A Real Estate Agent Reveals the No. 1 Mistake First-Time Buyers Make

Published on March 11, 2026

Does location still matter most? Should you remodel your home to suit your tastes or for resale value? Are starter homes still a thing? We all have plenty of questions about the ever-changing world of real estate. In our Ask an Agent series, we’re partnering with experts at Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate to answer your biggest questions about finding, buying, and selling a home.

If you're a first-time homebuyer, it can be overwhelming to navigate the world of real estate without any prior background. Hopefully, you have the help of a great agent to ease the stress of the process, but it doesn't hurt to get some extra advice, especially from someone with decades of industry experience. Here, we asked a seasoned pro what the biggest mistake he sees first-time homebuyers make and how others can best avoid it.

For this installment of Ask an Agent, we spoke with Doug Shepherd of Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Champions to learn the biggest mistake first-time homeowners make and how others can avoid it.

What Is the Biggest Mistake First-Time Homebuyers Make?

It's the same story over the last 40 years of my career—everybody's waiting for a better market, and as they do, they price themselves out of markets; they lose ground. That is the number one mistake, just waiting for better rates and prices.

There are three things that would have to happen to have better, more affordable pricing for anybody. Rates would have to fall to 3 percent to get back to where we were a few years ago, meaning they'd have to be cut by half. Or your income would have to go up by 100%, or home prices would have to drop by 30%. None of that is likely to happen. By waiting, whether rates go up or down, you're just standing by, watching the market play out without being a part of it.

The advice I would give my clients is to just get into homeownership as fast as possible. If the rates do come down significantly, I have many customers refinancing. If home prices come down a little bit, it doesn't matter until you sell it.

I would love to own all the homes that I didn't buy in 2005 that I thought were "overpriced." In 2005, it was said that houses were way too expensive. Today, those are great bargains. In 2005, you paid too much; in 2010, they were worth less; in 2015, you were a genius to buy them. So, if you're a first-time buyer, just get into home ownership as soon as possible.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.