Buying your first home? Don’t make this mistake.
Buying your first home often feels like a choice between two extremes:
either “this is my forever home” or “this is purely an investment.”
In reality, most first-time buyers sit somewhere in the middle and that’s where mistakes usually happen.
Today, I want to talk about one of the most common (and costly) errors I see FTBs make.
Mistake: treating the purchase price as the main decision
Most buyers focus heavily on:
The asking price
Whether they can stretch to win the property
How it compares to others on the portal
But price alone tells you very little.
What matters more (especially if you plan to stay put for a while) is how the property holds up over time.
That means thinking about:
How flexible the layout is if your life changes
Whether the location supports long-term demand
How manageable the running costs are
Whether the numbers still make sense if rates, income, or circumstances shift
None of this requires you to be an investor — just a clear thinker.
A better way to frame your first purchase
Instead of asking “Is this a good deal?”, try asking:
Would I still feel comfortable owning this in 5–10 years?
Does this property rely on everything going perfectly?
If I had to rent it out one day, would it be broadly viable?
Am I buying optionality, or boxing myself in?
Asking the questions changes the quality of the decision.
Why this matters
Your first home sets the tone for everything that comes after:
How easy it is to move on
How resilient your finances feel
How much flexibility you have later
Buying well isn’t about timing the market, it’s about not needing to panic if things change.
That’s the lens I use when I look at property, and it’s the thinking I share here.
If you’re a paid subscriber, you’ll also see how this thinking is applied to real listings, with two carefully selected opportunities shared each week for context and perspective.
Thanks for reading,
Maia