Free guide
The First-Time Buyer's Guide to West Michigan
Everything you need to buy your first home with confidence.
- ✓The step-by-step buying process
- ✓How much home you can actually afford
- ✓Mistakes first-time buyers make (and how to avoid them)
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From Tamara Hekkema, West Michigan.
Peek inside
Tap a chapter to read how it starts.
Make this call before you look at anything. Ask all eight, write down the answers, and ask the same eight of a second lender so you have something to compare. 1. What am I approved for, and what would my payment be at that number? The second half is the one…
Print this. The things that cost money out here are mostly outside the house. The water supply. Where is the well, how deep, how old. Has the water been tested and when. Run a tap and look at what comes out. The septic. Where is the tank, where is the drain…
This is where first-time buyers actually lose money, and it is entirely avoidable. Everything counts from the Effective Date , the day acceptance is delivered. Two things people get wrong: these are calendar days, not business days , and day one is the day…
Five separate things can come back badly: a low appraisal, an unsatisfactory well or septic report, unsatisfactory inspection results, title objections, survey objections. In every one of them you get three days from the report to do one of two things.…
Ask your lender for a written estimate of all of it early, so nothing at the closing table is new information. Earnest money , which is due within 72 hours and is credited to you at closing rather than being an extra cost. Inspections , paid as they happen…
Something You Can Actually Use on Saturday
Most first-time buyer guides explain what a mortgage is. You can get that anywhere, and it will not help you at a showing.
This one is three things you can put to work straight away. The questions to take to a lender on your first call. What to look at on a property out here, where a well and a septic system are yours the day you close. And the deadline calendar after an offer is accepted, where the expensive mistakes actually happen.
Where would you like to start?
What Is In It
The lender call, scripted. Eight questions, and what a good answer sounds like. You will know more after one call than most buyers know after three.
The showing checklist for rural property. The well, the septic, the road, the water and the things that only show up in February. Built to print and take with you.
The deadline calendar. What happens on day three, day five, day ten and day seventy-two hours, and the three places where saying nothing counts as saying yes.
What the money actually looks like beyond the down payment, so nothing at closing is a surprise.
Who Wrote It
I am Tamara Hekkema, a REALTOR® with Greenridge Realty, and an Accredited Buyer's Representative. I was born here and I have lived in West Michigan my whole life.
Most of the people I work with are two or three hours away and doing all of this from a screen, so explaining the step before it happens is the actual job rather than a courtesy.
She is so patient and calm, and takes the time to explain everything thoroughly. She is definitely the one you want in your corner.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this actually free?
Yes. You give me an email address, I send you the guide, and you can unsubscribe whenever you want. There is no call you have to take to get it.
I am months away from buying. Should I still read it?
Especially then. The lender questions are worth asking long before you are ready, because the answers often change what you spend the next few months doing.