Buying your first home in the Valley
The order of operations, from pre-approval to keys, and where first-timers here lose money.
Start with the payment, not the price
Before you look at a single listing, work out the monthly number you can actually live with — mortgage, taxes, insurance, HOA. In the Valley, the two costs first-timers forget are the HOA fee and the summer electric bill. An APS bill on a 2,000 sq ft house in July can run past $300. If the payment only works in March, it doesn't work.