Your First Home: The Proven Path To Homeownership

by Gary Keller, Jay Papasan

Your best guide to buying Your First Home . The first time you ride a bike, share a kiss, or drive a car―there's something thrilling about firsts. The adventure of buying your first home is no less memorable. And like most adventure, you'll face challenges, learn new skills, and have novel experiences along the way. Ever explored six strangers' homes in a single day> Get ready! Every pay more than six figures for anything? Take a deep breath! Ever sign a hundred or so legal documents in a single sitting (and love every nerve-wracking minute of it)? Limber up your writing hand―an incredible yet memorable journeys awaits. Assembled from hundreds of interviews, in-depth research, and decades of experience, Your First The Proven Path to Homeownership is your trusted guide. Your First Home will help This second edition is expanded to address new trends and share new tools to help you find, finance, and buy a home you'll be proud of for years to come.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 20, 2007

About the author

Professionally, Gary’s ONE Thing is teaching. He excelled as a real estate salesperson by teaching clients how to make great buying and selling decisions. As a real estate sales manager, he recruited agents through training and helped them build careers the same way. As co-founder and chairman of the board, he built Keller Williams Realty International from a single office in Austin, Texas, to one of the largest real estate companies in the world by using his skills as a teacher, trainer, and coach. Gary defines leadership as “teaching people how to think the way they need to think so they can do what they need to do when they need to do it, so they can get what they want when they want it.”

An Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and finalist for Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, Gary is recognized as one of the most influential leaders in the real estate industry. He has also helped many small business owners and entrepreneurs find success through his bestselling books The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, The Millionaire Real Estate Investor, and SHIFT: How Top Real Estate Agents Tackle Tough Times. A book, after all, is just another way to teach, but one with an infinitely large classroom. As a business coach and national trainer, Gary has helped countless others realize extraordinary results by focusing on their ONE Thing.

Unsurprising to those who know him, Gary’s single greatest achievement is the life he’s built with his wife, Mary, and their son, John.

Reviews

[Christopher Goins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two things must be said upfront: I am a student of Austrian Economics and a licensed real estate agent. I’ve been a student of economics informally (self-taught) for 2-3 years and formally for 8 years after that. I’ve only been a real estate agent for 2 years.

As someone who expects a recession in the United States (heck, even globally) in the near future I am very skeptical and cautious of people buying homes when markets may tank again and thousands, if not millions, of people lose their jobs and homes. Home buying isn’t for everyone in this climate. (With an attitude like this I’m sure you can guess real estate isn’t my primary line of work or vocation.)

That said, this book provided insights to me that I wasn’t aware of. I was always curious how real estate worked during the high inflation of the 1970s and the high interest rates of the 1980s. As the authors reveal in this book, real estate went on. The way they tackled it then gives me confidence that I can tackle real estate now, both as a real estate agent and as someone who very well may be buying their first property soon.

I may even buy my first home in this environment, given the information I received in this book. If the numbers make sense, then why not?

The personal stories between each chapter also provided much-needed color to the home buying process. I was pleased as to how many first time home buyers kept their first home as a rental property when they bought their second home. That may be a strategy I take in the next recession.

I do have reservations about the entire “you can’t afford not to buy a home” phrase that’s been thrown around in this book. If home prices are clearly in a free fall, which they are not right now, then why not, as a buyer, wait it out? True, we cannot time the market, but in an environment where employment and housing havoc is visible to all, why not?

That said, that is my primary objection to the use of the phrase—people really might not be in a position to afford it in the next recession. It might be smarter to rent short term. Given what I learned from this book, long-term renting might never be wise from a financial and wealth-building point of view. Here I will define long-term as “beyond three years.”

People with shaky employment obviously are not good prospective buyers, but that shouldn’t stop them from approaching a lender to see what they can afford. They are going to get screened by the lenders anyway and told what they can work on to put themselves in a position to become viable buyers.

Also, the discussion on equity was informative and priceless. It was the second point that made me excited to buy my own home. Breaking down the numbers on Adjustable Rate Mortgages and Fixed Mortgages were helpful to me, both as a prospective buyer and an agent. The charts were easy to understand and helpful.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I bought a copy for a friend.

[Sal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Is this embarrassing to put on my goodreads? Whatever! I read this book entirely in one day and skimmed the anecdotal, intermission-type chapters SORRY.

I found it to be incredibly helpful; I finally know what an "escrow" is, and it's not a bird. Would recommend/lend to anyone thinking about buying their first home.

[Steve · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first want to start in saying that I read this as an audiobook. Based on that experience, not really the best book. They talk a lot about diagrams which kind of made a little difficult. Outside of that, the references were a little dated and I feel like I lost information because of that. There are a lot of examples throughout which can sometimes be helpful, but I found it more like filler instead of beneficial. I guess I learned one or two things from here, but I’m not sure it’s worth the time.

[Ambs Kanoza · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would not have survived this process (so far at least 😅) without this book. I read the expanded second edition so I’m not sure what the original included.

There are tl;dr notes at the end of each chapter. The text is bigger and spaced so it doesn’t ‘feel’ overwhelming. My realtor gave this book to my husband and I, and it was a solid gift. Highly recommend:)

[Tyler Shirley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and informative for someone that is looking to buy their first home. If you are know the process and have a good understanding of how real estate works, it may be a little underrated. I found it helpful towards the end.

[Kate M · Rating 3 out of 5]

A quick and easy to read guide. Lists and simple tips. A good first read about this subject but does not go into a lot of detail.

[Christopher Beran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, touchy feely, a little bit of house flipper language and it sounds like an advertisement at times.

[David Wurtsmith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Extremely useful and helpful, though a bit dry at times.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A helpful guide!

[Harrisbetrue · Rating 3 out of 5]

this is a decent read if you're interested in buying a home and trying to make sense of some of the complexities of the process involved from picking a real estate agent to finding the right mortgage to finding a home to making an offer to etc etc. but it's a bit biased as it's written by real estate agents.

[Yugal Jindle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Valuable and detailed information on everything that goes into Home buying in US & Canada. Well written, and structured.

Shares checklists to think through at every stage of home buying, which was perfect.

Don't expect much insights but details about the process, and a must read for 1st time home buyer.

[Mr. Pitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic book for first time home buyers. Completely demystifies the whole process. Written by people with Keller Williams realty but it is in no way an advertisement to promote their work. You can read this and easily work with any realtor.

[Judy · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good. Really enjoyed this book and loved the pictures!

[Dustin Ultican · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book for anyone looking to buy!

[Eliza K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good summary lists, but a lot of filler that wasn’t worthwhile. A good skim read to re-emphasize basics I learned from other books.

[Aleece Stallings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would definitely recommend to any first-time homebuyer!