Essential Home Buyer Tips to Follow
Here are the most important tips that agents recommend all buyers should follow.
1. Get a Home Inspection Get a home inspection to evaluate the safety and overall condition of your new home, even if it appears flawless. 2. Get Pre-approved for a Loan Before you start house hunting, get pre-approved for a mortgage loan. 3. Communicate Through Your Agent When you want to ask or tell the seller something, always go through your real estate agent. 4. Put the Deal into Writing Get the seller to put every component of the deal and any verbal agreement into writing. 5. Include Contingencies with Offer Include important contingencies, such as financing and property inspections, with your offer. 6. Develop a Wish List Come up with a realistic wish list. Find out what you can afford in terms of house size, neighborhood and amenities. 7. Know Your Local Market Know as much about the local market as you can. Use your agent’s CMA to learn about the selling price of comparable homes and the strength of the local real estate market. 8. Prioritize! Decide what’s most important to you before the negotiation, so you know what parts of your offer you’re most comfortable giving up. 9. Keep Other Houses in Mind When you begin negotiating on a specific property, know of other houses you’d be interested in buying. You don’t want to be so desperate to buy a certain house that you give in to whatever the seller wants. 10. Be Smart With Your Contingencies Avoid including unnecessary contingencies in your offer. Doing so will make it less attractive. 11. Keep Negotiations Short Avoid long, drawn-out negotiations, which can negatively affect the chances of your offer being accepted. 12. Scope out Neighborhoods, Neighbors Talk to neighbors to get the inside scoop on what it’s like to live in the neighborhoods of homes you are interested in. While doing so, gauge if you would like to live next to these people for the foreseeable future. 13. Connect With the Sellers Establish a connection with the sellers. You may be able to get a better deal if the sellers see you as a person, not just an opportunity. Writing a personal letter to the seller to include along with your offer is a good idea in this market. |