Lori Alvarez and Team

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Episode 2: How Do You Buy Your First Home?

What would you like to know as you aspire to buy your first home? How do you even buy your first home? What’s going to be your story? IN THIS EPISODE Lori pours her soul into sharing her First Home Buying story and talks about the highs, lows, and how to’s of the incredibly rewarding journey.

Have you ever wanted to ask Lori what buying her first home was like? Well, here it is broken down. If you want to hear the full bits and pieces of it listen to her podcast, Episode 2, How Do You Buy Your First Home?

The story arose after she had a conversation with her daughter in law, Destiny. The question, “What would you like to know as you aspire to buy your first home?” sparked moments of nostalgia filled with teachable moments. She can certainly tell it the best, so here it is.

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What’s Lori’s story?

What’s the journey to buying my first home? Well, after some morning reflections I have that story for you.

WHEN DID I BUY MY FIRST HOME? 

Age 27, with 2 babies, a hubby, a dog, and a cat.

WHAT WERE MY FIRST QUESTIONS ALONG THE JOURNEY? 

How do I buy a home with no money?

WHERE DID I WANT TO BUY THE HOUSE?

In San Dimas.

WHAT KIND OF HOUSE DID I LOVE? 

Since age 14 I loved having a really cool porch with a really cool family. I loved a Craftsman home.

Side note: I’ve wanted 4 boys since I was 14, and look what  I got!? 4 sons. Wooh!

Now what…

Now that I knew what I wanted it was time to figure out who can help me.

I opened up the penny saver. Saw an ad. And it began.

Yup. I called a realtor.

I picked up a phone and I said, Hey, Helen ‘can-do’ Canedo. I think she’s actually still active in real estate today!

So, I said, “Hey girlfriend, I want to buy a house in San Dimas. Is there like a first time home buyer program cause I don't have any money. Tell me how to do this. I got a father-in-law who's been super cool and says he's going to give me some cash to help me buy my first house, and I've got a hubby who has a little bit of money saved because we were diligent at paying away all of our debt and just kind of saving up a little money here and there.” 

And I got the help.

And I said, “Let's do this. Helen can do Canedo. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm lost. I'm a kid with some kids and a husband and no money and I want to buy my house in San Dimas.”

WHAT HOUSE DID WE END UP GETTING?

A 2 bed,1 bath, 946 sq ft home.

HOW DID WE DO IT?

I needed a loan, so we got one. 

And Helen linked me up with Wally Nikowitz, the lender, and founder of Better Home Financial in San Dimas.

He showed me the way.

He said, “Okay, guys, you don't have any money.”

And we replied, “Yeah, you're right. We don't have any money, but we want to buy a house. How do we do that?” 

And he helped us do just that. He helped to start our journey to homeownership. 

BUT WHERE DID ALL THAT EVEN BEGIN?

With a dream. A desire to own a home. And a willingness to overcome.

“With a dream. A desire to own a home. And a willingness to overcome.

— Lori Alvarez

The market doesn’t need to agree with your dream.

I declared, “Nope. I'm buying a house. I don't care if it's the right time in the market or not, because I didn't have a clue. I just knew I want to buy a house and I want a safe space for me and my babies.”

HOW MUCH WAS 946 SQUARE FEET IN THE YEAR 2000? 

$170,000. In San Dimas.

YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THAT HOUSE IS TODAY? 

$450,000

HOW MUCH DID WE HAVE TO PUT DOWN TO BUY THAT $170,000 HOUSE?

About $13,950. That I didn't have.

SO WHAT DID WE DO?

My father in law gifted me eight grand. 

My hubby and I saved.

And the lender probably gave us some credit too, honestly.

…And we bought our first house.

https://matrix.crmls.org/Matrix/Public/Portal.aspx?ID=65412387743

That moment is so exciting.

Not only was it our first house. It was our first house with a front porch!

Home buyers, you'll know it's your home when it happens, I can promise you that. You’ll know when it’s the one.

So we were in the year 2000. With 2 babies, 1 hubby, 1 cat, 1 dog at age 27. And we bought our first house.

...And then we sold it in 2002.

HOW MUCH DID WE SELL IT FOR?

$215,000.

That was the equity gain on that home in two years.

$46,000.

Our Second Home

Now age 29. Two kids. 1 hubby. 2 dogs. 2 cats. A stay at home mom.

I wasn’t saving any money. But the real estate market saved up money for me— $46,000.

This time, the move cost us $12,000.

And this time we bought and sold at the same time.

But oh, you can't buy and sell at the same time. Not true! Some people think that it’s impossible, that it’s crazy. But we did it during the hottest market ever. And you can too if that’s what you dream of!

You gotta have someone who believes in you like I do.

All $46,000 went into our second house. 3rd street. With another front porch.

https://matrix.crmls.org/DE.asp?ID=65412263757

I was living my dream. And we sold our first home and closed and bought our second home two blocks away all in the same day.

You just need the right people to make it happen. Thanks Wally!


A Beautiful Life

And in that 3rd street home we had 2 more boys. 

A 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom, 1200 sq ft home. And oops, we thought it was 1400 sq ft! But when you're buying a house, it's all really overwhelming, right? And you just don't have a clue. You don't pull all the information in.

HOW MUCH DID WE BUY IT FOR?

$289,500 in June of 2002.

W e had put $65,000 down, 20% down because it’s a good practice!

And then we moved again, 4 years later, in 2006.

HOW MUCH DID WE SELL IT FOR?

$527,000.

And we had gained more equity! Yes!

Our Third Home

And then on home number three we put $280,000 down. The market did it for us. $280,000 saved up and we didn’t even know it! In just 4 years!

And we did this on one income and one income alone, because I was still a stay at home mom at the time.

So don’t tell me you can’t buy a house. Because you can!

So we dropped all that money into our third home, and then the market crashed.

Now we could have just rented a home and put the money in the bank instead of buying one. My husband suggested it, but this was our forever house. So we bought it. And hung out until the market recovered.

AND WHAT DID I DECIDE TO DO DURING THAT MARKET DEPRESSION OF 2009-2011?

I started my real estate career, of course! And now I’m successful in real estate because I don't know any other market except to bust my butt. That's what I did. I worked hard. I hustled.

I did what I had to do. And I dealt with short sales all the time!

What’s a short sale?

It’s what happened to my third home.

I bought it at $560,000, and it dropped to $350,000. $210,000 less! Money just gone because of the market crash. And then, in 2012 the market began slowly recovering. 

And we stayed, and we invested in both the home and in our family. We loved it! And we’ve spent about $150,000 in it, or so.

It’s our home sweet home.

Our forever home.

Well, I still have one more move in me to be completely honest. Don't tell my husband though. He’ll get nervous.

It was my dream. My family’s dream. And we want to help you move forward in getting your home. That's what we do. That's who we are. We're Lori Alvarez and Team. We help you find your next home, sweet home. We help you sell your home so that you can do what you need to do. And how do we do that? We just give you wisdom.

We give you knowledge, we give you advice, we do what we think makes the best sense for you and your story. 

This is my story. This is how I'm succeeding. And as you saw, there were some failures in the midst of that that I've learned from, but I'm thankful for because they've moved me forward so that I continue to win. Because you won't win unless you're moving yourself forward, always in anything, in everything you do. Don't let anyone take your story away. Go live it fully because it's exciting. I'm thankful for mine and I got so much more to share with you and so much more story, wisdom, guidance, knowledge when it comes to real estate. And we're going to help you move forward when the time makes sense for you. 

I recently heard a John Maxwell quote Paul J. Myer, “Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.”

So keep moving forward. Don’t quit.

Let’s boldly do life together.

Thanks for reading!

Real estate is an ongoing story. Tune in to the next episode where we will interview a great lender who loves to talk about loans.

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