Tips for First-Time Homebuyers Navigating the Real Estate Landscape

Buying your first home is very exciting!

You get to select a home from the market and imagine years of your life unfolding there before occupying it and doing just that. You probably also have some nerves, as the experience is new, and the numbers tossed around are daunting.

Let’s check out a few tips for first-time homebuyers navigating the real estate landscape.

Use Property Technology

Digital innovator Regan McGee built Nobul, a proptech platform, to empower homebuyers with a secure, transparent platform tilted in the user’s favour. 

First-time homebuyers don’t have experience working with a real estate agent and shouldn’t have to hope to have an industry connection with a friend or relative.Instead, they can use Nobul to connect with the right agent for them. All they need to do is list their budget and describe the home they’re looking for. Then, agents will compete for deal flow by sending offers and incentives to their inboxes.

Buyers are free to select the agents whose skills, experiences, prices, and incentives they like best. The platform is secure, and users don’t need to give their personal contact information to any agent on the platform except the one they select to represent them.

Leverage Tax Credits

Depending on where you live, you may be able to leverage tax laws to your benefit. For example, first-time homebuyers in Canada can get a tax credit on eligible homes of up to $1,5000 because the amount used to calculate the Home Buyers Tax Credit doubled from $5,000 to $10,000 in 2022. This provides a maximum annual tax credit of up to $1,500, up from $750. 

While saving up, it’s also wise to load up your tax-free savings account. If you buy a stock from these funds, you don’t pay taxes on the gains, interest, or dividends, even if they exceed the annual limit. 

For example, you can only put a limit of $6,500 in a tax-free savings account each year, but if you have that much worth of stocks and its value increases as the stock rises in price, you won’t pay any taxes on that increased amount, even though it’s more than $6,500.

Keep in mind, that’s just the ceiling on the annual limit. Canadian residents’ accumulation room in this type of account grows every year from the time they’re 18 onwards, even if they haven’t opened up an account. In other words, the contribution limits from previous years get bundled together and applied at once from the time you initially qualified if you’re opening up an account today for the first time.

Consider Land-Transfer Fees

Certain jurisdictions charge land transfer fees whenever you buy a house, but first-time homebuyers may be partially or fully exempted. There are strict conditions you need to meet, but they should be available to you.

If you buy a “starter” home you plan to move out of, be mindful that you’ll pay this fee on the new home. 

First-time homebuyers are embarking on a serious purchase and an exciting milestone in their life. If they keep the above in mind, the transaction should be more affordable and rewarding.