there's no room for I can't speculate on what's going to happen, but

those are facts. There's some there's some social change pieces, policy change pieces, activism pieces that are certainly wrapped up in this and what you're highlighting gen and at the end of the day, everything that makes frugality amazing is still amazing. Implementing problem solving and research and making informed, wise good steward and decisions can get you in a home if that is what is going to be best

case scenario for you. We're just in some ways commiserating with those of you who are finding yourselves in that process and recognizing the emotional toilet can take and finding a community around you, and then also finding some ways to resolve some of the more macro level issues that

we're noticing with the housing market. So a lot of different layers, but if you're an individual listening, it is possible, but recognize the fortitude and grit that it will take speaking of something that doesn't require much fortitude and grit and just gives us the joy that we need to keep going. It is the respite the bill of the week. That's right, it's time for the best minute of your entire week. Maybe a baby was born and his name

is William. Maybe you've paid off your mortgage. Maybe your car died and you're happy to not have to pay that bill anymore. That's bills, Buffalo bills, Bill Clinton, this is the bill of the week. Hello jan Hello Jill. Hi, my name is Emily. I've been listening to for a bill I don't know three months now, and my bill

of the week it is comprehensive car insurance. I had a dear hit the side of my car and the the cost of making the car look pretty was four thousand dollars that I didn't have to pay because I've been paying comprehensive car insurance. Have a great week. This is the second bill in a a row about car insurance, and I love it because I also pay for full coverage car insurance even though I don't have to, and it's for stuff like this, I mean, not necessarily DearS,

but other unforeseeables and it's just dear. And that's how you know. Jen grew up in Florida, not around here. It's both the singular and the plural. How's that for the English language, Emily, How amazing. I'm so glad that your car looks beautiful again and that you don't have to pay that high price because of the monthly payments you made, and that you're okay after that run in with the deer. At least it sounds like you are, if you're able to call it in your bill of

the week. Oh, if you're listening and you want to submit your bill of the week, if it's about deer or car cars, that one is plural. Dear car. Visit Fringle Friends podcast dot com, slash bill, leave us your bill. No, it's time for so let's talk about one tip about the home buying process. Nobody told you that you wish you'd known, Jill, I wish i'd known about the stamps. There's nothing I could have done about it, and just wish I would have known about the stamps. Anyone on

the stamp bought a home. I still don't know what they are, Jen, I think people have tried to explain it to me, but I just remember seeing this line, item after line it I'm listing out stamps and they were expensive to like four dollars for some stamps, And I'm thinking, are these postage stamps, sticker stamps? Are these just ink pad stamp? What in the world kind of stamps are we talking about? Are they made of gold, diamonds, sapphire pearls? I don't know, but I think the main

thing is that everything is negotiable except except for the stamp. Well, yeah, so interest rate was negotiable, how much we pay real ittor was negotiable price at the home, although in nowadays not totally and it wasn't totally for us when the

house was for sale by owner. But just know that we can implement some of these negotiation things, and even if the price of the home isn't negotiable, maybe there's some other things that we can weave in to be able to get what we need, and maybe just negotiating with ourselves at the end of the day's what what we need. But also I think I was really surprised by how much cash I needed to just close. I

think I thought that I was estimating really liberally. I thought, oh, I'm just gonna attack on thousands of dollars, and it just still wasn't enough. By the time the stamps came around and paying different I can't even remember what all it was. It's just be prepared to have a lot of cash on hand. It's not just the down payment. Yeah uh mine is. You are not married to your real turn like your first realtor you pick you try out realtor date them and see who cares the most

about you, who cares the most about your business. If you don't get good vibes, drop them like you're I mean, just because they looked at a few houses with you does not mean you're obligated to stick with them. Choose one that will go to bat for you and is available during working like they're working hours are after work and weekends, so they need to be available to see houses any day of the week that you are available any day of the weekend, Like maybe not at midnight,

that's fine, but like any other time you're available. So just I mean, don't go with a real tur that doesn't drive well with you. Let us know how you all are navigating this housing market. If you've got more tips and thanks everyone for listening. Many of you know we have a private community where we do monthly money challenges and we offer accountability groups so more of that community. So if you are in the first time homebuying process, we're here for you. Come, come get at this community.

And we want to congratulate one of our members for a big win that they just experienced. This comes from Vanessa, who says, I've been making around two hundred to three hundred dollars per week with Corner Shop, and I've been funding my future trip to Niagara with it. My best friend is in the midst of a separation, so I wanted to make sure everything was covered ahead of ahead

of time, even restaurants. I knew she wouldn't accept me paying for everything, but I told her, look, take five years paying me back if you'd like, but know that it's all taking care of already, so we can enjoy our trip and not worry about the money. So I'm glad I could do that for her, and it's making it less stressful for me as well. That generosity amazing, Vanessa. Yes, we are big proponents for generosity and serving and helping another.

So Vanessa, congrats. And Vanessa recently just met her accountability partner in real life. Vanessa and Christie got together and took a picture and posted it and it was like the dream of my life. Uh so, thanks for sharing that, Vanessa, Thanks for listening. If you want to check out our monthly challenge community had to Frugal Friends podcast dot com slash club to see what challenge we have coming up next. See You Next Week by Frugal Friends is produced by Eric Sirianni