would be i am denise smith i am your host today and i just want to let you know that i have an exciting buyer coming to you she has a lot of good questions for you and i just want to see if you can just listen today so that you can open your ears so that you can buy real estate so i'm going to let you know just how easy it is for you to purchase real estate so continue to watch us today i'm here with a deer in the deer is going is actually a future home buyer and she will be buying real estate real soon and she has a few questions for me so my letter go ahead and answer the questions that she would like to ask today ok thank you so much for having me my first question is what you would recommend for someone who is looking to get into their first home the first thing they would want to do what they would like to get into their first home is to get pre qualified find a bank or a credit union or a financial institution that would be able to help them purchase the property so first i would say get together your paychecks the if your salary you need a thirty day paychecks the put together to bank statements because the bank statements which show that you have the money in the bank to purchase the property and then they always want to see you do so because if they have to double you to use then you could verify the last two years that you have been gainfully employed i've heard about programs that can help me get into my own home can you tell me a little bit how i can find one yes there's all types of programs right now there's so many first time buyers that are looking for real estate that they have programs for the city of oakland if you're looking for the city i would suggest that whatever city you would like to purchase and you would want to go and look in that city to find out what programs that they offer because each city should offer a program free for first time homebuyers also the banks have programs as well so the cities have programs the banks offer programs and then there's also nonprofit companies that also assist and help you with identifying different programs that can help you i know of several programs that first time buyers can gain access to and the banks will generally know the programs the city will know the programs but there's all different types of programs available i keep hearing about this opportunity to flip houses and that that could be an hour away that i could make money make a lot of money and then get myself into a really big house how realistic is that well not to talk about any one person but i have been watching some things on television that say the they they indicate that they're get rich quick by realist they turn around and make all this money well as an investor and investor for a long time i've been really is they for thirty years real estate real estate is my life but you really have to go into it is a business and there is if it's too good to be true it is if you find a property and they say it's very very low and you can get into this property and then you could turn around and sell it later i would say you would want to be very very careful i'm very concerned i always indicate buyer beware because if the property is worth maybe forty thousand they say that you could buy the property for very very low then you want to check that property out you want to make sure that the electrical the plumbing the bound ation the roof everything is in working order because not only where you get a good deal but you're also going to have to maintain that property and there's a lot of hidden cost and partly sometimes so the get rich flipped the property fast quick and really for those i'm for slow and easy and for just being very cautious in your first investment you just made me think about the option of purchasing a fixer upper and how good an idea might that be for somebody well for first time buyer to purchase with a i've heard people call him all kinds of things fixer uppers i've heard him call me fix me up or i mean i hear all kinds of names but i would really be concerned because yes once again if they need work you want to make sure that you get a licensed contractor to be able to view that property and make sure of all the details because there's a lot of good in cost and sometimes i have i'm also an investor i have purchased real estate i've helped people to buy real estate but the most important ingredients in real estate is disclosure disclosure disclosure it used to be location location location but now it's disclosure disclosure disclosure what that means is that every seller selling the property has to disclose everything there where of that's wrong with the property but if it's a foreclosure the banks are selling the properties the bank never lived in the property so they don't know what's wrong with that property so you want to be very careful because if the licensed contractor goes in there and sees that there's some things that need to be taken care of very important things there's a cost also that goes along with that maintenance of their property so termite inspections are really important because you don't even hear the termites you don't see the termites you walk into the property in you you would never even know they're there unless you get a license termite inspector to go and look at their property so they can make sure that if there's anything that's wrong their property that you you know that so that when you go to sell it that you're cleared and there's no hidden cost and you don't get into a what they call a money pit and before you know it you've spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and you have your sweetheart and you're fighting with him or her because of the fact that it's really the property that's the problem ok and so then that makes me wonder how what i would do if i really want to get into a home and not be house poor that's a very good question you know i know a lot of people that have moved very far away because they wanted their mini mansion i don't believe that that's really important i think that everybody that purchasing real estate today should really identify what their goals are what their aspirations are what the reality is for them and their family you know if you if you're if it's just you you have different needs but if it's you your sweetheart and a child then you're going to have family need so you really have to get together with that individual more yourself in some cases and make a decision on what you're really what are your priorities you know do you want a big house on the you know do you want to big else where you know you have a lot of bedrooms or do you want to live in a better location and get a smaller house that maybe you and your family can grow into ok and so i would assume that out of that conversation is where i would determine what my priorities are but do you have any suggestion as an expert on how to prioritize what you want if you want your location if you want the size how to determine what would be best say follow your heart that's that's my best you know i've sold hundreds and hundreds of thousands and i just believe that every buyer should follow their heart and what i mean by that is that you really have to write down all the all the pros and cons and things that you really want out of this house do you want to backyard i mean is a backyard  really that important because you have a child you know or do you want to wait your child cannot even walk right now so do you want to wait five six years and maybe your next home you can get a larger backyard something like that i think that you really need to release just talk to your partner and talk to yourself and say well ok maybe it's a condo maybe i want a place that has zero upkeep maybe you're never had a nice ye you know zero to no maintenance and no yard you know you don't want any you know major things that may come up later on so a condo might be better for some people that don't want to maybe there they travel a lot and they're never home they might want to twenty four hour doorman because of you know in a condo maybe you can get a twenty four hour dorm maybe that's more important or maybe that you might want less bedrooms you know and because of the back you'll get a better location maybe you choose a smaller house rather than a larger house don't always go for the mini mansion up front you know that let that be your fifth or sixth home you know don't let it be the first home understand that this is just your stepping stone just to start you to begin to what you're going to end up with later on ok and so then i want to know if i go into a home knowing that i'm not planning to stay there because i have a bigger vision or a bigger dream how long should i plan or expect to be in that home that starter home they usually say to start in your first home they usually save three to five years seven years if you really like the house but generally three to five years i always say that in my you might say three but three years go so fast before you know it is five for you know it's seven for you know it you're in their teen years so you want to find something that you really know that you can grow into a little bit but not don't go for the mini mansion diverse go for the house that's a big margin now for your family to live in ok and then can you share a little bit about if i were interested in transitioning after getting into my first home transitioning into potentially making money doing real estate or selling homes how i would do that in a healthy way for myself and for my family first you would be very satisfied with the first song of course yes and know that you're able to pay that mortgage because you see housing is is a mortgage principle and interest property taxes principal and interest taxes insurance and then you're comfortable with the p g and e the water bill all the needed if you know needed expenses for their property once you feel you're comfortable and even if you are a two person family you want to make sure that perhaps you could pay that mortgage on one income in the event that you get laid off in the event anything could happen where you are now just the sole person making that mortgage payment so you want to be very comfortable first before you go to buy another property you know step out there and get an investment property and generate income for yourself i would say be very comfortable in what you have right now do you see a lot of people would seems like there's a progression where people start in their first home they get into a larger home as their family expands and as their resources expand and then there comes a point maybe when their kids leave the house and they're ready to downsize so do you have a little bit of information about that sure we call them the nestors where they've had families for a long period of time they're all their kids are in college and they don't need that large house any longer yes there is there's a program actually for people there by in the same county they keep the same property taxes that they head for that larger home they can just go to the next property and keep that same property tax base where that's important that their expenses won't be based on that new sale price but i would recommend for empty nesters they have to decide and that's again where they talk to a i believe a very good real estate agent and they make sure that if they want to sell their property not always do i recommend selling property i might say keep the property and maybe move in and maybe rent that property and then move to another property so that they can you know downsi but if they decide they want to sell that property they really have to soul search once again that's when they really have to decide on what are we going to do with this property are we going to leave it to our children if so our what percentage of it's going to go to the children they have to really decide because not always what i recommend them to sell and they might want to keep it in the family maybe and i always recommend putting it in a trust or something like that because otherwise they could have that family and  that property in the family for years and years later on for two and three generations and then that leads to wealth building yet for families yes and so how does purchasing a home contribute to wealth building and how can somebody deliberately build wealth for themselves whether through real estate or or elsewhere as a business owner well i think that really is definitely the  my opinion and it has been for me because i am an investor and i've been investing for many years i believe that everybody has an opportunity to purchase real estate and i believe that that is the number one way to build wealth i realize that other people talk about a lot of different other ways to build well but i think real estate in my opinion again is the number way to build the way you build wealth is that you have to buy property and then just stay in it for a while  and then once you keep it and the property generally will appreciate yes we have had in in some past years we've seen the market actually decline which in california we've never seen a declining market we always said that in texas they declined not in california but we just had this happen right here in california with the market declining we have declined some of our wealth however if you still o