Home Buyer Strategies

9 Home buying tips for today’s market – and times have changed!

Meet Barbara Rolando

Many home buyers have seen tips for buying homes that were created in the “good old days”, when negotiations took place in a free market, between buyers and sellers. These were the days when banks wanted your business and competed fiercely for it. Welcome to the “new normal”, where everything is anything but normal. Listed below are the nine strategies every buyer should employ in order to maintain their sanity through it all.

  1. Do not get emotional about the selection of the home you wish to purchase. When there is a bank involved, either in a short sale situation or foreclosure, you may think you have a deal only to discover you don’t. And that leads to tip number two.
  2. Things are not always as they appear. Properties that are offered or sale by a seller on a short sale, may be concurrently processed by the bank as a foreclosure.
  3. Ask questions, and when you think the question you asked has been answered unsatisfactorily, fall back on the two-year old’s reply, ask “why“. Find out the reason behind something. You may not be able to change it, but you will learn for the next time. And that brings us to number four.
  4. Be persistent. It may take months and many offers to make it happen, don’t get discouraged (see number one) .
  5. Don’t be pressured by anyone telling you to act now, that you’ll miss the market. Things are not going to change substantially anytime soon.
  6. Real estate has one rule that still exists, location, location, location. What has changed is that now this rule can be used to help you get a handle on what is really going on. Don’t read or listen to broad based information on the real estate market, for what is true for one community, is not neccessarily true for another.
  7. Real estate is not a one-size fits all business. Not everyone should buy a home. Talk to a Realtor about your goals, concerns and expectations. Get a Realtor who listens.
  8. Get pre-approved by a lender.The banks goal is to say “NO”. They will make the process of obtaining a loan worse than a colonoscopy. For you younger readers, let me just say, it isn’t pleasant. Your goal is to keep giving them reasons to say “Yes”. See number four.
  9. Maintain a sense of humor. This process can be challenging but with knowledge (see number three) and persistence (see number four) and a good Realtor (see me), you’ll get though it.