How To Buy Your First House Without Guesswork

Ready to stop guessing your way into homeownership and start using a proven playbook? We walk through seven practical steps that take you from motive to mortgage, so you know exactly what to do, when to do it, and why it matters for your long-term wealth.

We start with purpose, because a clear why shapes every decision after that—budget, neighborhood, loan type, and even how much renovation risk you should take. Then we separate good debt from bad debt and show how small changes to your debt-to-income ratio and credit score can swing your buying power. You’ll learn why lenders care about seasoned funds, how to plan for closing costs and inspections, and the documents you need to make underwriting smooth, including W-2s, tax returns, or clean self-employed financials.

From there, we map the lender conversation: preapproval that actually means something, choosing between conventional, FHA, VA, or portfolio products, and deciding when to lock a rate. We also dig into the value of the right realtor—how sharp pricing, clear contingencies, and tight timelines make your offer stand out without overpaying. Finally, we demystify escrow and closing, from ordering inspections to handling appraisal surprises and protecting your financing until the wire clears. Along the way, we talk market opportunities, mindset, and how to position yourself for the next move, whether that’s a first home, a multifamily, or a luxury listing.

If this guide helps, follow the show, share it with a friend who’s house hunting, and leave a quick review telling us which step you’re tackling next. Your feedback helps more buyers find a clear path to the front door.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Real Estate Matters
• 2:00 Brendan’s Background And Motivation
• 3:30 Define Your Why
• 5:30 Good Debt vs Bad Debt
• 8:30 Save Cash And Season Funds
• 12:30 Luxury Focus And Costs To Expect
• 15:30 Employment History And W‑2s
• 19:30 Meet A Lender And Check Credit
• 22:00 Work With A Realtor And Search

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Today, ladies and gentlemen, we're gonna talk about buying your first home, why that's important, how to do it, and the first steps that you're gonna need to take, how to execute upon it, and what to do in order to achieve your American dream. Let's get started. So, just a quick little introduction about myself. My name is Brendan Scott Ecker. I grew up in Elmont, Michigan, but I have always been an entrepreneur my entire life. But actually, I started off in sports. I started off playing pretty much anything there was, but I was always in baseball, football, and I loved powerlifting. I later ended up playing football and baseball at the University of Olivet, where I majored in criminology and criminal justice, and also law enforcement administration. These things were a part of my major because I wanted to help people. I wanted to serve my country. I wanted to do something that was noteworthy and worthwhile. And so I succeeded in these things, and then I eventually went on to the police academy, and eventually I became a police officer, and I even spent some time as a sheriff's deputy. So I have experience in you know working hard, I've worked on a farm, I have worked in asphalting, I've done the 14-hour days, I've worked all of the long hours, I've done it. I've worked with my bare hands, I've had the calluses, I've done it all, and now I focus on business and entrepreneurship. I wanted to introduce myself because I wanted to talk about real estate and how important it is, and introduce myself as a possible option and vendor for you in your future real estate transactions, whether you're buying, selling, or investing. And I love the education aspect of it. And I think real estate is part of the American dream. I think real estate is one of the most important and oldest business models that have ever existed, and it's tried and true. And I always say that because I believe it. And I believe everybody should learn how to do it. And me, having the real estate license that I do, it puts me in a position to be an educational leader and to teach you a little bit about real estate. So let's get started. So, what is the first thing you do to get started in real estate? The first thing I would say you need to do before you ever get started in real estate is ask why. One question. Why? It might seem ridiculous that I start with that step. Why do you want to invest in real estate? Quickly, we'll get into this first step, but you gotta ask yourself this question first. Do you want to make money this way? Maybe you're a better coder, maybe you're like me, you're really good with AI software, building softwares. That's what I do. I'm not just a business owner, I'm not just some real estate agent. I'm like a real AI guy. I've always been in software, I've always been in digital marketing, um, since the big boom, since the Ty Lopez days when he first became big. I was into this stuff, and I was, you know, really always in the circles of some of the greatest entrepreneurs and some great people who today are highly successful, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and have helped me get to my point in business today. And now I'm trying to lead others to do the same. So that's my why. That's why I wanted to get into real estate, but also why I started this YouTube channel, why I wanted to become a police officer to help people. And so you need to know your why. Why are you investing in real estate? Is it because somebody else told you to, or is it because you want financial freedom in your life? Is it because you're thinking about the generations, four generations ahead of you? Okay, maybe you're thinking about the future, you're thinking about a big project that you want to do later. Maybe you're trying to get to Mars or to explore the stars, whatever it is, you need to know your why. So that's step one. The next extremely important thing you're gonna need to do, step two, get rid of the debt. So when I say debt, I don't mean business debt. If you're an entrepreneur, you probably have some kind of business debt. If you're already a real estate investor, you are probably leveraging. And you're probably leveraging a mortgage from the banks or the seller or a seller financing, a hard money lender. Some way, somehow, that's how you're essentially getting rid of your debt. You're leveraging using good debt. That's business debt. So whenever you hear people, I love debt, I love debt, you hear Robert Kiyosaki, Grant Cardone, whoever it is, they say, I love debt, I love debt. Chris Cron says that I love debt. If anybody says I love debt, I guarantee you they're all real estate guys because this is what's called leveraging in real estate, using other people's money legally, soundly, and the IRS wants it, the banks want it. It's a beautiful system, and the system's designed to make you win. The system is designed for real estate investors, and that's what they didn't teach you in school. Isn't that crazy that you never learned this in school? They never taught you about real estate investing, they never taught you how to get rid of the debt, they taught you how to get more debt. Go into college, wherever it is, keep up with the Joneses, get yourself a job, and if you're lucky, maybe, just maybe, you'll make enough money to earn a pension. And maybe if you stay at that job long enough, and if a governor or some politician doesn't strike it off, maybe you'll get that$5,000 a month. So get rid of the debt, get rid of it, get rid of it, get rid of it. That's the second thing you can do. Technically, the first thing you should do, you need to get your numbers together, know what you got, and get rid of whatever bad debt you have. Credit card debt, this means um car debt, anything like that. That kind of debt. Bad debt. Get it out of your life because what you're gonna need to buy a house is a positive debt to income ratio. This is gonna be a neat this is gonna need to be at least a solid number that makes sense. So that way the banks or whoever the seller, whoever is the hard money lender or the seller, whoever's helping you out with this deal, they're gonna need to know that you can actually have skin in the game, that you can actually that they can actually get something out of it. And honestly, there's also gonna be competition from other people in the market to get that house. I know a lot of this might be overwhelming to you, but the fact that you're still listening to this means that you actually want to learn about real estate, and that's the first step is starting and taking the time to learn, and that's what we're gonna do here. We're gonna learn. So that's step two, get rid of all the bad debt. Step three is saving equity. And what do I mean by saving equity? So you need to have money to have in your checking account. So one of the things they're gonna look for to make sure that you can actually buy the house, they're gonna make sure you actually have money to put down on the house. If you're gonna go and try to get a loan, or if you're gonna try to buy the house outright, they want to make sure you got the money. So you're gonna have to have money in your checking account. And usually your lender is gonna want that in there for at least three months. So, whatever state you're in, they're gonna want to know that that money wasn't like a gift. They want to know that it's actual money, it's been sitting there, it's real money, and there's nothing suspicious about it. And so that's something they don't tell you in the process of getting ready to buy your first homes that you actually have to have a good amount of money in there, and then it should be sitting in there for a long period of time. So, this is an important thing. If you have enough equity, you cannot have a job and you can still pay for that house. So, let's just talk about this. Why did I make this number two? Saving equity. So you've gotten rid of your debt. Okay, let's just say you had$150,000 of college debt because you went to law school or you went to medical school, whatever it is. You saved that money and essentially you paid off, or basically you paid off all that debt for college. Great. Whatever you were doing, you paid it off. Okay. Now your next step is you're trying to save equity, you're trying to save money. Now you got to get money in your checking account. Okay, so again, this is the debt to income ratio. You got to have more income than you do debt. And this is what the lenders are gonna look for. You walk in there to go get approved for a home, they're gonna ask you to do all of these things. A lot of YouTube channels out there ain't gonna tell you about this stuff, they're not gonna tell you these important things. So make sure you save a lot of money. Okay, I like to have as much equity as possible. Now, there is such a thing as wholesaling where you can basically be the middleman in between contracts and doing all this other stuff. I'm not into that. I don't do that. I'm focused on investors, multifamily, that's what I like. And then, of course, luxury real estate. I'm also certified to sell luxury real estate. My mentor also is luxury certified in McComb County, Michigan, um, really the entire thumb of Michigan. So we're both luxury certified. So you want to sell your home, luxury you want to sell a luxury home. And if you're wondering what that is, it's$750,000. If your home is at least that price, um, sale price, then that qualifies as a luxury home. And so contact me or contact my mentor. Uh she's right here. Um, there she is in the corner. And be sure to connect with us, and we'll help you do a great job at making sure you can crush it in the real estate game. But before you can do that, gotta save equity. Save that money up, save that money up. You're gonna need money for the closing costs, you're gonna need money for renovations, you're gonna need money for any kind of inspection fees, uh, the realtor commission. All of these things are gonna cost you money. And so you need to know your numbers, you need to really know your stuff, you need to be able to ask questions along the way. So get rid of the debt. Step two. Or step one, know your why, why you're getting into real estate. Step number two, get rid of all your debt. Bad debt. Okay, if you got business debt, it's different. Step three, save equity. You should have at least$150,000 to$200,000 in your checking account. I know it's rough times. I get it. I know groceries are expensive, I know we're at war in the Middle East, I know we're fighting all these wars when we don't need to. I know, I know, I know our government is corrupt. Yes, indeed, you are correct. And I'm not gonna pretend like none of those things are happening. But if you want to ascend and if you want to win, then you have to be one of the people who fight back and who actually still take action. Everything is a test. And never forget that real estate is a test of will. Who has the motivation and the drive to go get the deal? Who's got the motivation and the passion to succeed in real estate, to acquire land? What do you want to do? What's important to you? Do you want to build your empire, your kingdom? Do you want to build your legacy? Do you want to do something that's worth remembering? Then you got to work with me because I can help you do that. I know the steps and I'll walk you through them. Step number four to buying your first home, you're gonna need to know your employment history and your occupation. So you wanna have that. One of the most important things, if you're not already a millionaire, if you didn't get an inheritance from your parents that can really just pay for a house up front and just destroy everybody else's offers on the market, if you don't have that kind of money, then you're gonna need to also consider make sure that you have at least two years, two years at least of employment history. So hold on. Two years. Okay, and then you go on to work at an animal shelter. Guess what? All that time in college, let's just say you graduated with a four-year degree, all that time in college will be considered as employment history, occupation, because that as long as your degree has something to do with your current occupation, okay, as long as your degree, college degree has to be occupation, has to be the same thing. So, for example, I wanted to buy my first properties. Guess what? I said, hey, I'm a police officer, and also I know I don't have two years of employment history as a cop, but I did go to college and I have a four-year degree in criminal justice and law enforcement administration. Can't I qualify for a host? And you want to know what they told me? They said, absolutely yes, you can. And so I already knew this going in because I always loved real estate. I knew it enough to where this is the process, how it goes. And so essentially I always I already knew that I was qualified in that way, but I also took into consideration that there were things I didn't know about that process, and a lot of people don't know about that process, they don't even know that you need to have at least two years of employment history, two years of taxes, W-2s. Let's add that. W-2s. So very important. W-2s. So you're gonna need to show that you have W-2s, or if you're a business owner, you're gonna need to have um essentially, you're gonna have to need to have your profit and loss statements, you're gonna have to have everything you usually do to pay your taxes. It depends on if you're an LLC, if you're an S corporation, if you're a C corporation. You'll all have different requirements based on whatever kind of company or entity that you own. Okay, but as a real estate investor, if you're or a seller, whatever you're doing, trying to buy, seller, invest in real estate, your first ever real estate, your first ever home, you're gonna need a W2. So again, employment history, two years of it, you're probably gonna need at least that. And can also consider that if you have two years of college experience, okay, in the same field that you're working in today, then that all counts as employment history. All of that you add it up and bunch it together. So that's what it'll be considered by most lenders, most banks. So understand that. And basically, that just means two years of tax returns. Your W-2s, two years of W-2s and tax returns. So that's all that means. This is this isn't too complicated, this isn't too crazy. All of you guys can do this, all of this can be learned, all of this is easily understandable. So now that we're getting over here to this side of the board, trying to clear some more space so we can talk more about this a little bit more thoroughly. Okay, so what's the next step in the process of buying your first home? Okay, so you knew you asked yourself your why. Step two, you got rid of all your debt. Great, wonderful, or you got it at a really low amount. And then step number three, you're saved, you saved a bunch of money. You got a lot of equity, you got savings. That's amazing. You have equity. This is what you're gonna use for your renovations. This is what you're gonna use to put the down payment, the earnest money. This is gonna pay your real estate your realtor's commission. You know, when you pay me my commission, this will come out of the equity that you put into the home. Okay, so whatever you're paying the seller, okay. So this is how it works save money, a lot of it. The more money you got, the more room you have. Okay, you're gonna have a better cap rate, all of that stuff. Um, when it comes down to multifamily, whatever it is, the more money you can put on it, the more you can benefit, the more you can do. You can renovate, you can refinance it sooner. All there's it's a numbers game. Real estate's numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. Gotta understand that. So numbered numbers equals money. And so remember that too. So step number four, great. You established that you worked at your job for two years, you got your little bit of college experience, it connects right to it. Amazing. Now, what's the next step? Step number five is gonna be you're gonna meet with a lender. So you're gonna meet with a local lender, whoever made sense, whoever you know, somebody who's gonna be able to give you a loan so you can go buy that property. Or sometimes it can be a seller. I should have just added seller here. Sometimes it can be a seller you're talking to. All right, so these are gonna be the people that lend you the money. This is where you're gonna get your loan. This is the allowed, this is the loan origination fee. Again, this goes back to having equity. Okay, that's gonna pay for the loan origination fee, all that stuff. I know this is a lot, but this is everything you're gonna need. I promise, you watch this video, you're gonna get everything you need. Okay. Step five, meeting with a lender, meeting with somebody who, whoever's gonna give you the money for the property, whoever you're getting the loan from. You gotta go get the loan. Get the loan. Always use other people's money. Always use other people's money if you can. You always gotta think like that. The elites, the 1%, they don't use their own money, they use other people's money. You need to elevate your brain to another level. Things that you weren't taught in school. Nothing of this is ever gonna be taught in school. Maybe today you see something like this, but you gotta take a specific class for it. This isn't the foundation of the American educational system, and this is the whole problem. So, what's the next thing you do? So now you've basically essentially met with the lender, so now you're gonna meet with a realtor. At this point, step number six is you're gonna meet with a realtor. So the lender's gonna approve you, so they're gonna consider all these things, they're gonna look at the numbers, they're gonna do a credit check. Oh, I should have added that too. Credit. Credit. So I should have put that in there in the beginning of the video. But one of the most important things it comes with getting rid of debt is having a good credit score. When you get rid of your debt, you'll finally have a good credit score. And so that's why I didn't put it with step number two. But you can essentially consider 680 to 800 credit score as a goal for you to attain if you are interested in buying real estate. Because this is what you're gonna need. Get rid of the debt, you'll get that credit score. You can bump it up rather easily. You just gotta pay off your bills, you gotta get things done on time, you gotta get the job, work at it, do whatever you gotta do. You just gotta have an income, you gotta make the money, you gotta do what you gotta do. Okay, it doesn't matter if it's entrepreneurial money, business money, or it doesn't matter if it's W-29 to 5 money, but you gotta have some way to make money. You're gonna work with me, we're gonna connect, meet for coffee, sign the exclusive right to sell to make sure I get a commission and paid of some sort. And essentially, I'm going to be the procuring cause of that sale. Whatever it is, whether we're buying, selling, or investing, I'm gonna be the guy to help you do it. We're gonna put the yard signs out, we're gonna put the video, we're gonna put the home on Zillow, we're gonna put it on Realtor, we're gonna put it on Redfin, we're gonna put it on everything, and that's how it's gonna be. So, step number six is you're finding me. You're working with the realtor, finding the home of your American dream, baby. Let's do it. Step seven is gonna be the closing. So finally, you're gonna close. So this is after all. So this is gonna be your closing. Finally, essentially, all the terms are gonna be met in the contracts between you and the seller or you and the banks, whatever it is, and closing will come. So we're gonna have escrow that'll usually take about 30 days, 30 to 45 days. That'll be how long that process takes. Typically, depends on the situation. And at that point, if there's no problems, the sale closes, and then we get you into your dream home. Typically, it should take us under 30 days with all the resources we got, and plus, I'm pretty good at what I do, I'm pretty good at connecting and making sure these properties can get on the best markets, the MLS, all this stuff. Okay, we're gonna make sure millions of people can see it. It's gonna be big. Okay, so you gotta work with me so we can help you get there. Seven steps to buying your first home, and this is what it's all about. So, if you want to invest in real estate, you gotta understand that nothing's gonna be handed to you. You gotta go after your American tree, and you gotta do all of this before you can even own property. Now, this is how you buy a home, and I make it this video because many of you are going to be investing in real estate for the first time in your entire life very soon, especially as XRP and Bitcoin and crypto is going up, and all of these new assets and all of these new financial models are going to be making people very wealthy. And so it will affect people's bank accounts. People will finally have money, and then they will be not only buying real estate, but they'll be investing in real estate, they'll be buying up farmland again, multifamilies, and that's where you can work with me. That's what I'm excited for. We're coming into it, we're coming into a financial boom, an economic boom, and great opportunities for you. So don't waste it, don't miss it. Work with me, Brendan Acker. I'll be your realtor. I'll also help grow your business. I'm the founder and CEO of Gold Shark Media AI, where we help businesses integrate AI and we build AI softwares. We also integrate your entire social media content creation plan. Your omnipresence will be massive. And we're gonna make sure you go viral across every single platform you can imagine. So you're gonna have to work with me first. Email me at info at gold shark media for business purposes and inquiries. And if you want real estate inquiries, then email me at brendonacor at kw.com or just message me, guys. It's not that hard. Get in contact with me. I'm pretty easy to message, but all in all, as long as we're helping you get to your goals, that's what's important to me. Making sure you're winning, making sure that you're leading in a time where we're going through the greatest transformation of wealth and possibly the American golden age. And I believe that that is happening. Despite all of the negative things we're seeing, I believe we're seeing we're going to see very positive effects in the future. And it'll be a roller coaster, it'll be up and down. But if you're patient, if you pay attention, you stay smart, you love God first, and if you be a good person, you treat everybody with respect, and you just do the right thing. Okay, you try to be better than everybody else who's not doing the right thing. It's easy to be the devil's advocate. We have enough of those, but it's not easy to be a better person. It's not easy to go and help somebody. So go and make somebody else's life better today. Go and be an impact. Make a video, talk about yourself, whatever it is, do what I'm doing, but talk about the world and how you can change it. So, you want to buy a house? This is how you're gonna do it. Connect with me, I'll be your realtor, and we'll get you started. All right? And at the end of the day, I got nothing else. Stay prudent, stay powerful, and stay wealthy.