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You'll find everything you need to know to
come out ahead when buying a used home, including negotiating tips, scams and pitfalls to
avoid, where to buy, where not to buy, and legal tips. We'll also cover how to choose a
good real estate agent. Many concepts here can apply to homes and condos, or any other big
purchase.
Be
sure to get your credit score before you shop for a house
Everyone has a credit score calculated at the time your credit report is requested.
It's based on over 100 different proprietary variables and algorithms developed by Fair
Isaac (FICO). The range is 300 to 850. Most lenders consider people above 650 to be
prime borrowers, meaning they will most likely be approved at favorable rates.
Every person you come in contact with wants to sell you something.
Don't you dare think that anyone you'll come in contact with is looking out for
your best interest. Every person you come in contact with wants to sell you
something. That's their job, their #1 priority. Your happiness is 2nd to their
mission statement. Once you overcome this common naive mistake that most home buyers make,
you'll be able to make much better informed decisions that will save you the most money.
Just because you are approved for $200,000
does not mean you have to spend that much. If you can get a great house for much
less than you are approved for, then that is the best move financially for you.
There is no rule that says you have to spend the max, although most people finance on the
outer fringes of their ability to sustain the payments. Don't let your agent try to
qualify you for more than you are comfortable spending. They act like they are doing you a
favor. They'll tell you "Oh, I can get you approved for a higher mortgage through my
banking contacts".
Translation: "I want to sell you a
more expensive house and get a higher commission. Buying a more expensive house does
not always mean it's better, it just costs more." Your credit
score will be used against you so find out what it is from The "merged comprehensive reports from
the big 3 credit bureaus" are the ones to get.
Common Home Buyer Mistakes
Many home buyers mistakenly think that they are protected by using a
"Buyer's Agent", or a mortgage broker who will "find them the
best mortgage". When I ask them who is paying the buyer's agent,
they respond with "They just get a percentage of the sales
price". OK, and how is this different from a seller's
agent? You can put a sheep's clothing over a wolf, but it's still a
wolf. The higher the selling price of the house, the more commissions are
earned by the seller's and buyer's agents. Another common mistake home
buyers make is thinking the price in writing is set in stone. The pen is
mightier than the sword and sellers use it to their advantage when selling
houses. But you can bypass this common buyer’s mistake by adopting a
counter intuitive method of thinking. Just remember this one important rule:
Sellers
do not set the price, it’s the buyers who set the price
How many times have you sold or traded in a used car and not gotten
anywhere near what you wanted for it? This is because you thought you could
set the market, but the market told you otherwise. Whether it’s a house or
a car, the market sets the price, not the seller. Once you get past this
mental roadblock, you'll find it much easier to offer much less than the
asking price. The stock market is a good example. If you were unfortunate
enough to buy the over hyped $150 “dot bomb” stocks in early 2000, you
soon found they were selling under $1. Although you wanted $150 when you
sold them, no one wanted your shares, and you suffered a huge loss. Houses
are the same and many sellers are under the wrong impression that real
estate must appreciate. There are no rules of what appreciates or
depreciates. So don't be bashful about offering a low price on a
house. Some homeowners who are selling their homes get the idea in their
head that their house should sell for say $200,000 because they bought it a
few years ago for $175,000.The seller may become indignant when you present
them with a low ball offer. They may have bought the house when the market
was hot, and in a soft market, their house may not be worth the asking
price.
During the dot com rush of 1998-2000, many homes in Silicon Valley sold the day
they went on the market, selling for much more than the asking price, thanks to foolish
buyers and bidding wars. See my point? The buyers set the selling price, not the
sellers. People were shelling out $500,000 for tiny 2 bedroom 2 bath, one car garage
"doll houses" that you and I would never consider living in at all. When
the dot coms became dot bombs in 2000-2001 and layoffs were in full swing, it took weeks
to sell their homes, and many people took a bath on the resale. Sellers often got
thousands more than their high asking price thanks to idiot buyers caught up in bidding
wars.
By nature, us foolish humans have a hard time dealing with the fact that our
property might be worth less than we paid for it. In overdeveloped areas, houses can
lose their value rapidly, and you can use this to your advantage when buying a recently
built home. One area of Pembroke Pines, Florida was bursting with development for a few
years straight. People selling homes they bought new 2 years before were losing $20,000 on
the sale of their homes because they were competing with all the new construction nearby.
Buyers bypassed 2-3 year old houses for brand new homes with better amenities and updated
building codes for the same price or slightly higher.
You
cannot guarantee impartiality
Anytime your real estate agent's commission is based on the selling price of the
house, you cannot guarantee that the agent has your best interest at heart. The only
way to guarantee that is to pay a large fee to a real buyer's agent, and they don't get
any percentage of the selling price. That fee however, removes the benefit of
bypassing the commissioned real estate agent in the first place. Never tell anyone
but yourself how high you are willing to go. By law the seller's real estate agent
has a fiduciary responsibility to the seller, and they WILL tell the seller everything you
say, so pretend you are in a police interrogation. The agent will ask you how high
you are willing to go on the house. Don't fall for this trick. Just give them
the price you want to pay for the house and if they ask how high you are willing to go,
tell them that's it.
Don't buy a house in an urgent rush
Don't wait until the day you have to move out of your old
house or get transferred to buy a house. You need time to carefully
plan your purchase. It can take 2 months or more to get an agent, shop
for the house, get approved for a mortgage, and close escrow. If you
know you will be relocating and need a house soon, you should start looking
now, because you don't want to be pushed up against a wall and forced into
making costly and hasty decisions with adverse financial ramifications that
will come back to haunt you. Never let a dealer know you are desperate for a
house. If the sellers know you are desperate to get a house soon, they will
not drop the price. This little mistake can cost you thousands.
Always make the sellers think you have plenty of time and resources to
analyze each deal carefully. Make sure they know you are the one that
they have to chase. then the deal will proceed on your terms, not
theirs.
Related Tips::
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How To Buy A New Construction
Home
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find everything you need to know to come out
ahead when buying a new construction home,
including, finding the right builder, how to
find good deals, finding the right location and
avoiding scams.
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How To Buy A Used House
You'll find everything you need to know to come out ahead when buying a used home, including negotiating tips, scams and pitfalls to avoid, where to buy, where not to buy, and legal tips. We'll also cover how to choose a good real estate agent. Many concepts here can apply to homes and condos, or any other big purchase.
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How
to Negotiating with House Seller
Negotiating
Tip #1 - Be Realistic When entering a
negotiation with a Home Seller, you need to be
Realistic. If the house you are looking to
purchase has 6 bids already, your chances of
getting thousands of dollars slashed from the
price are slim. Negotiating in these cases may
prove to simply be a waste of your valuable
time. This is especially true in hot markets
like Boston, San Diego and Miami. Read more
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