On Your Side
Young Homeowner 101: How to own a home before you're 21
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Jennifer Auh talks to a young homebuyer about how he bought a home at age 20. Video by IdahoOnYourSide.com
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Last week, we introduced you to 20-year-old Colt Catlin. He's a full time student, has a full time job, and now he's juggling a mortgage.
With the housing market slowly gaining traction, he believes he's making a great investment. After hearing his story, we've had several viewers email us, with some asking, ‘How did he do it?’
Now he’s sharing with us, how he made it happen at such a young age.
Catlin said his mom taught him to save money, build a good credit score, and added him to her credit card, when he was just 13 years old. “Got a job when I was 16, a real job, but I was mowing lawns and that sort of stuff for since I was 9," he said.
After building his credit score and saving enough for college, he said he thought about buying a house.
His real estate agent said Catlin was able to fulfill the three things required to buy a house, which is having good credit, a long-term steady job and documentation to prove both of those things.
However, she said most young people don't have the required credit scores. "Even a 30-day late on a credit can hurt your beacon score,” said Alicia Malone, Front Street Brokers, “It'll drop 46 points, and it might take a year to get that back up to where it needs to be."
Malone said a first time homebuyer needs at least 10 percent of the housing costs in their savings for down payments, closing costs and moving costs.
Catlin said it was a long process, but worth the wait. "It was important to remind myself that the realtor works for you, home lender works for you, so I had to be clear with what I was looking for, what I needed from a home and what my purpose was," he said.
Catlin said his mom educated him early, on the importance of saving, paying bills quickly and building a good credit score. He hopes other parents are inspired to do the same for their children.
If you want to check your credit score, here is a link where you can do it for free: www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp
If you want more tips or help you can contact Alicia@FrontStreetBrokers.com
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