The Home-buying Process
Since co-buying a home is a complicated version of the ‘traditional’ home-buying process, let’s start here.
Why?
Over 85% of the groups we’ve worked with to date include at least one first-time home buyer—someone who has never been through the home purchase process, whether that’s a “plain vanilla” purchase or a joint home purchase (“co-buying”). For those folks who have experience buying a home, it’s a relatively infrequent occurrence. On average, the tenure of a US homeowner is over 13 years.
That means if you buy your first home at 33, you’ve done this 2 to 3 times by the time you retire. Mastering mini-golf takes more than three sessions. Putting a tiny ball into a hole four feet away is slightly easier than purchasing a non-fungible real estate asset. So it’s safe to say that anyone who’s been through the home purchase process a couple of times is no pro. And that’s just the plain vanilla version.
Home buying is “...the largest financial transaction consumers typically enter.”
In the US, the average home purchase:
- Takes six months in total
- Requires viewing 10+ properties
- Involves 12 professionals
- Takes 42 days for the transaction to close
Nearly two in three homeowners report that buying a home was stressful. One in four say they signed documents they didn’t understand.
Matt Holmes (LinkedIn) is co-founder and CEO of CoBuy, formed in 2016 to unlock homeownership for everyone. Before hopping a flight to Seattle to start CoBuy with his mother, Matt worked in investment banking and financial markets in London for a decade. He holds degrees from University College London (BSc Economics) and ESCP Business School (Masters, London & Turin).
Pam Hughes (LinkedIn) is Co-founder and COO at CoBuy. She has over 40 years of experience across finance, real estate, insurance, and construction. Pam has committed to personal empowerment through financial education for decades, which inspired her to start CoBuy with her son in 2016. She's best friends with a small dog known as Francis.