6 Tips for Home Buyers
When searching for your next home keep this list to make sure you get a good deal in a home that you want!
Video Overview
- Start by visiting a mortgage lender to become pre-approved. One of the best tips for home buyers is to do this first. It will make your offer stronger once you make a bid. Once you are pre-qualified, you need to give all the information to your agent.
- There is nothing worse than storage issues. You can have a beautiful place but if your things don’t fit in the home then your things are left to clutter your new space and ruin the experience. Or you are stuck storing things you would prefer to have out. You can get a sense of whether or not storage is an issue for the current owner if you find hooks all over the house for jackets, robes, etc., baskets of magazines, hand towels kept in baskets, coat racks, excessive open shelving, or even worse…wire overhang racks hung on doors.
- A good listing price is nothing without the seller’s disclosure. After narrowing your housing search down to one or two, ask the owner for their disclosure. It is a record stating the known problems of the home that by law, they have to provide.
- Know what you are looking for. Make a list of what you need and really want in a home. You should know your must-haves, what you could-compromise, and definitely-don’t want. Go a step further and create a check-off list to remember each house’s features.
- View at least 10 homes before committing to one. You may think that if you’ve seen five that you ‘get the idea’, that you know what’s out there, and that you have experienced the market…wrong! Nothing is better than knowing that out of all the available houses, you got the best value, you bought the one that you really wanted and that fit your needs the best. All the driving around to different places will give you a good grasp of the city and different neighborhoods. It will give you an accurate look at the current market conditions instead of things that were posted online ten years ago. Plus, one neighborhood may make another neighborhood that you weren’t sure about look even better!
- Be an educated bidder. The listing prices are never indicative of the true value of the home. The company that is listing the home has a goal to make their client happy by obtaining the highest price for the home. They are not worried about finding the buyer the lowest price that the home could be sold for. Know the recent sales in your market, it may not only surprise you but also be very far off of the listing price that you were considering.
Happy Hunting!
