Buying your first house is no joke – from the downpayment to the mortgage, to finding the right house, to the paperwork and more, it can be quite a process. So how do you buy your first house with ease and avoid some rookie, aka costly, mistakes?  Scott Trench and Mindy Jensen, co-hosts of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast and authors of the new book, First Time Homebuyer, are our guests on this episode to share how to buy your first home, why your purchase really isn’t an investment, the importance of an exit strategy, and why you shouldn’t think about buying a house without a reserve fund. So press pause on HGTV, and tune in for this how-to-buy a home episode. What You'll Learn Your first-time home buyer checklist Why your home purchase really isn’t an investment The importance of an exit strategy How to find your payback period Is this a good time to buy your first house How to think like an investor when you buy a home Why you need a strong reserve fund Links First-Time Home Buyer Book BiggerPockets Money podcast BiggerPockets on Instagram Meet Scott and Mindy Scott Trench is CEO of BiggerPockets, co-host of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast, a real estate investor and broker, and a bestselling author of Set for Life. Through a solid understanding of money management, calculated risks, and a lot of hard work, he created financial freedom for himself as well as a successful real estate business just three years after graduating college. Scott currently lives in Denver, Colorado, and enjoys skiing, rugby, craft beers, and terrible punny jokes. Mindy Jensen has been buying and selling homes for more than twenty years. Currently, she’s working on her ninth live-in flip—she buys ugly houses, moves in, makes them beautiful, sells them, and starts the process all over again. She is a licensed real estate agent in Colorado, co-host of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast, author of How to Sell Your Home and the Community Manager for BiggerPockets.com. When you can get her to stop talking about real estate, you can find her on her bike or adventuring in the beautiful mountains of Colorado. Episode Sponsors Make it the year you finally cross life insurance off your list, and get protection for your loved ones with Policygenius. Go to Policygenius.com and get started. You could save 50% or more by comparing quotes and start the new year with one less thing to worry about. The average person saves $720 per year with Truebill. Take control of your finances and start saving at Truebill.com/MM. Give your mom the most meaningful gift this Mother’s Day with StoryWorth. Get started right away with no shipping required by going to StoryWorth.com/mymoney. You’ll get $10 off your first purchase! SUBSCRIBE & SHARE Want to be the first to know when new episodes are released? Click here to subscribe in iTunes! IT’S FREE! 👉 Sign up for my weekly LET’S TALK MONEY email newsletter. Ask Shannah Have an Ask Shannah question, submit it here Get Social Shannah on Twitter Shannah on Instagram See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices