12 Steps to Homeownership: A Guide for First Time Homeowners

John Wilhoit has done a masterful job of explaining the most important issues involving your path to home-ownership. I have known John and his work for almost 20-years now. He gives critical advice not talked about in other publications.

If you follow John’s advice, and sequence, you will enjoy home-ownership and all the benefits it offers. Read John’s book and consider it a new opportunity to gain home-ownership without having to go it alone.

For most people, home-ownership is the largest investment they will make. John helps you navigate around the mistakes that people make all too often. So many people just don’t pay enough attention to the details and this book addresses how to avoid critical mistakes.

John’s book, and the help of a good Realtor, will put you on the path to home-ownership while making home-ownership a major cornerstone in the journey to financial independence.

Richard Mendenhall 2001 President, National Association of REALTORS

The one over-arching objective of this book is to provide sound, practical step-by-step guidance on buying your first home while avoiding as many pitfalls as possible.

12 Steps to Home-Ownership presumes your exclusive reason for purchasing a home is to live in the home.

12 Steps to Home-Ownership is for people considering home-ownership and have a willingness to become educated about the process in advance so that when the opportunity comes their learning curve is short.

The book is designed to prepare you for that moment in time when you can sign a contract for a home with confidence knowing that you’ve made a quality decision.

Home-ownership is the bedrock of building wealth. There is no buying a second home, or third, without first buying the first one, right? Of course, there is far more to the process than just picking out a home with pretty colors and a nice door front. Answering the question of where you want to live creates a queasy feeling for many people; because we know where we “want” to live, then there is where we can afford to live. Balancing these two is part of the cognitive process of buying your first home.

This book is a do-it-yourself version to home buying providing tools and guidance for asking the right questions in advance of making the home buying decision. It is a guidebook to assist in your personal journey in the decision-making process based on your inputs and assisted by team members you select to work on your behalf to come up with the best choices for you and your family. Home buying is nothing that anyone should do on their own; building your own team is a necessary step in creating a successful outcome.

The objective of this book is to draw a road map to the decision-making process for becoming a homeowner. If you can purchase a home anywhere what are some of the absolute realities a first-time homeowner should consider before buying.

Many readers will have family and friends that are homeowners. Certainly, some of your closest friends can provide some information about their own experiences. Yet, this is going to be your home. To use a simple example, who would you trust to go out and buy a car for you- sight unseen?

Buying a home is one hundred times more personal. This place will be your castle, your shelter, your home. So, while it is fine to seek input from family and friends the ultimate decision is yours- the one paying for the purchase. That said, in this book we point you towards real-life areas to contemplate. We look at the heavy lifting- the thinking that needs to take place before, during and after you begin the search process.

Mr. Wilhoit's career has focused on high volume, large-scale residential communities including market rate and mixed-finance developments. He has previously held positions with HUD, AIMCO and the Maryland Housing fund.

Mr. Wilhoit holds an undergraduate degree in Business and a Masters in Urban & Regional Planning.