Past tense or present perfect sentence

Hello,

I'm Dutch trying to write some English prose and I'm constantly being bogged down with contemplation on how sentences look in past tense or present perfect.

Here's a specific example to illustrate my current problem, in two formats:

"He knew where to go and when he was there it is not like he needs to search around."

or:

"He knew where to go and when he was there it was not like he needed to search around."

Aside from word use like 'like' versus 'as if', how should I deal with this specific sentence and what guideline should a remember for the future? My feeling says the first variant is flat-out wrong.

Maybe there is a generally known method where past tense and present perfect are combined to provide a more interesting read? For example, I know something like this is entirely normal:

I put the mug down while avoiding the spill and looked him in the eyes, "Alright, I think we have a deal."

Thank you very much for any tips or references.