First Time Homebuyer: 3 Years Later... Does Saly Regret Buying Her First Home? (INTERVIEW) - 429
How to Buy a Home: The #1 First Time Home Buyer Podcast
David Sidoni
4.8 • 891 Ratings
🗓️ 15 December 2025
⏱️ 44 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Check out Saly's full first time home buyer journey on HowtoBuyaHome.com. Saly became a first time home buyer in 2022, an unprecedented and crazy time in the housing market. Now, 3 years after Saly's premier on the How to Buy a Home podcast, she's returned to shed light on the big question: Was buying her first house worth it??
Hear how homeownership changed her life — and what she wishes she knew going in.
Three years ago, Saly took a leap — breaking her lease and pulling from her 401k to buy a home in Florida with just 3% down. In this candid conversation, she reunites with David Sidoni to reflect on the real impact of that decision. Did the market timing work out? Was the stress worth it? Did she ever regret it?
Spoiler: not for a second.
Saly shares how homeownership brought more than equity. It gave her freedom, pride, and stability she’d never felt before. From her spreadsheet budget to her Christmas Polaroid wall, every part of her life grew. And now? She’s planning to rent this home and buy another in 10–15 years. Tune in for real numbers, real lessons, and a powerful reminder of why first-time buyers shouldn’t wait for “perfect timing.”
“Buying this house unlocked everything. I feel like we’re capable of anything now.” – Saly
Highlights
- Why she broke her lease to buy — and doesn’t regret it
- Used a 3% down payment (yes, with 401k funds)
- Insurance shakeups and HOA surprises she didn’t expect
- Built long-term equity, confidence, and new family traditions
- Her budgeting mindset now vs. then — and why she tracks everything
- Future goals: turn this home into a rental and buy again
Check out the whole interview on YouTube
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David Sidoni, the "How to Buy a Home Guy," is a seasoned real estate professional and consumer advocate with two decades of experience helping first-time homebuyers navigate the real estate market. His podcast, "How to Buy a Home," is a trusted resource for anyone looking to buy their first home. It offers expert advice, actionable tips, and inspiring stories from real first-time homebuyers. With a focus on making the home-buying process accessible and understandable, David breaks down complex topics into easy-to-follow steps, covering everything from budgeting and financing to finding the right home and making an offer.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the December remember special edition of the How to Buy a Home podcast. As you prepare for |
| 0:05.7 | 26, I wanted to be sure that you were remembering one thing this December. You can do this. |
| 0:12.4 | Don't believe the misinformation about the possibilities and options that are out there right now |
| 0:17.5 | for first-time home buyers. And I can't think of a better format to deliver all of that to you |
| 0:22.0 | than with less of me and more of real-life people who were renting just like you were last December. |
| 0:28.2 | And now they're getting ready to put up decorations however the hell they want. They can make |
| 0:33.4 | holes anywhere. Who cares? They own their home. That that's right the December to remember is |
| 0:39.1 | going to feature interviews with new 2025 homeowners and no they didn't need |
| 0:44.4 | giant down payments to be able to afford it even with what is turning out to be the |
| 0:49.1 | worst year for first-time homebuyers ever recent survey showed that 71% of renters said that, you know what, |
| 0:55.7 | they'd still rather own if they had the finances to afford it. The problem for them isn't that that |
| 1:01.4 | 71% doesn't have the finances. It's that no one has revealed to them the affordable purchasing |
| 1:07.1 | possibilities with the finances they have right now. So great. Education is fantastic, |
| 1:12.6 | and I know a lot of people out there are offering education. Here at How to Buy Home, we've been offering |
| 1:17.0 | it for free for seven years. But I know what you really want. Results. How do you do it? What's the |
| 1:23.7 | playbook on how you can get results? Well, no better way to share it than through the stories of real buyers. |
| 1:29.7 | And we've got a bunch of them. |
| 1:30.7 | We've got 105 interviews published of real people sharing their real stories. |
| 1:36.4 | And you can hear how it really happened in an actual transaction and learn the techniques |
| 1:41.3 | that you want so that you can get results. |
| 1:44.5 | And this next interview, we're mixing it up here in the December to remember. Remember, |
| 1:48.6 | you can do this. This one is something that I've been wanting to do for a long time. |
... |
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