Top Home Buyer Mistakes (2026 – North Texas Edition)

by Elena Garrett, February 2026

1️⃣ Starting the Home Search Without Understanding True Monthly Costs

Some buyers begin touring homes very enthusiastically before knowing (or even being interested in knowing about):

• their loan type options and the minimum down payment and any loan points (additional lender fees) they would need to purchase in order to qualify for the home loan
• their total loan approval amount and the estimated total monthly carrying cost of the house (principle, interest, taxes, sometimes special taxes, insurance, HOA)
• property taxes in the areas they like
• insurance estimates or availability for the areas they like
• impact of HOA dues and different HOA restrictions on their future ownership options
• knowing the impact of special district taxes or special utility development zones and how it affects their monthly payment.

They react to how a home feels — the flooring, the kitchen, the game room, the tall ceilings – and not to the FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS associated with the house.

Later, when real numbers are calculated, disappointment sets in.

One time I sat down with a young couple who said that they were on a strict (and fairly low) monthly payment budget for their first home. Yet, they insisted that they preferred to find a home in City A. I mentioned to them that the they look at SMALLEST homes in that county because that city was notorious for its high property taxes – and also often higher insurance costs. Once they ran a calculation of their monthly payments with higher taxes accounted for, it turned out that the homes they were looking at were $200-$300 per month higher than they felt they could afford.

I searched for nearby cities, and located homes of near identical age and size just 6 miles further away, and the monthly payments on those homes were actually $100 LOWER than they budgeted for. They were shocked at how the selection of the geographical area affected their affordability.

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2️⃣ Using Zillow’s Monthly Estimate to Decide What They Could Afford

This mistake is very similar to the previous mistake (ignoring the underlying financials).

At open houses, I often meet buyers who confidently say: “Our budget is about $1,800 per month.” Then they show me a home priced at $350,000 and say: “Zillow says the payment is only $1,678.”

So I ask:

• “How much are you putting down?” And they would say: “Actually, we do not have any savings at all, we will need down payment assistance.”
• Have you calculated real taxes and insurance?

Here is the truth. Zillow is like Instagram or TicToc of home sales. It is not there to give you the “unfiltered” truth. It is there to make you stay glued to the screen.

In my experience, many web sites like Realtor.com, Zillow, and Homes.com give monthly payment estimates that are are SO LOW, I am assuming that they are using a 20% down, and they are showing PRINCIPLE AND INTEREST ESTIMATED PAYMENTS ONLY! They do not add the estimated taxes, insurance, and HOA payments in.

And, in some cases, the cost of the HOA, insurance, and taxes is almost as high as the cost of the principle and interest per month (this is especially true for condos and townhouses)!

When we run real numbers — assuming 0% down, actual tax rates, and realistic insurance, plus adding the HOA payments if any — the payment on the same home that Zillow estimates as $1,687 often lands closer to $2,600–$2,800 per month – and that if there is no special taxing units (like PID or MUD – see more on that later).

Many home buyers (especially the first time home buyers who have the experience of paying a flat rent amount) can be seriously misled by the advertised low monthly payments on those web sites. They are not careless – they’re just relying on incomplete information.

Meanwhile, lots of precious time and energy is being wasted on touring and pouring over homes that do not fit their financial lifestyle – not even close. That is ok if they have plenty of time to shop and encounter some additional education, but what if they are crunch? The “omitted” information could derail their timeline (and plans) – and not by a little, but by a lot.

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3️⃣ Waiting for Lower Interest Rates While Paying Rent

I once worked with a couple who were renting separately while looking for a home together.

One partner was paying about $1,200 per month in rent. The other was paying about $1,600 per month. They told me that they had been looking for over a year and a half — but reluctant to commit to an actual purchase because the news forecasted that interest rates would drop. In fact, they already saw several small drops in interest happen, but were hopeful the rates would go down even further – eventually.

And they were watching closely. Every announcement, every online prediction, every 1/8-point shift. In fact, when we met at the open house, they knew more about the recent interest rate reductions than I did! From that standpoint, they were interest rate information pros!

Their logic felt very reasonable and financially responsible to them. I asked them to pull out their calculators so we could crunch some real life numbers to see just HOW reasonable and responsible their current strategy was.

I won’t reveal the final outcome of our little calculator exercise here — because the full breakdown turned out so surprising to them, it deserves its own explanation. But what they discovered had very little to do with interest rates — and everything to do with something they hadn’t been measuring at all.

If you’d like to see the exact calculation, the table we built, and what most analytical buyers miss in this scenario, you can read the full story here:

[Why Smart People Lose Big Money by Over-Optimizing Small Fragile Things]