A $750 tax credit is also available for first-time buyers to assist with closing costs such as legal fees, land transfer taxes, disbursements, etc.  The credit is based on $5000 for first time home buyers.  A person is considered a first time buyer if neither they nor their spouse or common-law partner has owned or lived in another home in the year of the home purchase or at any time in the past 4 years.

Education: there’s a wealth of information available to prospective homeowners, both first timers and multi-timers.  What they don’t need is more information but someone to help them navigate through it, evaluate it and make the best decisions.  That’s where you come in.

You should recommend they

• Speak to a mortgage broker and get pre-approved before starting the home buying process.  This helps them know what they can afford to buy so they don’t waste their time looking at properties priced beyond what they’ve been approved for.
• Getting pre-approved can save you and them a lot of time looking at places if they get denied financing for an unforeseen reason.

Renting Vs. Buying: you need to make a strong case for buying over renting with lots of evidence.  For example, if a renter is paying $800 per month in rent they could afford to buy a $120,000 with that monthly payment.  If their home appreciates 2% per year over the next five years then you can tell them their home will appreciate $27,000 in value, and this is above and beyond what they take off the principal.

It’s definitely a good idea to find a great mortgage broker to use regularly.  Have a sit down meeting with this broker and your buyer.  When it comes to answering all their questions its best to have both a mortgage broker and real estate professional present.

You could also hold seminars or webinars for first time buyers with the key people involved present – your trusted mortgage broker and real estate lawyer.  It’s best to record the webinar so people can view them on their own time.  Just make sure you make them give you their email address via a double opt-in mechanism before allowing them to view the webinar.

Of course, if you’re going to host webinars you’re going to need a real estate website first.  My Moneymaker website is designed specifically for real estate professionals.  Try if free for 10 days!

Link to Part 2

Link to Part 1