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BONITA SPRINGS — The excitement of first-time home buyers is enviable and amazing to watch. Most real estate agents have the opportunity to show and sell real estate to buyers who are looking for a vacation home, a second home or a permanent home.

For seasoned buyers, the permanent home in the majority of cases is a home in a long list of addresses they’ve lived in. It could have been decades since they’d purchased their first dream home and labor of love. Often times, the excitement of buying a new home has worn off.

I’ve tried to remember my first purchase but struggle with the dramatic details and ups and downs that went with it. It was 20 plus years ago. It was a home I had built in Southwest Florida on a lot that only cost $6,000. The only other mental note I have permanently etched in my mind was the paint color I picked on accident. It was a classic first-time painter mistake. What looked peach on the sample turned out to be jack-o-lantern orange both inside and out. It was a tragedy, especially for the neighbors.

Paint isn’t usually the biggest issue that first-time buyers encounter. First and foremost are establishing and maintaining decent credit and saving up for the down payment. In an ideal world, a person pays his or her bills on time, maintains a savings in the bank and keeps debt to income ratios at a decent level. When buyers are able to tame their finances, they’re then ready to set out on a home hunt.

The home hunt for a good many first-time buyers is based on what they’re qualified to purchase. There are set loan limits that the buyer will be able to borrow based on his credit and down payment, plus a few other factors.

In most cases in Southwest Florida, a buyer may qualify for a loan limit but still have difficulty finding a home within that budget. With the recent shift in the market, there are more choices available than there have been for quite some time.

Even with more great choices for first-time buyers, there are some opportunities that are just going to be a labor of love. There are homes that barely limbo under the “affordability pole,” and occasionally some of them need work. Buyers without a backbone and imagination would be scared off, unless they’re ready to get their hands dirty and can see the big picture.

Recently, I had an opportunity to watch buyers score their very first home. They were cheered through the process by their entire family and friends, as well as a team of real estate and mortgage professionals. The home needed work and lots of it. Most of it was cosmetic, but it still would require a few weeks, maybe even months of man hours in sweat equity and favors asked of friends. They’d need a few thousands of dollars in supplies, too.

The potential of what a home can become is already a snapshot of an Architectural Digest home in the mind of some buyers. They’ll power through the hiccups and glitches of the do-it-yourself project and the little mistakes they’re bound to make and, in the end, turn their frog into a prince.

If anyone could find a way to bottle that kind of hope, pride, enthusiasm and optimism, the world would beat a path to their door.

Chris Griffith is a real estate agent at Keller Williams Elite Realty in Bonita Springs. If you have a question about local real estate, e-mail her at chris@bonitaspringsagent.com.