Live Your Best Life Barefoot
Live Your Best Life Barefoot
EP #35 "First Time Home Buyers Perspective"- Mathew & Katrinn Mouritsen
Today we get the perspective on buying a home for the first time from Mathew and Katrinn Mouritsen. They tell us how the process has been for them and what the struggles are. Listen in and get some tips to help you in your process.
To learn more:
https://barefootbungalowrealty.com/
Barefoot Bungalow Homes
9200 Bonita Beach Rd SE, Suite 100
Bonita Springs, FL 34135
(239) 350-5535
Welcome to the live your best life barefoot podcast with your host Mary Morrison and the team at barefoot bungalow Realty.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the next episode of live your best life barefoot. I'm here with Mary
Speaker 3:I'm. Mary. Hi, Ruth, how are you? Good. How was your weekend? That was so good. It went past as usual as usual. We need to make'em longer, right? The week go slow the weekends go fast. We're gonna have to get on that. Yes, let's. We're going to do a quick market update. Okay. Um, things are still, I found, oh, Siri. Thank you. Siri is gonna give us a market update. Gotta love it. All right.<laugh> our market update is the market is heating back up again. So interest rates, they actually went down at town down. Yeah. And, um, I, a lot of the properties, we still have low inventory, but properties are moving again. Yeah, they are. Yeah. So, um, but I mean, they're still not moving as quickly as they were six months ago, but they're moving pretty quick again. So, um, and they're moving quicker if they're priced. Right, right. They move quick. Oh exactly. So I think it's going better. Yes. So there's your quick little market update and we are excited today to have Matthew and Karin Motson with us. Um, yes, this is my younger son LA last name. Right. So tell us a little bit about yourselves. Let's start with getting the backstory.
Speaker 4:So we are both from Utah. I recently graduated in Maine mechanical engineering and, um, worked hard to try to get a job as fast as I could here in the Southwest Florida area, working at sea keeper. Now it's a wonderful company. Um, yeah, this is my wife, Jen.
Speaker 5:Um, and since moving out here from Utah, we really missed rock climbing and we wanted to start our own rock climbing gym, but decided to work for a local rock climbing gym that just recently opened up called Fort rock and Fort Myers. So that's where I'm working right now as their floor manager.
Speaker 3:Very nice. Very awesome. So what do you think about Florida so far?
Speaker 4:What's amazing.
Speaker 5:We love Florida. I've always wanted to live here ever since I was little, every vacation that my family would always take would be, um, well, I would always want to go somewhere warm and tropical and beach. Um, but my family was never really into that.<laugh> so when I got the chance, I was like, let's move to Florida. So
Speaker 3:Yay. This snow.
Speaker 5:No,
Speaker 2:No, no. I know. That's what everybody says. No, not for us.
Speaker 3:Awesome. So we're having you on today? Not just because you're a cute couple, but we wanted to talk to you a little bit about, um, you guys now that you're settling down here in Florida are purchasing your first home.
Speaker 4:Yep.
Speaker 3:Right?
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's exciting. Yeah. So we want, we wanted to talk to you a little bit about that. Um, what are some of the reasons you are wanting to buy a home?
Speaker 5:We wanna have our own space. A lot of, um, Matthew's family has like a lot of toys that they like to have, and Matthew's no different. He wants to have bikes and trailers and just space to run around in and, um,
Speaker 4:Want a boat want motorcycles?<laugh> things like that.
Speaker 2:You don't like living with mom
Speaker 4:<laugh> oh, I love it.<laugh>
Speaker 2:Okay. Good.
Speaker 3:Good answer.
Speaker 2:Good answer.<laugh>
Speaker 3:But you want your own space for your toys?
Speaker 5:We also want a dog eventually, which can't happen here, but, um, when we get our own space we'll we'll probably get a dog
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm<affirmative> nice. Very good.
Speaker 3:Awesome. Um, so why are you choosing to buy instead of rent?
Speaker 4:Uh, make so much more sense to me financially, because you're not just putting money in something that's gonna disappear, but you're actually investing in something that you can sell later and can even use later, um, to make more money if you want to rent.
Speaker 2:Right?
Speaker 5:Yeah. As we've rented before, it's been kind of difficult when you want to change something or when there's an issue and you can't fix it on your own, you have to get land permission or something. So that's another big reason. Like we wanna just be able to paint our walls, whatever color we want or anything like that. So mm-hmm,
Speaker 3:<affirmative> maybe bright green
Speaker 4:<laugh> that's right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So have you guys started the process already?
Speaker 4:We've started looking, um, definitely looked at quite a few properties already and kind of started to narrow down what we want.
Speaker 2:Did you start the preapproval process at two?
Speaker 5:Yeah. We, uh, talked to a mortgage company that Mary referred us to and we started process and are still working on getting our closing costs together. But, um, yeah, that should happen in the next couple of months.
Speaker 2:So just as a reminder, too, for people listening, you know, to get preapproved, it doesn't cost you anything. It's free to go to a lender and have them pre-approve you for a house. It doesn't cost you anything correct. Mm-hmm<affirmative>
Speaker 5:Right.
Speaker 2:So it, it does benefit you cuz then you actually know how much you can actually afford to go look for a house.
Speaker 3:Exactly. And they, they become your advocate in ma maneuvering that portion of the process.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And, and Adam is really good, right. He's oh yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah. He's awesome.
Speaker 2:He's an awesome mortgage person.
Speaker 3:He is. He's great. And we have, uh, great lenders in general that we do, um, for specific situations. Um, they work really well with different, um, home buyers and what the, whatever their needs are. So, um, we're happy to help you figure that part out of it. So what's been your biggest hurdle so far?
Speaker 5:Our biggest hurdle?
Speaker 4:Well, honestly we're fresh outta college. So coming up with the money up front is a bit, but, um, I think that's the main thing that's holding us back right now, as well as taking the time to really figure out, um, the priorities that we want in the house of like land versus how close to a beach versus, um, are we gonna be able to rent it out while we're living there? Like a, a certain portion of the home
Speaker 5:At first, Matthew was more averse to the notion of a duplex, but as we've been looking at more duplexes, we've kind of been leaning more in that direction, being able to live in one side and rent out the other mm-hmm<affirmative> so yeah, we've been kind of looking at those it's important to kind of look around at a bunch of different things and then just kind of try things out that you might not be open to at first, but see what, what options you have.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm<affirmative>, that's an excellent point too.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Really good advice. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially for first time home buyers. Right. Because you don't really know what you want until you go look. So that's an excellent point to people.
Speaker 3:Well, and as you explored that, I thought that was the cool, um, realization that you could actually qualify for. Um, more house mm-hmm<affirmative> the duplex you could qualify for more because you gotta count the income potential from the other side mm-hmm<affirmative> so, so your price point in what you could look at actually went up
Speaker 5:Yeah. When you
Speaker 4:Started. Yeah. I was pretty excited about that.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that's huge.
Speaker 2:That is, that's an excellent point too.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Um, and, and then you can, like you said, down the line, you can have a double investment mm-hmm
Speaker 4:<affirmative>
Speaker 3:Yeah. Um, what we kind of talked about it. What are you looking for in your first home?
Speaker 4:Well, at this point, um, I think we are leaning towards duplex, but still something with land in the backyard. So we could park a trailer and park, um, fun toys on the side. Um,
Speaker 5:We're looking more in Fort Myers now cause that's where both of our jobs are. Um, we'd love to be, you know, farther south in Bonita Springs or Naples or even a steroid, but it's just, you know,
Speaker 4:Oh, it makes a lot more sense when you calculate all the time, going back and forth between work between the two and the traffic. Yeah. Traffic,
Speaker 2:Gas prices.<laugh> uh, traffic during season, wait till, you know, January gets really bad.
Speaker 5:That's kind of where we're looking at now is we, we originally were like, we're only gonna look in Bonita Springs, but we have kind of opened up our market a little bit more, which is really helped us see more.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm<affirmative> that's good.
Speaker 3:How hard has it been to figure this all out and, and do the process to the point you're at right now?
Speaker 4:I think not terribly hard. I mean, we've had it easy having a, a realtor as a mom and<laugh> good connections. Um, and so it's, it's not been crazy. You just have to get out there and get excited about finding what you want.
Speaker 5:Yeah. Definitely having a realtor is, um, been really helpful. Just being able to get into the houses that we wanna see and not have to like do all the scheduling ourselves. Um, and I mean, it's been a lot of conversations between just both of us. Like what do we like about this house? Or what do we not like about this, this particular place or location? Um, yeah.
Speaker 2:You're like me<laugh>.
Speaker 3:So have, has there been times in the process that you have felt confused or overwhelmed or forget it we're just gonna rent
Speaker 2:<laugh>.
Speaker 5:Um, when we, when we, uh, when I think about renting, it kind of just fills me with more anxiety, just cuz it's, it's a nicer house, I guess, but it's just the money that's going towards. It is just basically going into somebody else's pocket and not into something that I am gaining anything from other than the ability to live there. Um, so I guess that's why we don't really want to rent. Um,
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm<affirmative>
Speaker 5:But yeah.
Speaker 3:So what are you enjoying about the process?
Speaker 4:I think it's just fun to look at houses.
Speaker 5:It is fun.
Speaker 2:<laugh>
Speaker 3:I've raised you, right?
Speaker 5:It's fun to like, to imagine what you could do with the house too. Like even the very first house that we went and looked at, it was kind of a mess, but
Speaker 3:A hot mess.
Speaker 5:Um, just imagining the different things that we could do with it to make it nice. We had a really nice vision for it that probably won't end up happening, but<laugh> just like, it's fun to imagine what you could have with a little bit of work.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's good to point out too, because the potential, you have to look at the potential of a property, right? Cuz it might not be, you know, inside it might be a mess, but look at the, you know, the, the outside of it, what does it look like if it's something that has potential that you can actually do something with mm-hmm<affirmative> is a good point. Cause you might get a house that is a lot lower cost. If you can just fix it up the way you wanted it to. Right.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm
Speaker 2:<affirmative> so
Speaker 3:We have a song that goes with this. When we come to one of these homes
Speaker 2:We get
Speaker 3:<laugh> we, we see, oh, it's a bit of a fixer upper.
Speaker 4:<laugh>
Speaker 3:A frozen song.
Speaker 2:A frozen okay. Uhhuh<affirmative> so kids will understand that
Speaker 3:Exactly. Or anybody with kids. Exactly. Right. All right. Last question. I think what, um, advice or, um, anything about your experience that you think is really important or valuable for first time home buyers to know or do,
Speaker 5:Uh, get connections, get a realtor, find a mortgage lender and really just, um, lean on their advice. Cuz if you're not a local, you really don't know a lot about the area and a lot about what you like, what in a house can make it a good house versus like a, not so good house. Like I didn't even know that like the, um, the wood frame houses versus the, um,
Speaker 2:Concrete,
Speaker 5:Concrete houses, like I didn't know the benefits of either of those. And so having like the knowledge of just the area and what kind of houses are for are like beneficial. What aspects of houses are beneficial to you is really something that a realtor would know mm-hmm<affirmative>
Speaker 3:Yeah. And for the record, I did not prep these guys for this
Speaker 4:<laugh>
Speaker 3:That, that was a genuine answer. It was, it was good answer the right answer. It was a good answer.
Speaker 2:So let's get into something fun. So now that you've been in Florida, do you have any something for our listeners that you've done, that you would tell all of them to do when they bring their friends to come and visit?
Speaker 4:Hmm. It depends on what you're into. Um,
Speaker 2:What's the funnest thing that you've done.
Speaker 4:I really like spear fishing, get out on the boat and go find a place to dive. Um, especially on the, the east side will make a trip out there in the water's clear and go see some fish, shoot some dinner. Thanks.
Speaker 5:And I love anything about boats. So just getting on a boat and going out into the ocean is all the fun I need.
Speaker 4:Yeah. This is the place to get out on the water. So if you come here, you should do that.
Speaker 3:So I'm gonna do tell you a little side note. These two got engaged. Scuba diving. Oh
Speaker 5:<laugh> yes. Matthew proposed to me 20 feet under the water on a, on Emerald reef in Miami mm-hmm
Speaker 3:<affirmative> and how romantic
Speaker 5:You can't beat that. I'm really sorry. Maybe,
Speaker 3:Maybe we'll have to include the link for that. We'll we'll post that on our YouTube and yeah. Cool. There you go. Mm-hmm<affirmative> that's where it all began in Florida. Mm-hmm<affirmative> that's awesome. See, you were meant to move here. Right? You got engaged here. You were meant to meet, move here. Exactly.<laugh> well, any other last thoughts or, um, ideas for first time home buyers?
Speaker 4:Um, I was gonna say in response to your last question I wanted to add, I think it's important to really, um, schedule showings are at least go see the house in the neighborhood pretty early on before you get committed to, oh, there's really good. Like you can get a lot of house for your price range in this area, but then when you go to that area, it might not be, you know, just interesting to you just because of the feel of, you know, whatever it may be. So I'd say do that early on. So you don't waste a lot of time looking at houses online when you don't really know what it feels like. There
Speaker 3:That's really good advice. That's really good advice. Mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah. Yeah. We have, we have a suggestion that, um, when you're interested in an area pick like a Publix or, um, you know, some grocery store that you frequent and, and go and you can kind of get a feel for, um, the vibe of the area mm-hmm<affirmative> and that's another way that kind of helps you to decide if it's, if it's your thing. Well, and I think you need to go at all different times of the day too. Yes. Because it might be really quiet during the day, but at nighttime you might have, you know, a loud music playing all the time or whatever dogs barking. Yep. Dogs barking. Mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah. Good to know your neighbors. Good to know your neighbors. Yep.<laugh> all right. Well thank you guys so much for being willing to come on and yep. Um, we'll probably drag you through some more oh definitely. Um, videos and stuff through the process. Yep. So we're excited to have you guys here in Florida and helping us out.
Speaker 5:Thanks, Mary. Thanks.
Speaker 4:Thanks for having us.
Speaker 3:Thanks. Thanks. You guys always remember to live your best life barefoot.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the live, your best life barefoot put podcast sponsored buy barefoot bungalow Realty to learn more about barefoot bungalow Realty. Go to www.barefootbungalowrealty.com or call 2 3 9 3 5 0 5 5 3 5.