--- title: Tips for First Time Home Buyers | TIME description: First Time Home Buyers canonical: https://time.com/video/xAcsBv74/ og:title: Tips for First Time Home Buyers og:description: First Time Home Buyers og:url: https://time.com/video/xAcsBv74/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xAcsBv74/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Tips for First Time Home Buyers twitter:description: First Time Home Buyers twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/xAcsBv74/poster.jpg?width=720 --- # Tips for First Time Home Buyers > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Subscription: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition TIME is a general-interest news organization founded in 1923, reporting on the people, ideas and issues shaping the world. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Tips for First Time Home Buyers [Watch (HLS stream): Tips for First Time Home Buyers](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xAcsBv74.m3u8) (2:50)  _Published 2016-04-14. First Time Home Buyers_ --- Jul 27, 2023 7:55 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [3 Tips for First-Time Home Buyer](/video/YoVjFdw6/) ### 3 Tips for First-Time Home Buyer [3 Tips for Experienced Home Buyer](/video/xg60kStg/) ### 3 Tips for Experienced Home Buyer [3 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers](/video/vAUrhUj8/) ### 3 Tips for First-Time Home Buyers --- ## Transcript Millennials had been sitting on side lines of the housing market for a long time but they're finally starting to shop. Real estate expert Elyse Klink is here with us today to give some advise for first time home buyers, thank you Elyse. Nice to be here Rachel. Prices have been climbing faster than wages have for quite a while. What should a new buyer do if they just don't think they're gonna be able to make those on going payments? I'm would encourage you to buy down. Four. Just spend a little bit less. You might wanna look at a condo. You might wanna look at a different neighborhood. One of the trends with Millenials is that they're not staying in properties for too long. So if you're gonna buy something and move in three or four years, you don't necessarily have to buy in the best school district, for example. That'll be a less expensive Expensive choice. One of the biggest challenges for 20 and 30 something has really been putting together that down payment. What are some of the options that people have? Well the good news is since the housing crisis we've seen the return of low down payment loans. So you can now get buy a house with 3 3 1 / 2 percent down depending on what you get with a [ UNKNOWN ] loan for example could be less then 3 percent down if your a teacher or a firefighter. Or a police officer. There are also programs through Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, like Fanny Mae has the home ready program, that's a low down payment program. If you're a veteran, there's the VA. There are true zero down, not the least expensive, but zero down payment. [ LAUGH ] Are these programs a good idea? I mean, do you end up paying more in mortgage insurance? Well, here's the deal. When you actually put less down, you have a bigger mortgage. So you're gonna be paying more, which is why you have to watch the total amount that you're spending. You have to think about your lifestyle. You know, these are lifestyle decisions. A lender's not gonna want you to spend more than Say 36 % of your gross monthly income on total dept and I think this for some home buyer as a word never understand that. So really do the numbers and think about what you're giving out to get in hat house . >> Okay and let's talk a little bit about credit scores. To get a better lead how high credit scores do you have to have? Have. I don't know can you get ten thousand. That's what the lenders would like, no. Seriously FICA goes up to 850 and anything over 760 or 780 is considered an outstanding credit score. So doesn't matter if your a Say 792 or 810, you're in good shape. Once you start getting below 620 or 600 and you say, I've got a 580 credit score, you're going to be in trouble. It's going to be harder to find a loan. So if your credit isn't where it's going to be great and you're going to get one of those 3. 5 % loans I would recommend taking a six month break. Take a step back work on making your payments on time, work on getting your debt to income ratios down that's how your credit scores can go up and then you'll get a cheaper loan . >> Great advice thank you so much Liz for being . >> Nice to be here Rachael. 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