Buying a Home

Before the first showing, decide the three to five things you will not bend on. Here are the ones I see buyers regret skipping, and the ones that are not worth the fight.

The locks, the shutoffs, the paperwork, the one night you should not unpack. What I tell every client to do in the first seven days after closing.

Plan for closing costs, insurance, taxes, repairs and moving. Use the home-cost calculator to see your full monthly budget and savings left after buying.

The roof, the monthly bills, the rules, and the questions a beautiful room cannot answer. Bring these eight questions and your own tour notes.

A 20-question scorecard for touring a home after 60: the entry, the stairs, the bathroom, the distance to a hospital, and the data on why it matters.

Fixer-upper math that no longer works, first-time wish lists priced against the wrong year, stairs you will regret, and why negotiating like it is 2010 gets your offer ignored. From forty years in the passenger seat.

Building a home is a marathon with mile markers. Here is every stage in order, how long each one usually takes, and where the surprises hide.

A clear Florida guide to buyer costs, seller costs, prepaids, cash to close, negotiable credits, and the state taxes that require exact math.

What happens during the 30-to-45-day financed closing window, where the quiet weeks go, and which early moves prevent avoidable delays.

Not the television version. The real one, step by step, with the honest timelines and the myths cleared out of your way, from forty years of walking buyers through it.